Governor Blagojevich: Sly Fox Knows How to Use the Race Card

The controversy over the seating of a new United States Senator to replace Barack Obama to represent the State of Illinois has reinforced some old core issues in America from Tip O'Neil's "all politics is local" to the adage that "race is always a factor."

But one thing is clear, not only is the embattled current Governor of Illinois, Rob Blagojevich, determined not to go down without a fight, but if he is going down, he is showing some street smarts mixed with political brilliance that we seldom see at any level - and what's more, if he does go down he may also cause some lasting intended damage in his wake.

A few days ago, the Governor announced that he would appoint Roland Burris to fill the Obama Senate seat. Burris is an African-American who was the first black elected to state wide office ever in Illinois (which means you have to do well downstate - not just in Chicago), and he already was a public servant with national notice, statewide support, and a reputation for integrity and political skill back when Barack Obama was a local community organizer.

No question, the qualifications and stature of Roland Burris stands on their own and would merit serious consideration for an appointment to fill this seat under any circumstances. But add to that the fact that Burris is an African-American and would be replacing another African-American in a Senate chamber with no other African-American members, and all of a sudden you add "external" components to the equation that make this situation far more complicated for all of those who have heretofore insisted that no appointment by Blagojevich should be seated in the Senate.

First of all, the dynamics have changed for the Democrats as to how to resolve the appointment of the new Senator. When the scandal first broke, virtually every Democrat both in Illinois and Washington was calling for a "special election" to circumvent the possibility of the Governor attempting to fill the seat by appointment. But after some reflection and the imbibing of no doubt most appropriate beverages, the Democrats have come to their senses. This is a scandal, and the main player is a Democrat. Even in regular elections following a scandal, the Party of the wrongdoers always has a tough time winning - and in a special election caused by the events of the scandal, that Party's chances of winning drop even further - and in Illinois, where Democrats don't do particularly well downstate even without scandal, the chances drop even further.

So for Illinois Democrats, the only really viable option was to press full speed ahead with the approach of impeaching Blagojevich and then have the Lt. Governor become Governor and let him make the new appointment. Not so fast.

Blagojevich may look like the "boy governor," but in fact he is proving to be an adult man who is smart, quick, and can fight not only in the ring of public opinion but can also help his own cause in ways that show he understands political history.

If this scandal had not taken place, it is highly unlikely that Gov Blagojevich would have selected Roland Burris as his appointment - he might likely have not even appointed any African-American. But as Michael Corleone told Robert Duvall in The Godfather when Duvall expressed surprise that it was Tessio rather than Clemenza who would betray Michael, "it's a smart move - Tessio was always smarter." And so we see here just how smart Blagojevich is.

The Governor gets two benefits from this appointment. First, he makes it just that much more complicated for an all-white Senate to "lock the door" on such an imminently qualified African-American candidate. And there are several white Democratic Senators from states who count on big city black voting blocs to keep Democrats in control who will be very nervous about the interpretation their African-American constituents might make about them voting not to seat Roland Burris.

Second, and even more important to Blagojevich, he gets to use the race card in a way that benefits him and demonstrates so clearly why race is a factor in virtually every area of our life. And it is important to make the point that race is so much a factor in so much of what we do in America that there are times, and I believe this is one of them, where race is a factor but not from the traditional perspective of prejudice or racism or discrimination. No, in this case, its very simple. If race is already a factor and you're indicted and about to go on trial, then for heaven sakes use it to your advantage.

This lesson goes all the way back to Treasury Secretary John Connolly who was indicted on charges involving price fixing in the milk industry. He was indicted in Washington DC, and even back then in the mid '70s, DC was already such a black majority populated city that the jury for his trial was overwhelmingly African-American. And Connolly, from Texas and whose claim to fame was the fact that he was in the limousine with John F. Kennedy when Kennedy was shot, drew on that traditional personal connection that blacks and whites in the South have always had that essentially transcended the vestiges of race and discrimination in the personal relationships they forged with each other as individuals and as groups. That jury acquitted Connolly, and from that day forth, white politicians have never forgotten to take into account the ramifications of black juries weighing in on their guilt or innocence.

