Mea culpa for previously acting as judge and jury and calling for Blago's immediate resignation as Illinois governor. I was caught up in the heat of the moment.
And, while my political senses (influenced by what's known of the tapes) still point to his unquestionable guilt, I have to respect the legal system, under which Blago is innocent until proven guilty.
After all, that is the same pre-trial benefit of the doubt that I'd hope for if I, or someone I care about, were charged with a crime.
Therefore, I have to criticize Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has said that Roland Burris, Blago's pick to replace Obama in the Senate, will not be seated in the next Congress.
The tapes clearly suggest that Blago screwed up and this appointment should indeed be suspect. But, until he is convicted, Blago is the sitting Governor of Illinois, and it falls on him to name the new Senator. We may dislike Blago, and we may find fault with his appointee, but that is a matter to be dealt with by the voters of Illinois at reelection time.
Meanwhile, it's not fair to the people of Illinois to deny them their constitutional right to full representation (via 2 senators) in Congress.
Unless, of course, we want to see similar challenges to the New York governor's prerogative to name the next junior senator from that state.
It's got to be apples vs. apples, no matter how rotten the apple in question -- prior, of course, to any conviction.
PS: There's an interesting discussion about the constitutional considerations surrounding this issue at the Daily Kos site here: Burris, Blagojevich, Reid and the Constitution of the United States
The "proven until" argument is misplaced until the corrupt Governor is in a court of law.
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