Burris Flap Tosses Glare on Virtual Lily White Senate

Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush took much heat for saying this, "don't hang and lynch" him. The "him" is Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich's hotly disputed Illinois senate appointee Roland Burris. Rush deliberately spoke in racially charged terms. His point was that if the Senate tried to kick Burris out it would be a political and public relations disaster. It would leave the Senate especially moderate and liberal Senate Democrats wide open to the embarrassing and awkward knock that a bunch of white senators torpedoed the appointment of a black man. The knock against them would be deserved. There are now no African-Americans in the Senate. In fact, when Obama won the Senate seat in November 2004, he became only the fifth African-American ever to sit in the Senate. If Burris isn't seated, the odds are good that the Senate will have no African-Americans for years to come.

The Senate's glaring diversity problem goes far beyond the white out of African Americans. The paucity of openly gay members, minorities and women among the 100 senators is just as glaring. The Senate is pretty much a clubby good ole' boy network of mostly rich, white males.

The Senate has sole power to approve a declaration of war, debate treaties, approve nominations to the Supreme Court and decide the guilt or innocence of an impeached president.

The Founding Fathers made no secret that they wanted the Senate to be an Olympian lawmaking body. James Madison bluntly wrote that the Senate should be the ultimate check to prevent the people from "overwhelming" government. For nearly 125 years, state legislators elected senators. The 17th Amendment passed in 1913 changed that. But it did not end the Senate's political insulation and elitism. Nearly two-dozen senators are millionaires. Many have been in the Senate for decades, and they are virtually impossible to unseat. The six-year Senate term of office is the longest of any elected body in America. That spares senators the need to continually debate issues and policy decisions directly with voters. It also shields their legislative actions from public scrutiny.

Mississippi is a textbook example of how changing racial demographics have little effect on Senate incumbents. Blacks comprise a third of the state's population, and more than a quarter of the voters. They are solidly Democratic. Mississippi had the one of highest percentage of black delegates at the Democratic convention in 2008. Yet before Trent Lott quit the Senate he and Thad Cochran, had been in the Senate more than four decades.

A Senate candidate also must raise millions, get their party's official stamp and appeal to conservative, white middle-class voters to get elected. Senate seats aren't cheap. Obama raised a record $4 million dollars in a three-month span in his winning Senate effort. If the FBI wiretaps are accurate, Blagojevich allegedly demanded a half million for a fill-in appointment to Obama's seat. But money's not all it takes to grab a Senate seat. Obama preached a centrist, conservative message of family values, tax fairness and military preparedness and an emphasis of toughness on national security and the war on terrorism. He had to in order to draw support from conservative white Democrat voters and neutralize Republicans in central and downstate Illinois.

In the past, several measures have been bandied about to correct political imbalances and insure fairer and more diverse representation in the Senate. They include more public funding, same-day voter registration, equal access to TV time for qualified independent candidates, instant runoffs and proportional representation. But even if one of these measures were to weather the fierce resistance from top Democrats and Republicans and get off the drawing board, it would do little to fix the Senate's diversity problem.

Unlike House representatives and state legislators, the Senate is not based on proportional representation. Senators represent a broad geographic area instead of specific districts. Though California's population is 60 times greater than Wyoming, it has the same number of senators. The chance of a Constitutional overhaul to change that is nil.

A shameful racial example of the Senate's unlimited power to make and enforce its own rules was aimed at Mississippi Sen. Hiram Revels, the first black in the Senate. When Revels presented his credentials to the Senate in February 1870, some senators immediately demanded he be rejected on the grounds that he did not meet the nine-year citizenship requirement for a senator (he did). The move was defeated, and Revels was eventually seated to fill the unexpired term of the former Confederate president, Jefferson Davis. Revels served barely a year.

Other than the single term that Blanche K. Bruce served a decade after Revels, it took nearly a century before black Massachusetts Sen. Edward Brooke entered the halls. Not much has changed since then. Whether Burris is seated or not, the Senate is the world's most elite and august chamber and still virtually lily white.

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

Comments

[SethBLiNK]

Some scoff at the notion that we are a post-racial society, but Obama just won the Presidency acting as if we were, and Burris and Rush are acting like it's the 70s. They are really showing up the generational differences that Obama talked about in his race speech when he showed how he admired Rev. Wright but strongly disagreed with many of his views.

