Joe Biden Wins Big In Florida, Illinois, And Arizona

Ohio didn't vote yesterday. It's governor refused to abide by a court decision and used the excuse of the election being a public health hazard. He cancelled the election, saying it would be held later (possibly in June).

But the other states voted -- Florida, Illinois, and Arizona. And Joe Biden scored huge victories in all three states. He won Florida by about 39 points, Illinois by about 23 points, and Arizona by about 12 points.

That gave him most of the available delegates in those states, and he increased his delegate lead from about 150 to nearly 300.

It looks like Joe Biden is going to be our nominee. But I still don't think Bernie Sanders should be pressured to quit. Let him make that decision in his own time, and don't give his supporters the idea they were not allowed to have their say.

Illinois Becomes The 11th State To Legalize Marijuana

Slowly but surely, marijuana is becoming legal in the United States (as it always should have been). Illinois has joined 10 other states and the District of Columbia to make the gentle herb legal for recreational use.

Here is how Elizabeth Campbell at Bloomberg News describes it:

Illinois lawmakers voted to legalize recreational marijuana, becoming the 11th U.S. state to do so and bolstering Governor J.B. Pritzker’s efforts to shore up the finances of the cash-strapped state.

The House of Representatives Friday passed the measure that allows the purchase and possession of cannabis by those who are 21 and older starting in 2020. The Senate approved the bill on Wednesday. Pritzker, who took office in January, had made legalization a key platform in his campaign and said soon after the legislation passed that he will sign it. The billionaire Democrat’s budget proposal for the year that starts July 1 included an estimated $170 million from the sale of producer licenses.

Illinois joins a growing movement to end the prohibition of the drug: ten other states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational pot in the past seven years, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. . . .

The bill also allows for some drug convictions to be expunged. Convictions for amounts of cannabis up to 30 grams would be dealt with through the governor’s clemency process, and for amounts 30 to 500 grams, the state’s attorney or an individual can ask the court to vacate the conviction. . . .

Illinois is the second state after Vermont to legalize recreational marijuana through the legislature, while other states used ballot initiatives, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Democrats Need To Put More Emphasis On Senate Races

The chart above shows the poll averages (from RealClearPolitics) in 12 states with a Republican senator up for re-election this year. The Democrats need to take five of these seats to once again control the U.S. Senate.

Currently, Democrats have a significant lead in two of those races -- Wisconsin and Illinois. They are close in four other states, with some polls showing them leading and some showing them behind -- Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Nevada. The other six races seem to be favoring Republicans rather significantly right now --Ohio, Florida, Iowa, Georgia, Kansas, and Arkansas.

If Hillary Clinton is elected, and I think she will be, she is going to need the Senate to be controlled by Democrats. Without that, she won't be able to do much. The Republicans will just do four years of obstructing anything she tries to do (just like they have done for the last few years to President Obama).

It seems obvious to me that the Democrats need to put more emphasis on many of these Senate seats.

Clinton Extends Her Delegate Lead In March 15th Primaries

(The map above of March 15th primary states is from bbc.com.)

Five delegate-rich states went to the polls to vote in the Democratic primary on March 15th -- Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri. Hillary Clinton had a very good night, winning four of those states -- Florida by 31.2 points, North Carolina by 13.9 points, Ohio by 13.8 points, and Illinois by 1.6 points. Clinton and Sanders virtually split the vote in Missouri. As I write this, with 99% of the vote in, Clinton leads by a scant 0.2 points.

Here are the voting results in those states:

FLORIDA

Clinton...............64.5%
Sanders...............33.3%

NORTH CAROLINA

Clinton...............54.6%
Sanders...............40.7%

OHIO

Clinton...............56.5%
Sanders...............42.7%

ILLINOIS

Clinton...............50.4%
Sanders...............48.8%

MISSOURI

Clinton...............49.6%
Sanders...............49.4%

What this means is that Hillary Clinton has significantly increased her lead in delegates over Bernie Sanders. Here is the current total of delegates for each candidate (with some delegates still to be determined in the March 15th states):

Hillary Clinton...............1559
Bernie Sanders...............800

Last Democratic Polls Before March 15th Primary Voting

OHIO

Public Policy Polling (March 11-13) 502 likely voters (4.4 point moe).
Quinnipiac University Poll (March 8-13) 543 likely voters (4.2 point moe).
Monmouth University Poll (March 11-13) 302 likely voters (5.6 point moe).

