Blagojevich's Race Card Appointment Was Inevitable

There was never any doubt that race would be a huge factor in filling Obama's vacant Illinois senate seat. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich proved that when he dumped veteran Democratic Party war horse Roland Burris into the seat. But Obama virtually guaranteed that race would be an issue, a big issue, in determining who got the seat. And in a weird backdoor way, so did the state's Republicans.

Obama, of course, ran against the hapless, political laughingstock Alan Keyes for the Senate seat in 2004. But Keyes was also black. And the state's GOP-- battered, splintered, and reeling from sex and corruption scandals and desperate to put a face in the race against Obama-- chose to run him anyway.

Keyes didn't have a prayer of beating Obama. But the sight of two African-Americans facing off against each other for a prized U.S. senate seat firmly implanted the notion that the seat could and should be held by an African-American. This was hardly a novel idea. There was already precedent for that. Carol Moseley Braun held the seat for one term a few years before Obama. Braun and Obama gave Illinois the distinction of having two black senators from the same state within a decade. That was exactly double the number of blacks any other state had ever elected to the senate.

The idea that there are seats and appointments specially reserved for blacks and minorities in Illinois or anywhere else is hardly an aberration. Politicians, both conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats, shuffle the race card with staff, cabinet seat and political appointments all the time. Republican George Bush Sr. appointed Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas to the "black seat" on the Supreme Court. Democrat Lyndon Johnson established the minority reserved court seat when he appointed Thurgood Marshall.

Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush appointed blacks and Hispanics to HUD, Transportation and Commerce cabinet posts. They were widely regarded as the minority designated cabinet posts. The appointments of blacks and and other minorities are standard and accepted political and racial payoffs. Blagojevich was just following the script in tapping Burris for Obama's seat.

Democratic insiders whispered and even openly said and expected that the Senate seat would be filled by an African-American. Even the Democrats who loudly saber rattled Blago for thumbing his nose at them by making the appointment were careful not to make Burris the issue. The Democrats and Obama claim the issue is simply whether the scandal-plagued governor has the legal and ethical right to appoint anyone to the seat. It would be disastrous and hypocritical if they even remotely hinted that Burris is a political dinosaur with slim to nonexistent qualifications to serve in the Senate. It's hypocrisy because Democratic politicians know that politically expedient appointments are the norm rather than the exception. It's disastrous because any frontal attack on Burris for his competence or skimpy qualifications Democrats risks leaving Democrats wide open to the knock that they are trying to water down black political influence.

Chicago Congressman Bobby Rush warned as much when he stood next to Blagojevich and Burris at the press conference to announce Burris's appointment. Rush virtually charged that a refusal to seat him would be tantamount to denying an African-American a seat. Rush didn't say it, but he could have added that if Burris gets the ax by the courts, state legislature or U.S. Senate Democrats, the Senate would be one of the last bastions of lily white office-holding in America. There are no other African-Americans there.

Democrats and Obama can wax indignant about how a stubborn, corrupt governor mocks the democratic process by dealing the race card in appointing Burris. But the race card probably would have been dealt whether Blagojevich was there or not. That's simply the way the political game is played.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His forthcoming book is How Obama Won (Middle Passage Press, January 2009)

Comments

[AZ AF VET]

I don't personally have a problem with Mr. Burris being appointed. He's been in Democratic Politics for ever and everyone knows his name. In Delaware, the Governor will appoint Ted Kaufman, Biden's political aide to fill out Joe's now open seat. Mr Kaufman is keeping the seat warm for Biden's son Beau, when he gets back from Iraq. That's how I see the appointment of Mr Burris. I wouldn't expect that Burris would run again. Just keeping the seat warm for whomever is elected in 2010.

[skepticalsteve]

"Braun and Obama gave Illinois the distinction of having two black senators from the same state within a decade. That was exactly double the number of blacks any other state had ever elected to the senate."

Are you sure this is the historical statement that you want to make? Mississippi in the 1870s was the equal of Illinois in the past decade, in this respect.

Hiram Revels and Blanche K. Bruce both served in the U.S. Senate from the state of Mississippi in the 1970s. This was prior to the direct election of Senators by the people, so they would have been elected to the position by the Mississippi Legislature. I would love it, however, if Reconstruction history would get more respect. One time when I telephoned the Tallahassee Democrat to object to their characterization of Carol Moseley Braun as only the second African-American U.S. Senator, the editor who answer the phone blew off my correction. He had no intention of taking Reconstruction history seriously.

