Racial Politicking at Its Best: Blago and the Burris Appointment

When it comes to politics, Chicago is like the gift that keeps on giving.  On the one hand, we have Chicago politics at its finest, having given the nation a great senator and President-elect Barack Obama.  On the other hand, we have Governor Rod Blagojevich and his arrest on charges of soliciting bribes for appointments to the president-elect's senate seat.  If anyone thought that Blago was going to go quietly, they sure have got another thought coming.

Despite calls for his resignation or impeachment and resistance to any Blagojevich senate appointments, Governor Blagoevich showed himself to be a master of racial politics by selecting Roland Burris to fill the senate seat formerly held by the president-elect.  Similar to calls for New York Governor David Paterson to appoint a woman to replace Senator Hillary Clinton in the event of her confirmation as Secretary of State, there had been calls - although in, perhaps, slightly more hushed tones - for the appointment of an African American to replace the President-elect.  While Roland Burris from all accounts is eminently qualified to hold the office, this move by Blagoevich appears to be nothing but a crude attempt to divert attention away from himself.  Unfortunately, Mr. Burris will enter the Senate under quite a cloud.

The racial angle on the whole debacle was confirmed almost immediately by the presence of and statements by Congressman Bobby Rush of Illinois.  During the press conference announcing Mr. Burris' appointment, Represenative Rush came from amongst the throng of reporters to join Governor Blagojevich and Mr. Burris at the podium.  The Congressman thanked God for the appointed and fervently stated his opinion that the selection of Mr. Burris was the appropriate one because sans Mr. Obama, there would be no African American senators in the United States Senate.

Even before the appearance of Congressman Rush, Governor Blagojevich's racial politicking could have been seen by Ray Charles.  One of the first media outlets to put it so bluntly, CNN has an article posted at cnn.com glibly titled - Blagojevich playing a game of racial 'chicken'? 

I think the answer is 'yes'.  Over the coming weeks, we'll get to see who blinks first.