FLORIDA

Public Policy Polling (March 11-12) 627 likely voters (3.9 point moe).
Quinnipiac University Poll (March 8-13) 519 likely voters (4.3 point moe).

NORTH CAROLINA

Public Policy Polling (March 11-13) 747 likely voters (3.6 point moe).

ILLINOIS

Public Policy Polling (March 11-12) 627 likely voters (3.9 point moe).

MISSOURI

Public Policy Polling (March 11-12) 839 likely voters (3.4 point moe).

New Democratic Polls For Florida, Ohio, And Illinois

FLORIDA

Florida Atlantic University Poll (March 8-11) 414 likely voters (5.0 point moe).
NBC News / Wall Street Journal / Marist Poll (March 4-10) 500 likely voters (4.4 point moe).
CBS News / YouGov Poll (March 9-11) 796 likely voters (4.5 point moe).

OHIO

NBC News / Wall Street Journal / Marist Poll (March 4-10) 453 likely voters (4.6 point moe).
CBS News / YouGov Poll (March 9-11) 777 likely voters (5.3 point moe).

ILLINOIS

NBC News / Wall Street Journal / Marist Poll (March 4-10) 529 likely voters (4.3 point moe).
CBS News / YouGov Poll (March 9-11) 756 likely voters (5.5 point moe).

Latest Polls For March 15th Democratic Primaries

Five states will vote in the Democratic primaries on Tuesday, March 15th -- and all of those states are delegate-rich. They are Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Illinois, and Florida.

The Sanders campaign, buoyed by their slim victory in Michigan last week, is hoping for more surprises this week -- and it is possible that he could score a close win in one or two of the March 15th states (the most likely being in Missouri and Ohio).

But I remain convinced that it will be a very good night for Hillary Clinton -- and whether she sweeps these states or just wins a majority of them, she will significantly increase her delegate lead after all the votes have been counted.

Here are the latest polls in the March 15th primary states:

FLORIDA

WTSP/Mason-Dixon Poll (March 7-9) 500 likely voters (4.5 point moe).
Quinnipiac University Poll (March 2-7) 511 likely voters (4.3 point moe).
CNN / ORC Poll (March 2-6) 264 likely voters (6 point moe).
Washington Post / Univision Poll (March 2-5) 449 likely voters (6 point moe).
News 13 / SurveyUSA Poll (March 4-6) 823 likely voters (3.4 point moe).

NORTH CAROLINA

High Point University Poll (March 9-10) 669 likely voters (3.8 point moe).
Civitas Poll (March 3-7) 500 likely voters (4.4 point moe).
WRAL-TV / SurveyUSA Poll (March 4-7) 687 likely voters (3.8 point moe).

OHIO

CNN / ORC Poll (March 2-6) 294 likely voters (5.5 point moe).
Quinnipiac University Poll (March 2-7) 521 likely voters (4.3 point moe).
Public Policy Polling (March 4-6) 508 likely voters (4.4 point moe).

ILLINOIS

Chicago Tribune Poll (March 2-6) voter number and moe not given.
WeAskAmerica Poll (March 7-8) 994 likely voters (3.1 point moe).

MISSOURI

Ft. Hays State University Poll (March 3-10) 145 likely voters (8 point moe).


(NOTE -- The caricatures of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders above are by DonkeyHotey.)

New Democratic Polls For Ohio, Illinois, And Florida

Now that Michigan and Mississippi have voted, the next primaries will be on Saturday (March 15th). Five delegate-rich states will vote on that day -- Ohio, Illinois, Florida, Missouri, and North Carolina. New polls have been recently released for Ohio, Illinois, and Florida -- and Hillary Clinton still has a large lead in all three of those states. She leads Bernie Sanders by 21 points in Ohio, by 42 points in Illinois, and by 31 points in Florida.

Ohio - Public Policy Polling (March 4-6) 508 likely voters (4.4 point moe).

Illinois - Chicago Tribune Poll (March 2-6) no info on number of voters or moe.