Other than Revels, Bruce, Braun, and Obama, the only other African-American Senator to serve in the U.S. Senate was Edward Brooke, elected to that body from Massachusetts in 1966. Regardless of the outcome of the Burris appointment, you are correct about the larger point, the sad historical truth that in its 220 year storied history, the U.S. Senate has been one of the most lily-white institutions in this wonderfully diverse and culturally rich nations.

[swiss-ski]

Always the race card huh? I can't wait for Burris to be confirmed. Gov. Blago did the right thing, BRAVO

[JGatsby]

"The idea that there are seats and appointments specially reserved for blacks and minorities in Illinois or anywhere else is hardly an aberration. "
Just because many people believe it doesn't mean its not a dumb idea. The idea that a certain position has to go to this group or that sex or whatever is reverse discrimination. Its doing exactly what racists do and just because you are doing it in the opposite direction doesn't make it moral. We should put the best person into these jobs, whether they are a woman, black, or whatever. Its interesting that you mention Clarence Thomas, arguably one of the most inept justices ever and a disaster for civil rights. Do you really want more appointments like that?

[easarsfield]

racism exists in a variety of shapes and colors.

As MLK once said, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

The idea that people of any sex, color or ideology are 'owed' a seat in the senate goes against everything this country stands for.

[davidly]

It's only a dumb idea if one buys into the logic that there is some "best person" for "these jobs". Otherwise, I see no problem with proportional representation, especially if the ones bickering about the appointment are too weak to directly face the appointee.

If the same DNC and members of the houses (especially the senator whose ascension deems this appointment necessary) had had the guts to face perhaps the most criminal administration in their country's history, and charged them with the crimes for which they are guilty, perhaps their current moralizing would move me. As it is, they are all as big a joke as was the press conference that sent the Blagosphere reeling.

[JGatsby]

"I see no problem with proportional representation" That is what I find so morally offensive about your argument. You are promoting race as the most important factor in determining who represents whom in our democracy. THAT is racism and experience just shows its flat out wrong. Look at Clarence Thomas. Do you seriously believe he in some way represented the majority of the black community? The right has been able to use your notion of "proportional representation" to foist unqualified syncophants into important positions such as the supreme court and the attorney general.

[JimR]

So a white person or a Hispanic-American or Asian-American could not adequately represent a district with a large African-American population?

Sounds like discrimination to me.

[Sparhawk]

Wouldn't " proportional representation " invalidate Obama's victory? It's NOT about race. Nice tie in the Bush, though...laughable...but nice...

[sparkandy]

There's no such thing as 'reverse' discrimination. Discrimination in any form is STILL discrimination. It's like saying 'ugly' dog - no such thing exists.

[JGatsby]

Its called reverse because its discriminating in the opposite direction, for the group that traditionally gets discriminated against.

[JRsNana]

I was finding the whole thing a little funny until Bobby Rush said the words "hang and lynch" in the middle of the weirdest press conference ever. WTF was that about? So what - if the US Senate doesn't seat Burris it is tantamount to hanging and lynching him? Talk about "injecting race" into a conversation.

[davidly]

Ditto. But, you know what? After I got over my slack-jawed disbelief, I started laughing again through the rest of the press conference. And I am not a laugh out loud kind o' guy.

So why am I not offended by the hanging and lynching remarks? Because they are good old-fashion payback for the ACTUAL lynchings and hangings. Yes, unfair because the sins of the fathers visit the greatest of grandsons, these things are never fair.

How many of those senate seats do you think were earned fair and square? Anyway, for me it was comedic poetic justice for a country that pretends like it has turned a page because they elected "an African-American" to the presidency.

[JGatsby]

"So why am I not offended by the hanging and lynching remarks? Because they are good old-fashion payback for the ACTUAL lynchings and hangings" Really? You think there is some justice in political hacks who deflect reasonable questions about their competence by comparing it with lynching? None of my ancestors were ever lynched but some of them were killed in concentration camps. I can tell you that when I hear someone compare a political attack to the holocaust I don't consider it payback, to me it demeans the memory of the victims.

[easarsfield]

Alright, I am going to completely disagree here.

Yes the members of the senate are predominately old white men, but we have no one to blame but ourselves for that, the people of our country have chosen these people to represent them. Obama's seat should go to the person most qualified to represent the state of Illinois, regardless of skin color. What happened to judging people by their merits and accomplishments, and not by the color of their skin?

