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What About the Voters?, Asks the Chicago Tribune

By Doug Bandow on 1.5.09 @ 9:17AM

Roland Burris wants the Senate seat.  Harry Reid doesn't want to give it to him.  But shouldn't someone else have a say?

Editorializes the Chicago Tribune:

We know what Roland Burris wants: a U.S. Senate seat he thinks he's earned by riding shotgun to an accused felon.

We know what Rod Blagojevich wants: to share the humiliation that has doomed his own big dreams by now humiliating as many other public figures as he can.

We know what Dick Durbin and Pat Quinn want-or wanted-because they told us early in this fiasco: a special election to fill Illinois' vacant Senate seat. Durbin and Quinn have since lost their voices on this point. That stuff about holding an election? That was then.

We know what Harry Reid of Nevada wants: a Senate seat that stays reliably in his party's possession-so much so that he was tutoring Blagojevich on whom to appoint.

We know what Illinois legislators want: damage control. They failed last month to schedule the special election that every voice of fairness initially wanted. The Springfield lawmakers figure that when a new governor sends someone other than Burris to Washington, they'll quietly be forgiven for having left Blagojevich with the power to make them look so foolish.

We can guess what Barack Obama wants: for the buffoonery over what was once his proud Senate seat to abate. Illinois is embarrassing its president-elect.

But what about the voters in this plundered state? Is anyone asking them what they want? They elected Barack Obama to the Senate. Obama quit to accept a better job. That's his privilege. Choosing his replacement should be their privilege, just as replacing Rahm Emanuel is the privilege of voters who live in his congressional district.