Florida - Bay News 9 / News 13 Poll (March 4-6) 823 likely voters (3.4 point moe).

New State Presidential Polls - Illinois, Iowa, And Florida

These are the latest state polls for the party nominations for president. For the Republicans, Scott Walker leads in Illinois -- but Donald Trump is not doing badly. He is in second place, 5 points behind Walker and 7 points ahead of Jeb Bush (who finished in third). Things are different in Iowa and Florida. In Iowa, Trump has a 15.5 point lead over second place finisher Walker. In Florida, Trump has a 6.1 point lead over Bush (who finished in second).

For Democrats, the Illinois and Iowa polls show Hillary Clinton maintains a significant lead over Bernie Sanders -- by 37 points in Illinois, and by 26.8 points in Iowa. The Florida poll did not survey Democrats.

The Illinois poll is by Public Policy Polling. It was done on July 20th and 21st. The queried 369 Republicans (moe of 5.1 points) and 409 Democrats (moe of 4.9 points).

The Iowa survey is the One America / Gravis Marketing Poll. It was done on July 29th, and contained 277 Republicans (moe of 6.5 points) and 236 Democrats (moe of 6.4 points).

The Florida results are from the St. Pete Poll. It was done between July 18th and 28th and surveyed 1,902 Republicans, with a 2.2 point margin of error.

Raising The Minimum Wage Is A Great Issue For Democrats

The 2014 election is entering its final stage, with less than 3 weeks now until election day -- and candidates are looking for that thing which will put them over the line. There is one issue that Democrats could use to win -- raising the minimum wage. It is an issue that a significant majority of Americans in every state agrees with, and an issue opposed by nearly every single Republican candidate.

The folks at Public Policy Polling looked at six states that have important senate races -- races that could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. And they looked at what the people thought of raising the minimum wage in those states. Note that a majority of voters in all six states think the minimum wage should be raised to at least $10.10 an hour (and even bigger majorities don't think a family could be raised on the current minimum wage).

Perhaps even more important is how voters would consider candidates who oppose raising the minimum wage. That is illustrated in the chart below, and it's something that should worry Republican candidates. By opposing a higher minimum wage, they lose a lot more votes than they gain.

Smart Democratic candidates should campaign very hard on this issue in the coming couple of weeks. It could easily make the difference between winning and losing in a close race. And not just in these six states. Other PPP polls have shown that people in other states with close senate contests (like Colorado, Arkansas, and Georgia) also have significant majorities supporting a $10.10 an hour minimum wage.

Public Policy Polling interviewed 767 likely voters in Louisiana, 974 likely voters in North Carolina, 812 likely voters in Illinois, 659 likely voters in Iowa, 1,175 likely voters in Kentucky, and 841 likely voters in Wisconsin between October 10th and 12th. The margins of error for the surveys are +/-3.5% in Louisiana, +/-3.1% in North Carolina, +/- 3.4% in Illinois, +/-3.8% in Iowa, +/-2.9% in Kentucky, and +/-3.4% in Wisconsin. 

Fifteen And Counting In Fight For Equality

(The image above was found at the Green Party site of Dr. Jill Stein.)

This week the United States took another small step toward making equal rights for all of its citizens a reality. On Tuesday, the Illinois House and Senate both gave final approval to a bill that would legalize same-sex marriages. Since Governor Pat Quinn has already said he would sign the bill if it passed, we can now put Illinois in the win column. That now makes 15 states (plus the District of Columbia) where equal marriage rights have been extended to same-sex couples. The new Illinois law will go into effect next summer.

This does not mean the fight for equal rights is over. But the states are starting to change more rapidly now, and it won't be long before only those states controlled by fundamentalist teabaggers are left to promote hate and unequal treatment. Maybe soon we can put this issue behind us, and move on to finish the fight for equality in other areas.

Rep. Jackson Did The Right Thing

Let me preface my remarks by saying I've always been a fan of the Jackson family. I voted for Jesse Jackson twice for president in Democratic primaries, and I had the honor of attending two state conventions as a Jackson delegate (which I am still proud of). And when his son Jesse Jackson Jr. was elected to Congress, it made me very happy. He was just carrying on his father's legacy of serving the American people and trying to make this a better country.

