Roland Burris to be picked by Baloneyvich for Obama’s Senate seat?

December 30th, 2008 at 11:14am Chuck Sweeny

Da Question: If he names him, will he accept, and will they seat him?

I’m tallking about  Gov. Rod Blagojevich  naming Roland Burris, 71, to the vacant Senate seat held by Barack Obama, soon to be the 44th president.

Burris was state comptroller from 1979 to 1991, and from 1991 to 1995 as attorney general. He also ran, unsuccessfully, for senator, governor and mayor of Chicago. He is CEO of Burris & Lebed Consulting, LLC, in Chicago.

Burris was the state’s first statewide black elected official. He’s indicated to Blago that he’s interested in the Senate seat. Burris would be a respectable choice, and he’s young enough to make a run for the seat when it comes up for election in 2010, should he want to do that.

The immediate question is, will the U.S. Senate seat him? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, has said that the Senate wont’ seat anyone appointed by Blagojevich.

But with the Minnesota race in limbo, Democrats will need all the votes they can get in the upcoming Congress if they want to pass Obama’s aggressive agenda. The closer they can get to 60, the number of votes needed to invoke cloture and stop a Republican filibuster, the better off they are.  If Obama’s seat is left vacant for months,  that will severely impact Obama’s ability to pass bills.

I’m thinking that Reid & Co. could very well reconsider should they be faced with a Burris appointment. He’s somewhat of an historic figure, being the first black statewide elected official. He had a successful run at comptroller, to which he was elected three times, and as attorney general.

I’m assuming here that Burris will actually accept the appointment! Some people think that no one in their right mind would take a job offered by Blago. We’ll see later today.

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