After watching the Sunday talk shows and reading a bit more on the appointment of Roland Burris to the United States Senate seat in Illinois, I've come the following conclusion: The Senate should seat Burris.
Technically, Rod Blagojevich is still the governor and under the United States Constitution has the right to appoint someone to fill the slot left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama. Yes...Blagojevich should have bypassed making the appointment himself and called a special election (the Democrats, who nixed the idea out of fear they'd lose the seat, actually would have done better than they thought). Yes...by appointing Burris, the Governor has stirred up some major shit - Senate Democrats threatening not to accept the Burris appointment, the African-American community insisting that they do...ya gotta admit...Blagojevich was brilliant with this particular temper-tantrum. And yes...Burris is a hapless spotlight seeker who essentially saw this as his last chance at holding some office somewhere.
That said, in order to keep damage to a minimum and in order to keep the media frenzy from getting too wild, the Senate should allow Roland Burris to be seated. Doing so would, I think, immediately defuse a rather unnecessary political time bomb. Burris could serve until the 2010 election cycle (his record indicates he'd have a hard time winning a primary, let alone a general) and the Illinois legislature could then focus on impeaching the son-of-a-bitch Governor and removing him from office.
That's my own two-cents. Take it or leave it.
