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FEINSTEIN <3 BURRIS.
Dianne Feinstein is supporting Roland Burris's efforts to be seated. Feinstein chairs the Senate Rules Committee, which is where the Burris issue will eventually be heard, so her decision to roll rogue on this matters. It's also suggestive evidence that she's going to try and carve out a more independent role for herself in the next couple of years. The Senate has lost a number of its crusty, process-oriented elders in recent years, and she seems ready to step into the gap.
Meanwhile, you have to ask yourself what Burris wants out of all this. To be senator, obviously. But it won't be a pleasant ride. He'll be a tainted appointment facing the resentment of his Senate colleagues and the annoyance of the President of the United States and his staff. It's not an optimal set of conditions for getting things done. Nor for being reelected. His name will live on as an answered in Trivial Pursuit: Politics Edition, but that's about the best he can hope for here, and he'll have to suffer rather a lot for the honor.
COMMENTS (18)
Currently, Politico is illustrating this story with a photo of Nancy Pelosi hugging Charlie Rangel. What the hell?
Posted by: tom veil | January 7, 2009 9:56 AM
What he wants out of this is to be able to carve "US Senator" on his mausoleum's wall.
Posted by: tsg | January 7, 2009 9:59 AM
Independent role, where independent = Republican, much as Feinstein has been doing for years...
Posted by: Cotter | January 7, 2009 10:06 AM
Schumer is taking over the Rules Committee. You can't chair two major committees. DiFi is on her way out at Rules and in at Intel where Jello Jay is out. It's a pinwheel of lame!
She's right about Burris getting seated but she'd never have said a word if her feathers weren't ruffled over Panetta.
Posted by: joejoejoe | January 7, 2009 10:26 AM
Independent role, where independent = Republican, much as Feinstein has been doing for years...
As opposed to the other strong Dems, like Obama voicing opposition to things like FISA...oh, wait.
Posted by: Anonymous | January 7, 2009 10:28 AM
He'll be a tainted appointment facing the resentment of his Senate colleagues and the annoyance of the President of the United States and his staff.
Their resentment is all of their own doing. I've not seen much from our Senate class that convinces me they wouldn't do anything they could to get a seat themselves.
Even Obama played rough to get both his State Senate and Senate seat- what with his challenging other candidate's ballot petitions and having associates release opponents' divorce records.
Are we to believe that suddenly they are adverse to ambition?
Posted by: kaybeel | January 7, 2009 10:38 AM
Just so long as you understand that Reid doesn't have a legal leg to stand on, I don't disagree with you. And I think he could get reelected.
Posted by: Asher | January 7, 2009 10:41 AM
Yes, that's all well and good Ezra, but why is DiFi worth less than 3 Burrises?
Posted by: DJAnyReason | January 7, 2009 10:47 AM
Do you seriously think this 71 year old man is gunning for Chair of Armed Services? Being a hated or ignored Senator still involves being a Senator. I think whatever happens after that is simply bonus to Burris. All he has to do is be contrarian at the right times and the people who are supposedly going to marginalize him will be kissing his ass and giving him whatever he wants. See Joe Lieberman.
Posted by: flounder | January 7, 2009 10:56 AM
Further, if I was Burris, every time I was on TV I would bring up the fact that when the felonious criminal Ted Stevens appeared before the Senate a few months ago, the entire chamber gave him a standing ovation.
Then I would ask CNN to run the tape as they were interviewing me, and as we watched, I would ponder out loud just how full of shit these scoundrels are.
Posted by: flounder | January 7, 2009 11:07 AM
"But it won't be a pleasant ride. He'll be a tainted appointment facing the resentment of his Senate colleagues and the annoyance of the President of the United States and his staff."
Don't forget us folk back home! His presence in the Senate is an embarrassment to the people of Illinois. His appointment came as the direct result of shenanigans by the Governor -- for which we will eternally be reminded through the months and years of the Governor's criminal trial.
In other news, it looks like Blago will be impeached by early February.
Posted by: leo | January 7, 2009 11:19 AM
Maybe Burris should mention this:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0109/Reid_Give_Stevens_a_GetofJail_Card.html?showall
Posted by: flounder | January 7, 2009 11:31 AM
He's an egomaniac who needs an impressive title to chisel onto his tombstone.
I'm embarrassed for him.
Posted by: crustyguy | January 7, 2009 12:51 PM
By March, no one's going to care two shits how he came to hold the seat, and life will go on.
Posted by: Senescent | January 7, 2009 2:40 PM
Do "retired" Senators get a pension?
Posted by: Harry | January 7, 2009 4:57 PM
He has a couple of options. He can use his stint in DC to find new friends and make the most of them. Or he can be a gadfly, vote his state and party in a smart way, and enjoy the ride. (I don't think the Zell Miller option is open to him, given that he's not a southern hick.)
Just before the election, I yelled directions to a US Senator who was walking with her aide downtown, en route to an Obama event but looking lost. And it got me thinking that in a country of 300 million, it's quite something to be one of a club of 100. And yet there are more than a few inconsequential, ineffectual and frankly dumbass Senators, and their states are proud of them.
If you get past the myth that the Senate is somehow meant to bring together the best and the brightest -- it happens in some cases, but it's certainly not programmed into the system -- then Burris fits in just fine.
Posted by: pseudonymous in nc | January 8, 2009 1:07 AM
Hey, Ezra. If I offered you a senate seat for two years, would u decline it? I think not. I hate to break it to you. It's "leader" Reid who has egg all over his face. I wish the Dems would have shown this much backbone to Lieberman, lol. Spineless.
1 Blago
0 Reid
Posted by: Derik | January 8, 2009 11:09 AM
He'll get another entry on his mausaleum. Given some of the other stuff he already has on it, he'll be able to craft an inscription worthy of Oyzimandias.
Plus he'll get that senator's salary for 2 years.
Posted by: Paul in KY | January 8, 2009 12:39 PM