Even more recently, Scooter Libby hired a black criminal defense lawyer to lead his defense in his trial - Why? - because Scooter Libby, one of Dick Cheney's top personal associates and longtime scion of conservatism wanted to demonstrate his commitment to affirmative action? I don't think so.

Libby chose a black lawyer because he knew that in Washington DC, his jury would be predominantly African-American, and he wanted to give himself every possible advantage he could.

And so Governor Rob Blagojevich knows he will also likely face a criminal prosecution and trial in Chicago, and his jury will likely be at least half if not majority African-American (since we know that upper income and highly educated whites in Lincoln Park and the north side and Lake Shore Drive will get out of jury duty just as that group demographic does everywhere in the country. And so Blagojevich will have an intangible benefit weighing in the back of the minds of the jurors who will judge him - here's a man who at least attempted to replace Barack Obama with another African-American so that there would be at least one black Senator in the US Senate. In a subtle and undiscussed way, this move absolutely will help Blagojevich with that significantly if not predominantly African-American jury.

It's a smart move, and speaking of gangsterism and corruption, even Michael Corleone would recognize the brilliance of Blagojevich's move. "He played this one beautifully," to quote another Godfather line referring to the scheming of Hyman Roth.

And President-elect Obama comes out of this aspect of the controversy just fine. By publicly opposing the seating of Burris because of the process that includes the tainted Governor, Obama comes across to mainstream America as making objective decisions that are not based on race or group pressure. Yet, we all know that Obama knows, likes and respects Roland Burris, and the new president would certainly applaud the Burris appointment if there were no other obstacles as Obama sees Burris himself as qualified - so it's not about Burris - its about Blagojevich. And Obama will not lose significant support in the African-American community because of the current position he has taken. It's a win-win, and once he starts to deal with the economy and bail-outs and job loss and the middle east and rising world tensions and campaign promises and commitments, win-wins will be hard to come by.

Earlier this past week, Meredith Vieira interviewed Roland Burris on the Today Show, and Vieira asked Burris if "it was appropriate to introduce race in this matter." Although Vieira's question was entirely legitimate and made sense, I still had to laugh because there was no time when race was not introduced into the situation once Blagojevich announced the appointment. It was there at that point, and it was there before that point as Blagojevich considered who he wanted to appoint. But here's my point - all these considerations don't make anybody a racist - no - it just means that we must acknowledge that the race factor is there in so much of what we do. And until we finally have that conversation on race in this country that I have been calling for over some period of time, we are doomed to not understand it in a way that can actually help us to move forward - not beyond - just move forward with it as part of the landscape.

In announcing the appointment of Roland Burris to fill the seat once held by our new president, Governor Blagojevich possibly made sure that he remains a major player to be considered in this matter - a person to be "treated with some respect" who has not only helped himself in the long run, thrown a wrench into the works at home in Illinois, but also, thanks to the national constituency that the Burris appointment will generate, submitted a choice to the US Senate that represents an offer they may not be able to refuse.

Carl Jeffers is a Los Angeles-and Seattle based columnist, TV political analyst, radio talk show host and lecturer. E-mail: [e-mail].

Comments

[MaryanneAZ]

02:34 PM on 01/04/2009

I've been saying this same thing since this appointment occurred. For all his faults, Blago is a political genius (or his attorneys behind the scenes are). This is such a good chess move on Blago's part. The IL Senate failed to pass on a special election or impeachment in December, and Blago used the interim period to make his appointment and perhaps save himself from conviction. Obviously, if Fitzgerald had a real case, then he would have indicted him last week. He asked for an additional 90 days to conduct a fishing expedition, obviously hoping to gain indictable charges. Fitzgerald was wrong to act before a crime had been committed. His case is a non-starter. Blago will likely walk away from this mess sullied but not convicted of anything. Burris, for his part, would have been crazy to pass up this plum appointment when it fell into his lap. Go Burris!

