Rep. Bobby Rush Engages in Race Baiting in Selection of Roland Burris to Replace Barack Obama in the Senate

Photo: The Three Stooges--Blago, Rush & Burris

Rep. Bobby Rush has pulled the race card. Funny, had a white man made those comments, he would have all the so-called civil rights leaders landing on him like a ton of bricks. Well, Rush said he doesn't think any U.S. senator would be caught turning a black man away from serving alongside them. Really? Even if this candidate, Roland Burris, does not have a good shot at winning a senate race in his state? Wow. He thought wrong.

No Senate Democrats responded to his racial challenge. They got support from President-elect Barack Obama, who will be the first African-American in the White House. Rush, D-Ill., dared Senate Democrats to block Roland Burris from becoming the Senate's only black member, urging them not to "hang and lynch" the former state attorney general for the alleged corruption by his patron, Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Obama was having none of that mess. He sided with Senate Democrats who vowed to turn Burris away should he show up in Washington to be sworn in.

"They cannot accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat," Obama said in a statement. "I agree with their decision, and it is extremely disappointing that Governor Blagojevich has chosen to ignore it." Obama voiced disapproval for the spectacle unfolding in his home state. "I believe the best resolution would be for the governor to resign his office and allow a lawful and appropriate process of succession to take place," Obama said. Source: Huffington Post

On Tuesday, Blagojevich declared himself the ultimate decider, defying the leaders of his party and naming Burris, 71, the next senator from Illinois. At a news conference in Chicago, he urged the Senate not to allow the charges that he tried to sell the same Senate seat to taint a well-respected man. Rush stepped up to the microphone to offer his challenge.

"Let me just remind you that there presently is no African-American in the U.S. Senate," he began. "I will ask you to not hang and lynch the appointee as you try to castigate the appointer," he added. "I don't think that anyone - any U.S. senator who's sitting in the Senate right now _ wants to go on record to deny one African-American for being seated in the U.S. Senate." Source: Huffington Post

What a moron. I am all for an African American being in the Senate, but to suggest that because there are none you hand the seat to the first idiot chosen by a suspected criminal, is simply unconscionable. The fact is that Roland Burris ran for the governorship three times and lost. He is clearly not the best candidate to put forward for that seat. I will venture to say, he would not win a senatorial race. You can't bully your way to a senate seat just because of the color of your skin. That is insulting on so many levels. Blago, Rush and Burris are playing a dirty game of race baiting.

"The people of the state of Illinois should not be denied representation" when the new Senate convenes in January, Rush said on CBS' "Early Show." Democrats said the dispute is about the Senate's constitutionally granted power to decide who is seated as a member, and whether anyone appointed by Blagojevich would have the credibility to serve.

"This is not about Mr. Burris; it is about the integrity of a governor accused of attempting to sell this United States Senate seat," Majority Leader Harry Reid and his deputy, Sen. Dick Durbin, said in a statement. "Anyone appointed by Gov. Blagojevich cannot be an effective representative of the people of Illinois and, as we have said, will not be seated by the Democratic caucus." Burris said Wednesday that Blagojevich "has the constitutional and statutory authority to make those appointments ... and I have absolutely nothing to do with those problems." "I will not be tainted because the governor has followed the constitution," Burris told NBC. "And I am confident that when all is said and done, I will be a United States senator."

This man just doesn't get it. What Gov. Blagojevich has sought to do is the hijack the selection process. Considering the charges leveled against him, he has no right to select a replacement for Barack Obama. Roland Burris should be ashamed of himself and do the right thing. He is the weakest link in the entire field of potential candidates. He isn't a serious and strong opponent if he runs in an election. That seat would surely go to the Republicans.