Will It Be Senator Franken, Finally?

At times like this, we need Al Franken in the Senate. We need more laughing. According to talkingpointsmem.com, the judicial battle between the two New York Jews whose families migrated to Minnesota--Norm Coleman, the incumbent, and Al Franken, the challenger--is about to end, with the Franken legal team ending its case earlier than expected. A ruling by the court is expected by the end of the month.

I miss Al Franken on Air America. I miss his intelligent, biting, yet human critique of the right wing media shouters in Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.

Working with "Team Franken," a group of Harvard students, Franken made mush of the Fox commentators. My daughter and I listened to the book, read by Franken in his nasal midwestern accent, on one of our mother-daughter road trips through New England. It was perfect, she was looking at colleges. Our favorite chapter: when he convinces one of the Team Franken interns to pose as a prospective student at Bob Jones University, the fundamentalist Christian college, that he affectionately calls "BJU."

The humor brought to us by the Roland Burris scandal is not funny. That's why we need Al.

When It Smells, It's Usually Rotten

When then-governor Rod Blagojevich played the race card and nominated Roland Burris to be the replacement for Barack Obama in the US Senate, representing the State of Illinois, people blanched. At least I did. Although on the surface, Burris appeared to have qualifications: he served as attorney general and as comptroller for the state, he had run unsuccessfully for several state-wide offices, and he claimed to be clean. However, having been nominated by Blagojevich, everyone considered the nomination tainted, since the governor had already been indicted for trying to sell Obama's senate seat.

First, the Senate Democrats said they wouldn't seat Burris. Then they recanted. Some press revealed some not so pleasant aspects about him. For reasons we don't know, Burris was sworn in and seated on January 15, 2009.

After Blagojevich was impeached and convicted, Burris' story began to change. OK, Rod's brother might have asked him to raise money for Blagojevich's campaign, more than once actually. And now, today, Burris admitted that he even tried to raise money for the former governor.

What does this mean? On the same day that yet another Ponzi scheme was uncovered--the Stanford Financial Group out of Texas-- a mere $8 billion this time, President Obama signed the stimulus package into law which will haunt America through several generations, America's car industry announced job layoffs of 50,000, and the stock market fell nearly 300 points, America needs legislators we can trust.

Recently I've been struck by the desperation of some men's ambition, their need to leave an imprint on the world. When that ambition is solely self-centered and corrupting, then we can do without the imprint, please.

February 20 update: Burris' list of lobbying clients leaves out important names when he appeared at Rod' s impeachment hearing.

Self-Interest At Its Worst

Rod Blagojevich is making the rounds of the television talk shows while the Illinois legislature begins his impeachment trial.

By trying to equate himself with the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, and Gandi, Gov. Rod has revealed his true self: self interest. Now that isn't wrong in and of itself. But when it results in poor choices, choices that don't take into account his responsibility to the people of Illinois, then it's wrong. Plain and simple. And Blagojavich's appointment of Roland Burris, in order to play the race card instead of picking a candidate that would truly fill the shoes of Barack Obama in the US Senate, is why he is just a hack politician if not a corrupt one.

And turning to Governor David Paterson of New York. There was no reason to choose Carolyn Kennedy for the position after she revealed herself to be inarticulate and disengaged, and according to the New York Times, not willing to answer questions about her issue positions. I don't believe in dynasties, and certainly, although she might be fabulous in the private sector, Carolyn didn't show what we need for a tough, effective senator to plug for New York's interests in the Senate.

To pull Andrew Cuomo from the Attorney General's position at a time of financial crisis when New York is the heart of the financial crisis seems downright stupid, so I'm glad Gov. Paterson didn't go there.

But he could have gone for someone more inspired than Kirsten Gillibrand, whose efficacy in a conservative Republican district means one thing: Paterson might have more leverage in a re election campaign, his own.

That doesn't mean that Peter King has any moral or legal authority to demand access to Paterson's thinking process. The governor has the right to appoint a new Senator to run out Hillary's term, whether Peter King likes it or not.

But the worst of self interest came out in Alberto Gonzales' interview today about the possibility of the Obama administration prosecuting him and other Bush officials for authorizing torture of "war on terror" suspects. In an interview with NPR radio that was written up in the Chicago Tribune, Gonzales said: I don't think that there's going to be a prosecution, quite frankly. Because again, these activities.... They were authorized, they were supported by legal opinions at the Department of Justice.

Of course, those legal opinions at the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel were written under the instructions of David Addington, counsel to then Vice President Cheney. Not exactly the independent legal opinions that the Office of Legal Counsel are supposed to be giving. Gonzales' statement follows the talking points that Cheney started in the last days of the Bush administration. There is too much evidence to show that the independence of the office was breached.

More on Men Behaving Badly

Two seats in the United States Senate are in contention now, weeks after the election. First, there is the still too-close to call contest between Al Franken and incumbent Norm Coleman in Minnesota. Franken is 49 votes ahead of Coleman. That is a flimsy lead by any measure. The two camps had agreed to count about 1350 absentee ballots that were originally disqualified. What remains in contestation is a group of 650 absentee ballots out of 1350 that have been discarded, but which might require another look, at least according to the Coleman camp. A lawsuit by Coleman is virtually guaranteed according to The Hill.

Senator Cornyn (R-TX) has been chest-thumping, claiming a Republican filibuster, if the Democrats try to seat Franken while the litigation is still on going.

I like Al, I like his energy, I like his ideas and the respect that he shows for folks with different beliefs. But no election should be won on such close counts, not when our election system is so vulnerable to hanky panky, and the process of registration and follow through is as poorly conceived, policed, and implemented as I witnessed while working the polls in New York.

Then there is Illinois. Embattled governor Blagojevich has cleverly pushed the attention off of him and the allegations that he was about to sell the empty Obama seat to the highest bidder by appointing while he is still governor, an apparently qualified Roland Burris, who just so happens to be African American when there are currently no African Americans in the Senate.

Illinois has removed Blagojevich's security clearance, and is moving closer to impeachment. The interesting question is whether a subsequent impeachment will invalidate an appointment made while he was still governor.

So Monday when the new Congress convenes, will Roland Burris try to enter the Senate to defy Harry Reid (D-NV) and claim his seat?

TalkingPointsMemo.com seems to think not. Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer, a former chief of the Capitol Hill police, told the Associated Press that he does not expect any trouble from Roland Burris should Burris be turned away from the Senate door next week. "He is a good man," said Gainer, who has known Burris for years. "He plays by the rules. I don't think there's going to be a confrontation."

Of course, we don't need all of this added drama when the real drama of how to jumpstart the economy, remake a failed federal government, and reassert a country dedicated to the rule of law and not the rule of Bush/Cheney is so pressing and requires creativity, new coalitions, and trust. I have to giggle at the chutzpah of Blagojevich, but would appreciate it more if we weren't in such a mess.