[DuPageDem]

01:56 PM on 01/04/2009

Correct, Blago is smart on this pick. But riddle me this: Why is Illinois alone responsible for sending African-Americans -- Obama and Mosley-Braun -- to the Senate? There are 49 other states, including several with Senate vacancies that need to be filled shortly. Interesting how no one mentions race in regard to those other seats. It seems the rest of the nation relies on the Land of Lincoln to add color to the good old white boys club.

[BeefSupreme]

07:16 PM on 01/03/2009

HBO's erstwhile series, The Wire, provided more insight into the workings of big city political machine dynamics than any piece of journalism. Burris is clearly the real-life version of Baltimore's fictional Senator R. Clayton "Clay" Davis. Sheeeeeit!

[BEHM777]

09:59 AM on 01/04/2009

I have to disagree with you on that one. Clay Davis was a crook, period. Roland Burris isn't that kind of man. He has made a serious error in judgment, but he is in no way a Clay Davis-type.

[Chicagowill]

06:17 PM on 01/03/2009

Illinois population breakdown
Chicago ~3 million
Suburban Cook County ~3 million
the 5 surrounding "collar" counties ~3 million
rest of the state ~3 million

If you do very well in Chicago and the suburbs, downstate, i.e. south of I-80 and west of, say, Aurora does not have enough people to make a difference.

[americaforme]

05:19 PM on 01/03/2009

Why is the media so hot after this guy? Surly there have been others who had the same qualifications, of "Bad Guy". The state has always been contraversial, in or out of corruption. A political hot bed of payoffs. Who cares, they will just get another guy who's deep in payoffs. I for one like the tanasity, of the fellow. He's got bite, not bark. Yes I do believe you are right, tigers need to be in front of you, not behind.

[Savojah]

04:52 PM on 01/03/2009

Interesting observation, but you are wrong. Just the fact that the Sec of Sate in Ill that is blocking the appointment is black discredits your argument. This is in no way about race, and as an African American, I'm dissappointed in your article. What I hate is that every time a situation happens between two races, why should it always be about color. This does not help the advancement of black people when people say this is about race, because you have other issues of way more importance that race is an issue. Blago is a crook. It's just insane that he would make a pick for the Senate seat, and for someone to accept it is just amazing. And Burris should be not be allowed to be on the Senate floor, and should be blocked. This would be the appropriate action for any person appointed by this crook. All this race baiting, and looking for issues of race where there is not obviously does not help race relations. It's funny, because when I heard of the pick, the fact that him being black would look bad didn't even cross my mind until I turned on the TV and watched the new, in which I was appalled that his race should be brought up. For our society to get beyond race, we must stop looking for issues of race where there is not.

[jcwtts1]

05:23 PM on 01/03/2009

I don't think it does. The sec of state isn't empowered to block the appointment and the first federal or state court Burris ends up in will force the sec of state to accept the paper work

[MaryanneAZ]

02:39 PM on 01/04/2009

It is not about race, it's about Blago making an end run around his State Legislature during the winter break. It was an amazing move and Burris would have been nuts to pass up the golden opportunity that dropped into his lap. Burris gets to be a U.S. Senator at the end of his lifetime career in public service and he is no slouch for the job. I say good luck Burris and the Senate should seat him.

[d2e2]

04:28 PM on 01/03/2009

Fitzgerald is back peddling on the charges he filed. Could the case be built on statements taken out of context or illegally obtained. I know he is well respected but those offering their opinions of Fitzgerald's moral qualities have no qualms about the Constitutional violations their suppositions are leading them to commit. And you know, I was not impressed with the out come of the Libby conviction. The best Fitzgerald could come up with was obstruction of Justice. Maybe Blagovich is guilty. MAYBE!! However, the only thing I see here is that someone really wants him to be found guilty, so much so, that they are producing tons of waste paper advertising his guilt! Such actions are clearly an attempt to obstruct Justice too! If this Nation is ever to actually become one ruled by law instead of personalities, public figures, like Fitzgerald and Reid, must be held accountable when they fail to honor our Nation's Constitution which states that a man is (absolutely) innocent until proven guilty. Any public official who now claims him to be guilty and attempts to impose penalties should be held liable no matter the eventual outcome of a trial. They have committed the offense the Constitution attempts to disallow! A preemptive attack committed by Bush in Iraq and Fitzgerald in the Blagovich case are one and the same. Support of said actions will never bring us the peace and justice we both need and deserve. This is what we the people call progress.