If Harry Reid really told Blago NOT to appoint an African American to Obama's seat, then Reid is in hot water, but if he didn't (and I'm assuming he didn't) Blago, Burris and Rush are using 1970s tactics to guilt people into accepting Burris as a Senator fresh upon Barack Obama's victory as President which was won without ever playing on racial guilt.

If Burris wants to be Senator, fine, but to accept an appointment of a tainted Governor which few others would have accepted and for Rush to then dare people to deny Burris the seat is exercising the kind of politics that was only partially successful back then and can't succeed now.

[larry278]

If you enjoy the ironic, think of the fact that we soon will have a black POTUS but unless Gov Rod's choice is allowed to take his seat, formerly held by Barack Obama, there will be no person of color serving in the US Senate. Mr Burris was appointed by the Gov of Il to take BHO's seat.
Mr Burris may have prosecuted defendents who weren't guilty, has a healthy ego & other traits which might bar him from elected Pope. However, the US Senate isn't the Roman Catholic's College of Cardinals & Mr Burris would become Senator Burris, not the Pope. Majority Leader Reid should get over it; the same for PE Obama. Gov Rod got over on all of us. Big deal. Like Gov Rod or not, he's an expert on getting over on people. We can have a man of color serving in the US Senate & a man of color as our President. If the USA falls, it will not be because 2 men of color held high offices.
Get over it.

[MsLiz]

Hutchinson's position is exactly what Blagojevich is counting on to get Burrus in the Senate. Very clever of Blagojevich. Shame on Burrus for trying to resurrect his dead career by accepting the appointment. His career was damaged when as Attorney General, he persued the death penalty for a man who had been exonerated.

[SJBrown]

I'm not sure this is a valid argument. How many Blacks and minorities have run for Senate and lost? The number of women may be more valid given the percentage of women in the U.S.

[robXdion]

Minority women or White women? People seem to draw an unspoken distinction between the two. Especially between black women and every other kind of woman.

[SJBrown]

Aren't they all women? I don't get your point. I was thinking in terms of % by gender (men vs. women) which is pretty even (slightly more women). If you look at it by gender, there may be more of an argument that statistically you'd expect more women. I'm not sure why I'd exclude any race or group of women when comparing gender groups.

[arthuride]

The color of a person's skin should not matter to anyone. It is, unfortunately, an issue. But the issue in Illinois is not over race--but that a governor facing impeachment appointed anyone--regardless of color. The senate, to many, is elitist, but so is the House of Lords--both of which can control transitory movements that may give temporary gratification but offer no substance when it comes to real issues--as seen with the absurdity of initiative (Proposition 8 in California which directly denied equal rights to all people) and recall (the overcharged popular whim of recalling California's Gov. Davis because of the omissions of his predecessor). The Illinois Governor should resign--and Burris decline the offer.

[FearlessFreep]

One change they could make to make the Senate more representative would be to raise each state's Senate seats from two to three and have them elected on a single ballot every six years, with the top three candidates being seated. (Getting more than 25% of the vote would guarantee you'd be one of the winners.) It would also reduce partisanship, which is why the two parties will oppose it.

[MosiahGarvey]

like I wrote in your other blog, in the Post-Obama era, I want to see if the black politicians change their strategy in statewide elections. I personally think Corey Booker, Mayor of Newark could win statewide in New Jersey, i'm not sure who else is a raising star elsewhere.

[glorialovelace]

Maybe Governor Paterson will appoint Buffalo's mayor Byron Brown to Hillary Clinton's Senate seat. An appointment like that would certainly make long-neglected Upstate NY happy.

[PKSSK]

Another rising star is Artur Davis, US Congressman from Alabama. Hope he runs for Senate or Governor of Alabama, as I believe many GOP pols in ALA and elsewhere will be going down when US attorney and Siegelman case are investigated.

[jdmba]

What do you mean by "change their strategy"?

[samerbayer]

shame on senators democrats and republicans if they don't let 1 black senators in. it appears that the democrats are as racist as the republicans

[lobear00]

Both parties are running neck and neck. Both parties are just as corrupt, The members of congress need to be seated in a convertable bus and run thru a carwash, maybe just maybe that will get some of the dirt off these scoundrels.