Blago Strikes Again in the Form of Burris!

"Seat this man from Illinois!" they clamored.

"It's in the Constitution!" they roared.

"Illinois is being denied its proper representation in the United States Senate!" they bemoaned, slightly out of breath, because that's a mouthful to bemoan.

...a little premature now perhaps?

U.S. Senator Roland Burris was appointed to the Senate by ex-Gov. Rod "Cabbage Patch Genius" Blagojevich in the absence of some other guy whose name escapes me at the moment. Oh yeah. Barack Obama? Yeah, I think he got appointed to do something else.

Anywho, were Blago anybody but Blago — a name which has become synonymous with "liar," "cheat," "fink," "sleaze," "carnival worker," "pedophile," and "hack" —this appointment would have gone on with out suspicion or reservation. But under the remarkable circumstances surrounding our favorite Illinoisan, some people rightly balked at the idea.

Understand this wasn't at all because of Burris himself, but because of the man to whom he would owe his appointment. After saying the Senate would initially bar him from entry, after sitting down with the guy, they thought he'd be alright and backed off, allowing him in as one of their own.

But apparently, a little more digging needed to be done.

Burris is now under investigation by the ethics committee under suspicion of perjury. He remarked under oath that he had never campaigned or raised money for Blago in the past and had some questionable dealings with Rod's brother, Rob (real original names by the way, Mom and Pop Blagojevich), a rather high bar when determining whether or not this appointee has a history of any affections toward the then-soon-to-be-now-ex-governor.

This just bugs me, because the entire time the Burris deal was in the news, the pace felt a little too fast for me. I mean, governors have been ousted before (Jim Guy Tucker ring any bells for you native Arkansans?), but this was a pretty serious offense on the part of Blagojevich. One that likely dealt with other people, mind you; this couldn't have been a one man show.

There had to be people on the other end. And if the Chicago Sun-Times' Mark Brown is at least partly right, and Burris was literally begging anyone who had ears for an appointment, doesn't it rub someone the wrong way that maybe —and this is pure speculation— Burris could be one of those purchasers?

That's the whole point. But expedience took precedent over thoroughness, even if Burris is acquitted of all suspicions or charges. If they had done their jobs in the first place, perhaps this mess could've been sorted out earlier.

'Innocent until proven guilty' never applied to public appeal, and suspicion is wholly independent from guilt or innocence, merely a means to one of those ends. And suspicion carries its own weight.

I said in an earlier piece regarding the economic stimulus that I look forward to seeing if it will be labeled as noble expedience or stubborn hastiness on the part of Obama and Congress to get that bill passed. I think the latter, now using our premiere-view 20/20 hindsighting lenses, now applies .