But the last few months have been disturbing. I'm not talking about Rep. Jackson's legal problems or his close affiliation with former-governor Blagojevich, although those are also somewhat disturbing. Nor am I necessarily talking about his illness (diagnosed now as a bi-polar disorder). If that could have been medically-controlled, it would not have disqualified him from serving in public office.

The thing that has disturbed me the most is that he has not been able to effectively do his job for months now -- and it was beginning to look like that would continue. It was not that the people of his congressional district were getting poor representation (there are a lot of representatives who represent their districts very poorly). It was that they were getting no representation at all -- and that is unacceptable.

I was seriously considering writing a post asking Rep. Jackson to resign his seat in Congress, but it looks like Rep. Jackson has also come to that same conclusion. Speaker Boehner's office announced yesterday that Rep. Jackson has submitted his resignation, and he will not take the oath of office when the new Congress meets in January. Now Governor Pat Quinn must call for a special election to fill the vacancy -- and that special election must take place within 115 days of Jackson's resignation. By resigning now, Jackson has assured that his constituents will not have to go an extended length of time without representation in the new Congress.

This resignation does not present any opportunity for the Republicans to gain a seat. That congressional district voted heavily for President Obama in both 2008 and 2012, and Rep. Jackson (being the only Democrat on the ballot) easily won re-election in spite of his problems. Any Republican who tries to run for this seat will just be wasting his/her money, and I doubt the national Republican Party will even pay any attention to this special election (let alone spend any money on it). The only question is which Democrat will replace Re. Jackson.

I wish Rep. Jackson well, and I hope he is able to take care of his medical and legal problems very soon. Whether he is able to return to politics in the future will be up to the people of Chicago (and Illinois). But for right now, Rep. Jackson has made the right decision -- the decision that best serves the people of his district. I applaud Rep. Jackson for making this difficult decision -- and for putting the needs of his constituents above his own desires.

Real Hero vs. Deadbeat Chickenhawk

The people of the 11th Congressional District in Illinois have an interesting choice to make this year. Their current congressman is Republican Joe Walsh (above right) -- a teabagger who is mainly known for his refusal to pay court-ordered child support. Walsh, although he is pro-war, never served in the military. His opponent is Democrat Tammy Duckworth (above left). Duckworth served 20 years in the U.S. Army and served as a helicopter pilot in the Iraq War. She lost both of her legs and had her right arm injured when insurgents hit her helicopter with a RPG. She still serves as a colonel in the Illinois National Guard.

Walsh must know that he looks  rather inadequate when compared to a real American hero like Duckworth, because he is now saying she's not a hero at all. Why would he say such a ridiculous thing? Because she talks about her service and her injuries, and how that has helped shape her life and views. According to Walsh, a real hero doesn't talk about such things (unless they happen to be a Republican).

Personally, I think Walsh's attempt to denigrate the heroism of Tammy Duckworth is beneath contempt. And I'm not alone in feeling that way. Here is the statement released by Vote Vets (a non-partisan PAC that supports veterans issues):

Joe Walsh’s disgust for our veterans’ sacrifices knows no bounds. First, he falsely and maliciously claims that Tammy Duckworth, a veteran who lost her legs in Iraq didn’t have much of a record of service. Now, he denigrates that same American hero for talking about how her experience shaped her worldview and strengthened her resolve to serve even more – a conversation that isn’t just legitimate to have, but crucial as America charts its course domestically and internationally. This is a new low for this deadbeat dad. Telling a veteran to shut up on the 4th of July is beyond the pale. We are past the point of calling on Joe Walsh to apologize. He should step aside and and stop embarrassing his district and America.

They are absolutely right. Joe Walsh is an embarrassment to the 11th Congressional District of Illinois (and really to all Americans). Surely the people of that district won't re-elect this deadbeat teabagger chickenhawk.

Wall Street Willie Gets Easy Illinois Win

It looks like the polls were right in their predictions of the GOP Illinois primary. They said Wall Street Willie (aka Willard Mitt Romney) would get a double-digit win, and that's exactly what happened. As the returns started to come in, Romney took a commanding lead and kept it throughout the night. Here are the numbers from Illinois:

ILLINOIS (99% reporting)
Mitt Romney...............425,845  (46.73%)
Rick Santorum...............319,192  (35.02%)
Ron Paul...............84,783  (9.30%)
Newt Gingrich...............72,394  (7.94%)
Rick Perry...............5,438  (0.60%)
Buddy Roemer...............3,675  (0.40%)
TOTAL VOTES...............911,327

The only real surprise of the night (although not a big or important one) was that Ron Paul finished in third place, beating Newt Gingrich by about 12,000 votes. The polls had all predicted Gingrich would beat Paul.