[Dupree]

09:24 PM on 01/03/2009

To: d2e2:

I agree with you one hundred percent. You hit it right smack dab on the nail and the document is the Constitution that everyone appears to be doing circles around and it is NOT right. I feel as if Fitzgerald wanted to try Blagojevich in the court of public opinion and we, (most of us anyway) ate the bait and follow suit like trained seals and we did it with coaching from the media. It is a travesty of misappropriation of judicial powers. Fitzgerald should know better and if indeed his case is rock solid...why did he not use the normal platform to bring about justice? Why did he not go and present his case before a grand jury and received the indictment against Blagojevich which is the judicial method of making application of due process. I think that Blagojevich is INNOCENT until proven GUILTY by a jury of his peers and NOT the public opinion group who is satisfied with half stories and accusation that is only partially given in sound bites. We, the American people need to demand better of our law enforcement and the attorney general should have handled this case much more professionally and the question still remains ...why didn't he and why did he needed to request more time to prepare his case if indeed everyone assumes Blagojevich is guilty...these question should not go unanswered.

[Gloria5]

03:28 PM on 01/03/2009

I think Carl Jeffers is wrong about Burris' "national constituency," if he means African American. I know for a fact that many African Americans are annoyed with Burris. They see this as a distraction to Obama. They want Obama to succeed, not necessarily Burris. Stereotyping is a bad idea, even when an African American does it.

[jcwtts1]

05:09 PM on 01/03/2009

Yeah, that will last until the capitol police physically drag the legitimately appoint senator from the capitol building. If the capitol police actually touch Burris the AA community is going to freak out. And they should.

J

[MyNameIsJames]

05:49 PM on 01/03/2009

Amen to that. And with the new revelations about Harry Reid -- this could get very interesting.

[CuthbertJTwillie]

01:53 PM on 01/03/2009

Carl Jeffers is so far off base I don't know where to begin, so I'll just pick one item, Blago's future Jury.

Contrary to what Jeffers writes, Blago will not, "...face a criminal prosecution and trial in Chicago, and his jury will likely be at least half if not majority African-American (since we know that upper income and highly educated whites in Lincoln Park and the north side and Lake Shore Drive will get out of jury duty just as that group demographic does everywhere in the country."

This is a Federal Trial and the Jury Pool for the 'Northern District of IL' (NOT Chicago) is huge. Far beyond Chicago and Cook County so the 'African-American Jury Card' can't be played. The Jury Pool will be about 10% black and that's it. And here's a clue for Jeffers, blacks try getting out of Jury Duty just as much as any white from Lincoln Park (been there, done that).

Lastly, it cracks me up that all of a sudden every pundit in the USA is now an expert on Fitz, Blago and IL politics in general. Well they don't know squat. And that's the pundits from BOTH sides..

ps: The race theme/angle used throughout Jeffers' article is patently offensive.

[fedupwiththis]

02:34 PM on 01/03/2009

I agree. Plus, President Obama's very wise public declaration of support for his fellow Democratic Senators has taken much if not all of the sting from the racial impact of denying Burris the seat.

