by Frank James
David Broder highlights in his Sunday column what he views as early missteps by the Obama presidential transition team -- the misbegotten Bill Richardson nomination, President-elect Barack Obama's initial opposition to Roland Burris's appointment to fill the Senate seat Obama once occupied.
The dean of the Washington press corps concludes, based on the Burris drama, that not only did Obama blunder on Burris but that Obama may be learning he can't count on his allies in Congress as they learn they can't count on him.
Noting that Obama backed off his opposition to Burris once the handwriting was on the wall, that is, once it became clear that Burris had the law on his side and planned to use it, Broder ends by writing:
Obama justifiably figured that Burris was not worth a knockdown fight when he has so many bigger battles ahead of him. But the lesson that other politicians have drawn is that Obama may not always be able to count on his congressional allies and they may not be able to count on him. That is not the way he wanted to begin.
While the incomplete vetting that led to Richardson's nomination was clearly a mistake, it's unclear, at least from my vantage point on the sidelines, that Obama's handling of the Burris matter falls into the same category.
Also, as Broder knows better than just about anyone else, most politicians, even before they get to Washington, have learned that loyalty is situational in politics. They already knew this about Obama. He already knew this about them. Harry Truman said it best: If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.
Anyway, there were so many crosscurrents and counter crosscurrents in the case of the missing U.S. senator from Illinois, the best thing Obama could do was to stay out of the water as best he could for fear of being pulled under. He did just that. Some might call that success.
There was the original act that triggered the crisis, the arrest of Gov. Rod Blagojevich for allegedly trying to auction Obama old Senate seat to the highest bidder among other charges.
Obama was immediately soaked by that wave since there were immediate questions about his team's contacts with Blago or his people.
There weren't many and the few there were were benign, according to the report by Obama's lawyer, Greg Craig. But because of the taint surrounding the whole sordid matter, the best course for Obama was to dry off and thereafter keep his distance as much as possible.
Then there was the crosscurrent of Illinois law which requires the governor to fill an empty Senate seat whether he's been arrested or not. Presumably, Blago could have even made the appointment from the back of the FBI vehicle that took him into custody.
After Blago's arrest, just about every Democratic politician near a microphone, including Obama, said the governor lacked the moral standing to make the appointment and urged him not to.
That included Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, and Sen. Dick Durbin, the Senate Majority Whip and Illinois's senior senator.
Among the possibilities you'd have to be worried about if you were Reid and Durbin would be that anybody Blago appointed would make an easy target for Senate Republicans. It would not only increase Republicans' chances of winning the seat in 2010 but it would give them a poster boy for charges of Democratic corruption to boot.
Even the governor appeared to be leaning against such an appointment since his own criminal-defense lawyer Ed Genson said Blago wouldn't be naming anyone.
But Blagojevich must be an ancient Serbian word for loose cannon. Of for a guy who takes his opportunities when he sees them.
So, as Broder noted, Illinois lawmakers gave Blago the opening he needed to appoint Burris by rejecting a special election, partly for fear that a Republican could win the seat.
It was brilliant Blagostroke since it created a tributary off the main river of controversy that would compete with Blagogate for attention.
It also made it possible for some black leader to enter the stage to play the race card and Rep. Bobby Rush gladly obliged, insisting that Burris would keep at least one black person in the 100-member Senate. The Rush crosscurrent slammed into the Reid crosscurrent, further roiling the waters.
Blago-Burris was really a no-win for Obama and for the people of Illinois, save for Burris and his family, friends and fans.
When faced with such a situation, the best you can hope to do is limit the damage. And that's about what Obama did.
Comments
Mr. Broder the "dean of the Washington press corps" is ready for retirement; as are Cokie Roberts, George Will, Sam Donaldson, etc. They all need to join Brit Hume on the sideline. That might be some change that Inky could believe in.
Posted by: mort | January 11, 2009 2:10 PM
It was obvious in 2006 that Blagojevich was ethically and intellectually challenged, to put it mildly. Back then his indictment was clearly a matter of "when", not "if". Yet all of the principle Illinois Democrats (including Barack Obama) endorsed him. Speaker of the Illinois House and party chair Michael Madigan even co-chaired his campaign!
.
Furthermore, it was obvious in early '08 that Obama was the likely Democratic Presidential nominee, and so likely to be elected. Illinois Democrats should have moved last summer to amend the succession law to take the appointment out of the governor's hands. They made no attempt.
Obama at least had the good sense to keep his distance from Blago since 2006, so he is unlikely to be directly effected by the fallout. Nevertheless, this situation is of the Democrats' own making. Frank, maybe blagojevich is an ancient Serbian word for "chickens coming home to roost".