There is one more primary scheduled for March. That will be next Saturday's (March 24th) primary in Louisiana. Rick Santorum has been leading in the polls down there. But will Romney's big Illinois victory give him a boost in Louisiana? We'll find out in three days.

Illinois Republicans Get Their Say Today

Illinois will be the 28th state to join the Republican presidential nominating fray as they hold their primary today -- and it's a pretty rich prize, with 69 delegates at stake (54 delegates will be chosen today, and the rest will be chosen at the state convention).

Last week's polls showed a close race between Wall Street Willie (aka Willard Mitt Romney) and Mr. Frothy (aka Rick Santorum), but two new polls just released show Romney has extended his lead to double-digits. I think Romney is probably the favorite now, but I'm not sure it is that much. Santorum has been consistently outperforming his poll numbers.

As it has been in many other states, it seems to be boiling down to a urban/suburban versus rural thing. Romney is favored in the urban areas and the suburbs, while Santorum is favored in the rural areas. Will the Chicago area rule the day, or will downstate voters call the shots? We'll know by late tonight. Meanwhile, here are the latest poll numbers:

PUBLIC POLICY POLLING (Illinois)
Mitt Romney...............45%
Rick Santorum...............30%
Newt Gingrich...............12%
Ron Paul...............10%

AMERICAN RESEARCH GROUP POLL (Illinois)
Mitt Romney...............44%
Rick Santorum...............30%
Newt Gingrich...............13%
Ron Paul...............8%

Wall Street Willie Wins Puerto Rico Easily

Willard Mitt Romney (aka Wall Street Willie) easily waltzed to victory in Puerto Rico, and claimed 22 of Puerto Rico's 23 delegates (one of the three super-delegates had previously come out supporting Newt Gingrich). Romney got all 20 of the delegates from yesterday's primary by winning over 50% of the primary vote (if he hadn't, all candidates getting 15% would have gotten some delegates).

Romney has done very well this year in Hawaii and the island territories, winning all of them fairly easily. It's just here in the continental U.S. that he is having problems. He probably would have won Puerto Rico anyway, but it didn't hurt that Santorum screwed himself during his trip there. Santorum didn't just shoot himself in the foot, he filled his feet with bullet holes by telling the residents of that island they would never become a state until they learned to speak English.

That was an incredibly stupid thing to do. It was the equivalent of telling a room full of women they don't deserve equal pay or the right to contraception, or telling a room full of African-Americans that slavery wasn't so bad. I would say it shows he's not qualified to be president, but I don't think any of the Republican candidates are qualified (including Romney). Here are the numbers for the Puerto Rico primary:

PUERTO RICO (83% reporting)
Mitt Romney...............98,375  (88.01%)
Rick Santorum...............9,524  (8.52%)
Newt Gingrich...............2,431  (2.17%)
Ron Paul...............1,452  (1.30%)
TOTAL VOTES...............111,782

Tomorrow the GOP nominating race moves on to Illinois, where there are 69 delegates at stake. The last polls available showed Wall Street Willie with a small lead over Mr. Frothy (Santorum). We'll know Tuesday night if that is true.

Missouri Results Unknown - Puerto Rico Votes Today

I had hoped to report the results of the Missouri caucuses to you today, but the Missouri Republican Party seems to think it's some kind of secret. They did not keep a count of how many people showed up at the caucuses for each candidate, or how many delegates were elected to go to the next level for each candidate. Theoretically, all of the delegates chosen yesterday are uncommitted, and the committed delegates will not be chosen until the state convention in June.

But we all know that's not true. Whether technically committed or not, the caucus-goers voted for delegates that promised to support a specific candidate. Why else would they fight so hard among the individual caucuses -- and fight they did (with one caucus so rowdy the police had to be called and it had to be adjourned before they even opened the session fully). But if the state party wants to keep the delegate allocations secret, there's not much us political junkies can do about it.

