President-elect Barack Obama’s appointed successor was turned away when he appeared at the U.S. Capitol to take his seat. The Secretary of the Senate said his credentials were not in order.
Roland Burris announced the decision to deny him the seat as he stood before a large throng of reporters and cameras in the rain outside the Capitol building.
Speaking just an hour before the convening of the 111th Congress Tuesday, Burris said he was looking at a host of options for getting the seat.
Burris, who introduced himself as the “junior senator from state of Illinois,” told reporters outside the Capitol in Washington: “I presented my credentials to the Secretary of the Senate and was advised that my credentials are not are in order, and I will not be accepted, and will not be seated, and will not be permited on the floor,” Burris said. “Therefore, I am not seeking to have any kind of confrontation. I will consult with my attorneys on what my next step will be.”
On CBS’ The Early Show, Burris, who was selected to take President-elect Barack Obama’s Senate seat, dismissed his critics, saying his appointment by the scandal-plagued governor, Rod Blagojevich, is valid.
“They’re causing the drama, my appointment is legal. Are you saying there is something wrong with me? I’m qualified,” Burris, who was the first African-American elected to statewide office and was the former Illinois attorney general, said.
“There’s nothing wrong with Roland Burris and there’s nothing wrong with the appointment,” Burris said.
In his defense, Burris, 71, pointed to Blagojevich’s decision Monday to hold an election for a successor to Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., Mr. Obama’s chief of staff. Burris said it proves the embattled governor still has legal authority to carry out his duties.
“As I read the U.S. Constitution,” Burris said, it says the “governor shall fill a vacancy, and as a former attorney general of my state, I have no knowledge of where a secretary of state has veto power over a governor carrying out his constitutional duties.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Monday that Burris cannot take his seat because he “has not been certified by the state of Illinois.” Additionally, Senate Democrats say Burris’ appointment is tainted because of the charges Blagojevich faces.
Burris has threatened to sue Senate Democrats if they do not swear him in as the chamber’s only black member.
(Source: CBS / Yahoo News)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
5 Responses
I think you need to read the constitution again. It says the state and not specificaly the governor. There are state where the governor never chooses the successor or has restrictions set by the state how to do so. On the other hand, it clearly give each house the right to set its own rules.
Among the scandals of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, the most significant to us is his anti-Semitism.
When it was discovered that he had appointed Sister C.M. Muhammad — a preacher of anti-Jewish propaganda at Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam church — to the State of Illinois Hate Crimes Commission, all the Jewish members resigned immediately. As Blagojevich (who claims he did not know her affiliation when he appointed her) has refused to ask her to resign, she is still a member of this state board; there are no Jewish members.
This reminds me of Democrat Governor Wallace standing in the schoolhouse door to deny entry to black children.
1. Illinois law states the governor will fill the vacancy. No one thought this was an issue until a few days ago.
2. Given that it is the Democrat’s seat, fair and square (they won it last election, as well as the governor’s seat), and that they need to find a Democrat who wasn’t trying to “buy” the seat, the choices were limited. If you banned all the corrupt Illinois politicians, the people of the state would have to go unrepresented. Corruption has always been the “minhag ha-makom” in Chicago.
3. Most Democrats want someone appointed to the seat who is likely to run for reelection in 2010, since they don’t relish defending an open seat in a presidential “off” year that they are on defence.
A simple preposition would make the headline make sense. I kept thinking to myself “Burris didn’t refuse the seat, he’s desperate for it!” The headline should read Burris WAS Refused Senate Seat.