In a seldom talked about Supreme Court Decision, Powell v. McCormack, the POTUS declared Congress hasn’t the authority to deny a seat to a Member. This ruling is likely to be revisited by Roland Burris shortly.

Ok, so what is a Conservative doing by making a claim that Roland Burris should be seated as the next Senator from Illinois??

First of all, as should any United States citizen be, I am a true believer that the Rule of Law as defined by our Constitution is, has been, and should be the sole authority as to determine who is and who isn’t a duly elected official of the people they represent. I honestly could care less if they are a Democrat or a Republican or a “Boohalian”. IF they are rightfully elected, or in Burris’ case, properly appointed, then there is NO Senator, Congressman/woman who has the AUTHORITY under our Constitution to deny them a seat in Congress.

Even the Supreme Court agreed in Powell v. McCormack in 1968.

First, let’s look at something legal in nature. Gov. Rod Blagojevich is still Illinois’ governor. He was arrested, however, there has not been any indictment issued by a Grand Jury for his alleged crimes. Nor has the Illinois state government impeached him for any acts. He is still the duly elected governor of the State of Illinois and still has full authority to exercise his ability to appoint Roland Burris as the next Senator from Illinois to fill the vacant seat of Barrack Obama for the duration of that elected term.

First, let’s examine some of the basic ruling from the Powell v. McCormack ruling (the basics of the case can be found at Wikipedia by clicking HERE). The majority opinion states:

The opinion stated that the case was justiciable; that it did not constitute a political question that pit one branch of government against another. Rather, it required “no more than an interpretation of the Constitution”.

The opinion stated furthermore that Congress being the sole judge of its members’ qualifications (Art. I, § 5, cl. 1) and the Speech and Debate Clause (Art. I, § 6) do not preclude judicial review of Constitutional issues (raised in this case e.g., in this particular case; but not necessarily in all cases touching upon the subject of speech and debate, or Congresses’ judging the qualifications of its members) because “no branch is supreme” and it is the duty of the court to ensure that all branches conform to the Constitution.

The majority opinion held that Congress does not have the power to develop qualifications other than those specified in Art. I, § 2, cl. 1-2.

No doubt, Roland Burris is going to bring up nearly identical arguments to the Courts should his continued denial of his seat be made by the Senate. Most likely, he is going to win and resolutely so. The simple facts are that the Governor of the State of Illinois has the State Constitutional authority to appoint a Senator to fill the vacant seat for the remainder of the vacated seats term. Period.

Whether I approve of the Blagojevich appointment from a political or moral standpoint is not material to this argument. The material facts are simple: the appointment was legal and therefore, Harry Reid does NOT have the power nor Constitutional authority to deny seating any Senator that is so duly appointed or elected.

The Liberals of the very far left have a very important lesson to learn and that being that they can’t pick and choose who they think would be a “properly” appointed Senator. Nor do they have the Constitutional authority to determine how a State can decide who will fill a vacant seat be it by special election or appointment. The Constitution fully gives that right to the States individually and not to the governing body to determine being in this case the United States Senate.

Honestly, I do hope Roland Burris puts the Harry Reids of this Senate in their place. It is time for a real lesson in comeupance for the Senator from Nevada to learn that he may “be in charge”, but that people are the ones who are REALLY in charge.

Sorry for your luck Harry, but your re-election is coming in 2010 and I plan to support every effort to assure your defeat. Then you can finally say, and actually be truthful in doing so, “the war is lost”. Only this time, it will be your own personal war and you will be out of ammunition totally.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D. Ill.) has been arrested for attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Elect Obama to “the highest bidder”. No doubt, when it comes to Chicago politics, saving one’s own neck will come first. Is Obama the next to go down before the Inauguration?

Phillip Berg’s lawsuit is still on appeal to the Supreme Court. His Writ of Certiorari has yet to be ruled on by the Court, and Berg has since filed a request for and Injunction to stay the meeting of the Electoral College until such time the SCOTUS determines if it will hear the Berg case. In all of this, it may not make much difference since U. S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is playing the Obama role very close to his vest.

The Blagojevich arrest really comes as no surprise to me. I am sure that Tony Rezko had a role in tipping the U.S. Attorney about what Blagojevich was capable of doing and perhaps had done in the past. It is exactly the way Illinois politics, and particularly Chicago politics has be run for decades. If you have the money to play, then the political machine is willing to deal. This has been true of government contracts, pension and retirement funds for public employees, and many other forms of doing “business” with the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago for many, many years. The Chicago Political Machine was more responsible for the election of John F. Kennedy than any other voting block in the 1960 election from the Daley years, so this type of politics is almost common place in that state and city.

The real revealing statement came today from Barrack Obama himself:

Like the rest of the people of Illinois I am saddened and sobered by the news that came out of the U.S. attorney’s office today. But as this is an ongoing investigation involving the govenor, I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to comment on the issue at this time.

Now, if this “on-going” investigation leads far deeper and even farther wide, why is Obama circling the wagons at this early juncture if he has NOTHING to hide? Even his top advisor, David Axelrod had this to say earlier this week :

I know he’s talked to the governor, and there are a whole range of names, many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them.

Now the Obama camp is denying that Obama has spoken to Blagojevich and that Axelrod “mis-spoke”. This is almost certain to lead directly to favors being dealt in return for a desired Obama appointment, or other favors to Gov. Blagojevich for his “favorable” appointment of the next U. S. Senator from Illinois. In the original indictment, Blagojevich has been recorded, and the excerpt below, from The Smoking Gun site, spells out that Obama most likely had direct contact with Blagojevich or one of his advisers:

During a wiretapped November 10 call, a frustrated and financially strapped Blagojevich referred to Obama as a “motherf**ker” and said that he would not appoint an ally of the President-elect to the Senate vacancy if “I don’t get anything.” Referring to Obama, Blagojevich exclaimed, “F**k him. For nothing? F**k him.” In a November 11 conversation, Blagojevich remarked that he knew Obama wanted Valerie Jarrett, a longtime confidante, to succeed him, “but they’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation. F**k them.

Where is all this going to lead? Speculation is far ranging and very likely is  going to lead directly to the new President Elect. Truth of the matter is, Barrack Obama may never get to take the Oath of Office once the U. S. Attorney Fitzgerald finally closes this investigation. If there is one thing that Fitzgerald is, it is that he is a relentless prosecutor and investigator. He will not rest until every guilty party has been exposed and arrested.

Sadly, “we” tried to warn the American people LONG before they cast their votes in November that Barrack Obama and his associations were more crooked than a barrel of fish hooks. I guess now, those “chickens comin’ home to roost” for Obama and his allies. All to soon, we are going to be counting a lot more “chickens” than we had “eggs”. That unproduced birth certificate might not matter after all, if Obama is sitting in the Federal penitentiary for bribery or attempted bribery to “sell” his vacated Senate seat as a favor to Blagojevich for personal gain.