When "SNL" took on the Blagojevich/Burris debacle this week, they picked the wrong targets to spoof. Laying aside the fact that the dull Rachel Maddow impression was simply a vehicle for the liberal, urbane cast of "SNL's" hackneyed gay jokes, Roland Burris was not the one who deserved ridicule this week. After all, who is more pathetic: The indicted governor who appointed a political vulture to the U.S. Senate unabashedly waving the race card as a primary strategy, or the leadership that was thoroughly outmaneuvered by an indicted governor and his political climber brandishing the race card?
Today, Roland Burris emerged as the undisputed winner of this battle. If there had been ropes, he would have dropped an elbow on Dick Durbin from the top one. If there had been folding chairs, they would have crashed down mercilessly upon the wiry little back of Sen. Harry Reid, bobbing and weaving to no avail.
The Roland Burris saga is over, as Democratic Senate leaders have accepted his credentials and will swear him in as the junior senator from Illinois by the end of this week.
The decision ends an embarrassing chapter in Democratic politics and allows the Senate to move on after the Burris spectacle dominated the opening week of the 111th Congress.
In a statement issued after a 45-minute meeting between Senate officials and Burris' lawyers, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Burris is now the senator-designate from Illinois after the secretary of the Senate approved his latest credentials.
"The secretary of the Senate has determined that the new credentials presented today on behalf of Mr. Burris now satisfy Senate rules and validate his appointment to the vacant Illinois Senate seat," the statement said. "In addition, as we requested, Mr. Burris has provided sworn testimony before the Illinois House Committee on Impeachment regarding the circumstances of his appointment."
Reporters will call the chapter closed, but Republicans have no intention of letting Democrats soon forget it. The statement from the Illinois GOP was delightfully acidic:
"By failing to strip Rod Blagojevich of his senate appointment power, Democrats chose to trust a madman over the people of Illinois.
"The national embarrassment of the Blagojevich saga could have been avoided first in 2006 when Democrats endorsed the Governor knowing he was under intense federal investigation and second by stripping him of his senate appointment power following his arrest.
"Today's endorsement of Rod Blagojevich's handpicked choice for U.S. Senate confirms what Republicans have been saying for years - that Illinois is in dire need of change."
And, Republicans all over are taking note of Dick Durbin's many positions on the matter. The compilation is an act of political knot-tying that provides hope that Democratic leadership will keep imitating Barack Obama's signature rhetorical dance moves with similarly disastrous results.
