The Senate may agree to seat Roland Burris as early as today, I see on CNN. This is clearly the right thing to do. The guy isn't accused of anything, and even Blago isn't accused of anything improper with regard to him. Barring him would be capricious and unlawful.
This is one of those rare heartwarming instances in which the pols feared being strung up by a mob, but the mob said, "Hey, wait a minute, what you're doing is incorrect." That is, I can only assume that Harry Reid said what he originally said -- that he wouldn't seat anyone named by Blago -- because he and Senate Dems feared the Blago taint being transferred to them.
But lo and behold, as far as I could see, most media figures and regular folks (so far as the latter could be divined) basically thought Reid had tarred Burris with guilt-by-association and was treating him unfairly. So I'd imagine when Reid et al. saw this reasonable reaction, they changed course.
Besides which, Bobby Rush was right, as I suspected all along he would be. I didn't like the way Rush mau-maued people that day at the press conference, but I'd long had the feeling that Reid would ultimately not oppose seating a lone black senator, when the previous lone black senator had just left the Senate. And there's good reason for that, actually.
So welcome, Senator Burris. They name shall live forevermore.