Posted by: MJ | January 11, 2009 2:28 PM
A majority of the voters of Il. wanted a special election, Obama should have been an advocate for this. The act to "keep his distance", left a void in leadership that he could have provided. Thus, the corrupt Chicago Democratic machine choose its self-serving path, believing they could marginalize Blago, and contain the damage. Now they have a "loose canon" within the ranks, he knows where many bodies and secrets lie, and speaks with ominous tones. By ignoring the voters, choosing to maintain the status quo of Democratic dominance, he opened the door and the whole sordid family followed him in. There will mucho dirty laundry.
Posted by: Bubba Porter | January 11, 2009 2:41 PM
Burris sort of paved the way for Obama in Illinois.
For that matter, paved the way for Carol Moseley Braun.
I don't see how anything was mishandled.
Rod evidently had at least 2 objectives in this appointment:
1. take away from the "corrupt bargain" theory of the case against him
2. a sort of farewell "Rahm" to his adversaries--a move to stalemate anyone who would try to undo the appointment.
Posted by: ornery | January 11, 2009 2:43 PM
Good assessment. I too think that there was not much that Obama could do. He initially called for a special election, as did Durbin, but as both politics and the monetary realities of the election began to be played out, the special election didn't become likely. To avoid the appearance that the Dems were willing to look the other way on allegations of corruption, they vowed not to seat anybody appointed by Blago. Should they have not released this statement? I don't think so--everybody is swimming in unchartered waters and I find it interesting that the Dems are being slammed for their position on this matter when the Repubs had been mums the word (for the most part) about Stevens, and now about Coleman (who is being investigated by the feds). So at least they were trying to make the best out of a bad situation.
Now after Blago made the appointment, what else could they do but reiterate their previous opposition to said appointment? Again, I don't really see the problem with this--it wasn't done out of malice or ill will toward Burris and everybody knows it. The only thing they really tripped up on was underestimating Burris. Could anyone have foreseen that his ego would be so grandiose that he would, along with Rush, play the Rush card by challenging anyone who opposed the appointment (as he had done only a few weeks prior) and also give a mini publicity tour in favor of his appointment, maybe, but again there weren't a lot of viable options.
This whole thing is a mess, and with each passing day, I feel sorry for the good people of illinois. this is certainly not the representation they deserve.
Oh, and this is 2009--can we please stop using terms like "the race card"
Posted by: TRW | January 11, 2009 3:31 PM
More information is coming out on Obama's Blogojevich contacts
In spite of what the Obama team has told us, the contacts than had with Blagojevich ran deep. The most troubling thing is Obama wanted to maintain a close relationship with Blagojevich even after he was under suspicion. New information has been uncovered through the Freedom of Information act.
Posted by: The Intellectual Redneck | January 11, 2009 3:41 PM
By ignoring the voters, choosing to maintain the status quo of Democratic dominance, he opened the door and the whole sordid family followed him in. There will mucho dirty laundry.
Posted by: Bubba Porter | January 11, 2009 2:41 PM
Yes, and if you are a current member of the very small minority party known as the "2009 GOP" you have to hang on to fantasies like this (see above) or people might forget that you even exist anymore.
Posted by: Bill/Jeff | January 11, 2009 4:00 PM
President-elect Obama, welcome to Politics 101!
Posted by: Tom | January 11, 2009 4:02 PM
And what information is that "Intellectual Redneck?"
(Is your middle name Bubba?)
I think you're dealing in fiction.
Posted by: rupert | January 11, 2009 4:07 PM
Broder is worthless, he should have retired years ago when he still had some credibility left.
Calling Broder "the Dean of the Sock Puppet Corporate Media" would be much more appropriate as he spent the last eight years eating up and spitting out every single bit of propaganda that BushCo and the Republican party fed him him without once even bothering to question them.
Posted by: Big Orange Satan | January 11, 2009 4:17 PM
Franko Jameso - You do not have the right to shorten Gov. Blagojevich's name to Blago in your article! How disrespectful. I do not live in IL, but a bunch of family and friends do. Sure, many are unhappy - but conversely, I just saw on CSPAN last night, the re-run of the services for Senator Pell. Speaker after speaker shared what an upstanding man he was, and how consumately professional - such a gentleman at all times. Who are you to change the governor's name and use it so loosely?! Is that how you want people to treat you? Are you a perfect man? Do you have no skeletons - or are yours simply 'not as bad' as the governor's? Have some decency and basic respect. Even if the governor is a messed up as many people think, why should you 'go there' with him or anyone else, and start dehumizing him by changing his last name to some short hand as though you were friends, when it is clear you have no respect for him. Ugh!!! I can't stand writing - writers - like how you have written this. Worse than irreverent. Not impressive. Yawn. Totally unimpressive to kick a man while he is already down. Sad to see you chose to write like this!
