The "Chicagoland Problem" - A Political Conundrum

It would appear that the early Christmas gift Governor Rod Blagojevich gave the people of Illinois with his arrest by federal authorities in mid-December is the gift that will "keep on giving!" Despite rumors of corruption that have surrounded Governor Blagojevich for several years, Chicago Democratic politics continued to operate on auto-pilot and little public reaction. Unfortunately (for the Democrats) the Governor's recent arrest and accompanying allegations that he was attempting to sell the Senate seat left vacant by Barack Obama made national headlines and even the main stream media started to ask some serious questions about the state of Illinois politics. I will qualify my description of "serious questions" on the part of the main stream media to include the proviso that any such questions were tempered to ensure that the recent election of "The Chosen One" would not be sullied by any political dirt that might be found beneath any of the stones in the political Democratic rock quarry of Chicago. Nevertheless, with Governor Blagojevich's national notoriety, the cat was now "out of the bag" so to speak. Very quickly the Chicago Democratic machine moved to address this embarrassment. Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones Jr. publicly proclaimed that any appointment made by the Governor would be tainted by his arrest so he would act to pass a law mandating a special election To fill Barack Obama's vacant senate seat to "help restore the confidence of the people of Illinois during this difficult time." Of course when Senator Jones made his statement, he fully expected that Blagojevich would "do the right thing" and resign allowing the Lieutenant Governor to become Governor and things could get back to normal. Alas, there is nothing normal about politics in Chicagoland and Blagojevich held a short press conference proclaiming his innocence and stated he had no intention of resigning. The Democrats realized that a "special election" with Blagojevich still in office would provide the Republicans a golden opportunity to win the vacant senate seat decrying the level of corruption within the Democrat establishment. As the democrat fervor for a "special election" slowly faded, Illinois Democrat House Speaker Michael Madigan assured the public that he would undertake a state investigation that would get to the bottom of this mess. Unfortunately, as Chicagoland politics would have it, the committee empowered to undertake this investigation is comprised of a majority of democrats with sole subpoena power being vested with the democrats. Without Madigan's signature, no subpoena will be issued. Again, this move on the part of the Democrats was made solely to try and contain the damage from the fallout that will inevitably be forthcoming as the case against Blagojevich moves forward. But it became apparent that this was becoming increasingly more difficult each day Blagojevich remained in office. In an attempt to ratchet up the heat to force Governor Blagojevich to step down, Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean issued a statement calling for Blagojevich's resignation:

The arrest of and complaint against Gov. Blagojevich raises serious concerns about his ability to effectively represent the people of Illinois. The conduct alleged represents a disgraceful abuse of the public trust. In the interest of the people of Illinois and all Americans, he should resign immediately. If he does not, I hope the Illinois legislature will take action.

The one silver lining that the democrats were clinging to was their hope that Blagojevich would not be so arrogant as to go ahead and appoint a replacement for Barack Obama's senate seat. This past Tuesday, Blagojevich upped the anty in this stakes political game and appointed former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris. He would be the nation's only black senator...

"The people of Illinois are entitled to have two United States senators represent them in Washington, D.C.," Blagojevich said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon. "As governor I am required to make this appointment."

Very quickly the Democratic Party and even "The Chosen One" responded by stating that the appointment of Mr. Burris would not be tolerated.

By now it has become apparent that Blagojevich is making his democratic cronies look like a bunch of fools, not unlike the group of good old boys in Jimmy Breslin's "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight.

And just when the democrats thought it couldn't get any worse, Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush goes on nationwide television (see the video above) and likens his own party's refusal to accept the appointment of Mr. Burris to the actions of such historical racist figures as George Wallace and Bull Connor. And just to sweeten the pot, it turns out that Congressman Rush is a former member of the Black Panther party.

It is important to remember that Chicago is where our next President "made his bones" in the political system and that state's politics speaks volumes about what we can expect over the next four years. The entire Blagojevich mess has imploded on the democrats and now has charges of racism being made of their own party by its members.

The "Chicagoland" problem is one that I feel will follow Brack Obama's transition from private citizen to Commander in Chief on January 20th.