Senate appointments

Must the Democratic Senators reject Burris’ appointment? Can the Senate do a certain amount of vetting. I read the rules committee could be spending 90 days looking into Burris’ eligibility to the Senate. Could the Senate ethics committee also be looking into Burris? If you can insure that no corrupt individual is in the US Senate (well at least that the person replacing Obama is not corrupted.) Blago could be trying to cause trouble by handing the Senate Dems a major PR problem, but must they threaten to block Burris from entering the Senate floor? If he is properly approved in ill. , have hearings to insure he is not part of any justice department investigation, and is not in violation of any ethics rules.


When deciding who to fill Senate Vacancies, one must not just consider the person’s qualifications but ones potential electability. The person selected would have only a year to prepare. That means one year to get a good understanding of the issues, and one year to learn about being a senator. There is no time to learn from your mistakes. In one year a opposition candidate will have risen up, and if the appointed candidate has done a poor job he or she will be on the way out.

So objections to any Blago appointments are probably about future electability. But in the process of preventing someone who MAY be rejected by the people, you are not destroying the person. Find a way to make the person acceptable to others. SHOW people he has no ethical problem, and he is capable of making a contribution to the Senate.