Posted by: anonymous | January 11, 2009 4:24 PM
Duh: Obama knew Richardson would never pass the smell test once Obama was elected, but promised Richardson the position during the campain solely so that he could get the endorsement, and with it Clinton's hispanic supporters.
Why are reporters so naive nowaday? Ever hear of the word pol-i-TISH-un?
Posted by: susan k. (NYC) | January 11, 2009 4:31 PM
This has nothing to do with Illinois, all of the comments on here about Illinois are mostly from the recently ousted from power Republican party minions who are trying to feed into a media narrative that there is something inherently corrupt about Illinois as a means of delegitimizing Obama. It's a symbol of how pervasive the right-wing noise machine is at getting a narrative going in the main stream media. They did the same crap to Bill Clinton. Republicans don't care about governing or serving the people, they care about winning and being in charge,...period...end of story.
There's nothing today that's particularly special about Illinois, when you consider similar accusations of corruption in Kentucky and other states. In Pennsylvania, the State Senate's former leader, and the (formerly) most powerful politician in Philadelphia, Vincent Fumo, is standing accused of extortion on the level of tens of millions of dollars. In Butler County, in non-urban Ohio, Republican politicians are accused of corruption charges as well. (And the DOJ's focus on urban Democratic versus rural Republican corruption has been appalling.).
Burris will be seated, this connection is pretty insubstantial. It would have to be much more direct than that to really hurt his chances in 2010 against a pathetically weak Republican roster.
Posted by: The Utes should be #1 | January 11, 2009 4:48 PM
Not exactly. Obama could've kept his mouth shut; he wasn't even in the country. He decided to chime in and it cost him.
Posted by: Mimi Schaeffer | January 11, 2009 4:50 PM
You can have the old guard or the new guard analyze the Blago/Burris situtation all day long . . . the fact of the matter is that Obama comes from this hornet's nest we have here in Illinois and to think he is not part of this mess is to be clearly in the Nile! Let's wake up and stop the adoration and begin to face the reality of politics and that the nation has chose to be led the Chicago Way when electing Obama. The sad truth is that most are surprised by something we've all been acustomed to here in Illinois. Get used to a lot more corruption and drama along the way.
Posted by: AH | January 11, 2009 4:59 PM
Broder doesn't get it because he lives inside the DC beltway bubble of cocktail parties, rumor and innuendo. I would venture that the majority of Americans could not care less about these inside Washington parlor games and are sick to death of this moment to moment analysis of every move Obama makes.
After eight years of the most incompetent president in history, people are hurting and want something, anything to get done. How nice it would be if we could just step back for five minutes and give Obama a little bit of time and space, but of course then there would be nothing to fill up the blogs, websites, and 24 cable news machines.
Posted by: Juan Hernando | January 11, 2009 5:35 PM
Once again, Obama gets a pass form the fawning Swamp writers! How about this? Obama rode in, wearing the title (as politco.com put it" of "peacemaker," and then, oh, just happened to let it slip that that was what he was doing. So he barged in on something that wasn't really his business (he is not in the Senate anymore), threw his weight around and made other people look stupid. My own experience is that people don't LIKE being made to look stupid, especially self-important types like senators.
This situationw ill probably come back and bite him in the behind. And calling Richardson's vetting "incomplete?" It was flat out not done correctly at all. But we're supposed to know this novice knows something about governing.
So far, I'm not too impressed.
Posted by: Beth | January 11, 2009 6:08 PM
All this being said, I'd still like to see Tammy Duckworth in the Congress somehow, someway.
Posted by: ornery | January 11, 2009 7:13 PM
Once again, Obama gets a pass form the fawning Swamp writers! How about this? Obama rode in, wearing the title (as politco.com put it" of "peacemaker," and
Posted by: Beth | January 11, 2009 6:08 PM
Trying to pass yourself off as a girl today, Bruce?
I'm not surprised that the Wingnuts are falling all over themselves trying to smear Obama. They've effectively become a very small 4th party and the accompianing gadfly status that comes with that must be frustrating for them.
After eight years of spreading propaganda, slogans and debunked talking points no one cares what the Greedy Oil Party has to say anymore.
Posted by: civil war guy | January 11, 2009 7:22 PM
Obama seems to be the master of the CHANGE, but forow long?
Posted by: Inky | January 12, 2009 7:08 AM
All this being said, I'd still like to see Tammy Duckworth in the Congress somehow, someway.
Posted by: ornery | January 11, 2009 7:13 PM
.Nix Tammy as she has already run in with the State of Illinois for using a State vehicle for personel use.
Posted by: Inky | January 12, 2009 10:04 AM