[jcwtts1]

05:15 PM on 01/03/2009

patently offensive to whom. The visuals are the visuals. The all white senate is going to "jim crow" a black senator. Slow walk his appointment, use every insanely dirty trick to try and unseat him. They are going to use all the institutional power, which is not constitutionally empowered, to try and undo the appointment. Now you can agree with deliberately inflammatory language or not the point is that is the visual, that is what the picture looks like. My mamma always told me, if you are right don't let you own attitude make you wrong. The senate dems are right intellectually but they are wildly out of control. The law does not provide the senate an ability to evaluate the governor of the state appointing the senator. They can only weigh in on whether the candidate or nominated person is constitutionally "qualified" that means a citizen, of age, and without a criminal conviction of serious weight. When the supreme court ruled on the Powell case they ruled that the powers of qualification are specifically and totally enumerated in the constitution. There are no powers external to the constititon. Meaning if the dems who have a majority decided to not seat any republicans they don't have the power. If the gop decides not to seat dems, they don't have the power.

J

[mytwosense]

01:48 PM on 01/03/2009

What your column fails to mention is that former Attorney General Roland Burris is a man who seems more than willing to "buy into" the mess of it all, and with vim and vigor I might add. I understand one's desire to hold a seat in Congress. But I do not understand why anyone would want to tarnish his or her personal aspirations and/or political legacy being part of this mess. Seems to me that now it's about the accolades and power one reaps seated as a US Senator, not the color of skin. Pride goeth before the fall. Watch out for the steps, Mr. Burris.

[jcwtts1]

05:17 PM on 01/03/2009

because he is old, he won't run again, and frankly, the law is on his side. They will have to seat him eventually. Even with the gov impeached the appointment was done before impeachment. But even an impeached gov has the power to make this appointment. If Quinn takes over the state and tries to appoint someone else the courts will have to intervene. All the while the dems are one vote down during the most important 100 days of our lives.

[MaryanneAZ]

02:45 PM on 01/04/2009

Burris would have been nuts to pass on this golden opportunity that landed in his lap out of nowhere. Burris has tried to climb the ladder in politics for years, and this was handed to him. I do not blame him one iota for taking the offered position. Would any of us really turn down a better job if it was offered to us? I thought so.

[AnnfromCA]

12:16 PM on 01/03/2009

The race card works........

[jdwoman]

11:25 AM on 01/03/2009

Blago is a cancer. Maybe we need to suck it up and let the fallout occur like from a nuclear bomb so that we can go forward. Illinois has had corrupt governors for at least three decades, in both parties, with only one exception I can think of -- Jim Edgar. I am beginning to think the main thing his nominee and the gov have in common is incredible egos and very little competence to do the job once elected/approved.

[Cheesemelt]

11:24 AM on 01/03/2009

"If this scandal had not taken place, it is highly unlikely that Gov Blagojevich would have selected Roland Burris as his appointment - he might likely have not even appointed any African-American. "

Please provide any evidence that supports this allegation. What you have done in your piece is rearranged the facts to support your race-based argument. That's the first problem.

The second problem is that the Fitzgerald prosecution is -- from what I've seen of the allegations -- not open and shut. Indeed, now Fitzgerald wants more time. This is the same career prosecutor who pursued the Plame case and came away with very little.

Blago may indeed be guilty as charged, but he's only accused at this juncture and still presumed innocent in the eyes of the law.

Is he a master manipulator and ultra-savvy political operator who has a scorched earth policy? I don't see it, but if you want to engage in rank speculation and invent facts to support your thesis, have at it.

[jcwtts1]

05:17 PM on 01/03/2009

It doesn't matter why someone selects someone else. The point is that he has selected him.

[XCITIZEN]

11:18 AM on 01/03/2009

Great article - stuff I could never have figured out with my background and my information. Thanks!

[Organic-Guy]

10:49 AM on 01/03/2009

Governor Blagojevich is a selfish, arrogant little puke who puts himself ahead of everyone else, including our country. He is the worst type of politician and the worst kind of person to have any power or authority over anything.

[jcwtts1]

05:18 PM on 01/03/2009

I agree. Unfortunately I felt the same way about Bush. Electins have consequences. You win you win. No half step involved. Blago is Gov. He will be gov until the moment he isn't.

J