Blago for Senate Majority Leader (Mary Lyon)

Mary Lyon, On The Left -- World News Trust

Jan. 8, 2009 -- There! I said it.

Yes. I know, embattled and ethically -- well, um -- relaxed, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has no business in the U.S. Senate. There’s more than a fair number of people who quite reasonably believe his shenanigans redefine him as having no business in the Illinois governor’s job, either. But there’s something I’ve just gotta give the guy (besides a piece of my mind).

I’d like to give him a round of applause. He’s evidently a world-class political maneuverer in the way he’s left Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid spluttering and stammering over the Roland Burris affair. I would never want to play chess -- or poker -- with this guy, considering how he played the “I-can-TOO-appoint-whoever-I-want-to-fill-Barack-Obama’s-Senate-seat,-regardless-what-kind-of-corruption-trouble-I’m-in” game. The same Harry Reid who declared just days ago that Burris would not be allowed into the most exclusive club in the world is now facing another capitulation. Blago outplayed him. Sent an appointee who was remarkably unimpeachable, with the added luster of maintaining the scant representation (a single seat) for African-Americans in the Senate.

Believe me, I’m no fan of Blago aside from some sheer partisanship years ago when my son, then in 5th grade, chose his grandma’s home state of Illinois on which to report, and we learned that Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, had recently replaced the GOP’s disgraced George Ryan as governor. A Dem taking over from a Republican. Always good news to me. If anything, I’m just plain ticked that Blago would then set about giving Democrats a black eye and bloody nose with his own corruption misadventures. Thanks a heap, pal. Whose side are you on? And of course it all conveniently comes to a head when everyone regardless of party needs to be pulling together behind a Democrat: President-Elect Barack Obama. Just what we need is one of ours (a Democrat) giving all of theirs (Republicans) reason to try to make life more difficult for our new Commander-in-Chief.

But Blago played this shrewdly and brilliantly, painting Harry Reid into a corner, and it’s a safe bet that our beloved Harry can be counted on to capitulate yet again. Sigh. Been there, done that, Senator Reid. All this means is that Reid is widely portrayed as the loser (that’s how it’s viewed especially in the analytical class -- it’s inevitably reduced rather simplistically to a winner and a loser, for better or worse). And because perception is everything in politics, you simply do NOT want to appear to be, or somehow positioned as, a loser. It matters not the reason, whatever justification you can find in the fine print, or how correct you think you are.

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http://www.worldnewstrust.com/wnt-reports/commentary/blago-for-senate-majority-leader-mary-lyon.html

I have an interview with Barry Farber this evening - he's a conservative. Probably gonna catch hell there, too!

:evilgrin:

Anyway, thanks, Tace!

:pals: :patriot:

How did the interview go? Cheers

:rofl:

He enjoyed my reference to Blago as "Governor Blah" - or "Governor BLEAACCCHHHH!!!"*

It's not the ethics, or the sins, or the alleged sins, or anything else. It's the shrewdness. It's the manipulation. It's the way he painted Hapless Harry Reid straight into a little bitty corner and made him look like a chump - yet again. Hey, this is a guy who gets rolled by EVERYBODY. Harry Reid is a professional roll-ee. That's what he does for a living. Get rolled by whoever it is, and it doesn't matter which side they're on, either. He's fair game for everybody.





*note: must be uttered with tongue sticking way out.


:evilgrin:

Blago may win a couple of battles, but he'll ultimately lose the war and join the growing list of former Illinois governors with prison records.