Allowing Bobby Rush to speak yesterday was a HUGE mistake. And while I agree that we should have many African Americans in the US senate, Rush goes as far as to insinuate that because Illinois has previously sent 2 blacks to the senate, that makes Illinois' seats designated for African Americans. He challenges the senate to deny a seat to a black man, and that is just not right, especially seeing as senate democrats have already expressed that they would not seat any of Blago's picks. Openly playing the race card could potentially have an obscenely negative affect here in Illinois for 2010, and the Republicans are going to take notice.

[davidly]

Would that be the most qualified, or the mo$t qualified? Honestly, though, who is most qualified?

[easarsfield]

I am not going to comment on who I think is most qualified, but the fact of the matter is that Burris was on NO ONE's shortlists for this position. He is obviously not the first person the governor approached, as Davis has come out and said that he turned Blago down.

The people of Illinois are being punished because any politician with a sound mind is going to turn Blago's offer down, no one wants that sort of association. My feeling is that Burris accepted this appointment because it is probably the only chance he will ever see at a seat in the senate. Illinois doesn't need anymore self-serving politicians representing our interests.

[MosiahGarvey]

The problem is that in the Pre-Obama era, Blacks running statewide had a hard time winning, regardless of qualifications. I'm interested in seeing what influence the election will have on the new generation of Black Politicians; the Corey Bookers etc., can they win statewide and become a governors or senators?

Gwen Ifill and Former Mayor Willie Brown have made assertions that the new generation will learn from Obama's win. Hopefully they do. Because I'm tired of the "Moses" generation, yeah they went through the desert (and i'm not ungrateful for their civil rights contributions), they earned positions in business and politics, and moved to suburbs that were once "whites-only" but its time for the young'ns to pick up where they left off.

[MosiahGarvey]

Earl Ofari is one the columnists on Huffpost that if I see they have written something, i'll click on the link.
Written well. Politics is dirty, everyone wants a piece of the American pie.

[gregk991]

Blago appointed Burris to give a big middle finger to the Democrats, Patrick Fitzgerald, and anyone calling for him to resign based on unproven allegations. Although the charges against Blago are particularly egregious he still has a right to his day in court. Although he may ultimately be convicted Blago is not allowing himself to be tried exclusively in the press. Good for him. He is however still an embarrassment. From a purely political viewpoint the Senate Democrats should seat Burris. Sure his appointment stinks but he is a Democrat and will help move the Democratic agenda in Congress. He is qualified for the job. The alternative is to hold a special election which the Dems could lose. In 2010 depending upon how Burris performs in the Senate and his approval rating the Dems could decide whether to run an opposition candidate who can hold the seat or see if Burris can past muster with the voters of Illinois. However the notion that Illinois Senate seat must be given to an African American is preposterous to me. Blago just wants to give pause to further criticism of the appointment by raising the specter of racism.

[easarsfield]

No, there are other alternatives. If Blago really, truly cared about the people of Illinois, he would step aside and fight his corruption charges, and when cleared potentially come back. This would allow Quinn to appoint a US Senator that the Senate would not deny and that the people of Illinois would feel much more comfortable with, given that Quinn hasn't been accused of trying to sell the senate seat.

[AnnfromCA]

Agree, and if you have no real stake in this story, it's hilarious to watch.

[diogenes1967]

Ann, I live here and it is fascinating and, yes, hilarious...

[quadman]

Right on Earl. I enjoy reading your well thought posts.

[Charmed]

All of this talk about the seat being a black seat would be understandable IF Rush had not of endorsed the white canadate against Obama. Plus a black had had the seat before so why didn't Rush endorse Obama if it was a black seat and it was all about having a black in the senate. This is nothing but "Pay to play" going on. Burris and Rush owe Blago big time now. They have been appointed the responsibility of getting the black vote for Blago and I pray that the people of Illinos don't support any of them.

[diogenes1967]

Because Rush is a bit of tool that's why but he is enough of a tool that he actually beat Obama.

Blago can forget about reelection, his approval ratings are at 8% right now and even if he got some AA support, quite a few people see it as a political stunt and won't fall for it...

Sad, because Burris is generally a good guy.

[PATina]

Interesting. Although I disagree that Burris isn't qualified. He seems as qualified as anyone else who chooses to run for a Senate seat. While I had hoped the seat would go to Jesse Jackson, Jr.... I understand why it could not and he could not accept it. However (and I know I'm in the minority here)... it is still Blagojevich's job to appoint someone... and I think the Burris appointment is a good one... regardless of his race.