There shouldn't be any such problems from the Puerto Rico primary being held today, or the Illinois primary being held next Tuesday. The results (and delegate allocation) from those states should be known on the night of their primaries. Puerto Rico has 23 delegates and Illinois has 69 delegates to offer. And the way the GOP nomination race has been going, every single delegate is a valuable commodity this year -- as a brokered convention is still a real possibility.

There have been rumors in the last few days of an effort to avoid a brokered convention. It is said that Ron Paul has put out discreet feelers to the Romney campaign -- an opening gambit to arrange for a deal where Paul throws his delegate support to Romney. Paul will wind up in fourth place in delegate totals most likely, but he could well have enough delegates to put Romney over the top.

What would Paul get in return? There are two possibilities. First would be a promise to support some of Paul's nutty ideas if he is elected. I don't see that happening. Those ideas are anathema to Wall Street (and Romney), and I doubt the teabaggers and libertarians would trust Romney enough to think he would follow through on any promise he made. He has just done too much flip-flopping.

But there's another possibility -- an even scarier one. That would be for Romney to give the vice-presidential slot to Rand Paul (Ron's son). Rand Paul wants to run for president in 2016, and running this year as a vice-presidential candidate would get him a lot of exposure . The move is also likely to win the support of the teabaggers and libertarians in the party base -- two groups Romney has been unable to win over so far. The scary part for the rest of us is that it would be similar to McCain's choosing of Palin in 2008 (an effort to get votes by putting an unqualified person only a heartbeat away from the White House).

This just makes it more important than ever to re-elect President Obama this year.

Missouri GOP Caucuses Today

Today is the day that Missouri Republicans hold their caucuses. Missouri held a primary last month, but that was just sort of a "beauty contest" to see what the state's Republicans thought of the candidates -- and their were no delegates at stake. They caucuses are different, and much more important -- because they will determine which candidates get delegates and how many.

This could be another big day for Rick Santorum. That's because he took 55% of the vote in the MIssouri primary to only 25% for Romney and 12% for Paul (Gingrich was not on the ballot). But a primary and a caucus are vastly different things. Lots of people will take a few minutes to vote in a primary, but won't take the opportunity to attend a caucus where the procedures can be very time-consuming (and infuriating).

Will Gingrich steal some of the Santorum supporters from the primary? Will Paul do well, or underperform as he has been doing recently? Can Santorum pull off another big victory in Missouri? Or will the Romney supporters turn out in bigger numbers? Late tonight we'll have the answers to all of those questions -- and have a better idea of how the 52 Missouri delegates will be apportioned.

Then tomorrow (Sunday) the territory of Puerto Rico will hold their primary. I haven't seen any polls of the race there, but I have to believe Romney (aka Wall Street Willie) has a very good chance of winning. That's because Santorum tried to commit political suicide when he visited there a few days ago. He told the Puerto Ricans that they would never become a state until they learned to speak English -- not the smartest thing to say on that Spanish-speaking island.

Next Tuesday, only three days from now, the people of Illinois will get their chance to make their choice known in the GOP primary. There are 69 delegates at stake, and recent polls have shown Wall Street Willie (Romney) with a slight lead over Mr. Frothy (Santorum). It's turning out to be a battle between Chicago and the rest of Illinois. Romney is leading in Chicago, while Santorum leads in the rest of Illinois. I wouldn't count Santorum out yet, because he has been doing better than his polling shows. Here are the numbers in the latest polls:

RASMUSSEN POLL (Illinois)
Mitt Romney...............41%
Rick Santorum...............32%
Newt Gingrich...............14%
Ron Paul...............7%

ASK AMERICA POLL (Illinois)
Mitt Romney...............37%
Rick Santorum...............31%
Newt Gingrich...............14%
Ron Paul...............10%

If money was the only thing that mattered, then Wall Street Willie would be assured of winning -- because he has vastly outspent Mr. Frothy in Illinois. The Romney campaign and the Romney super-PAC have together spent over $3.6 million in Illinois so far. The Santorum campaign and the Santorum super-PAC have only spent a little over $700,000.

Can Romney buy himself another state? He was able to do so in Florida, but a 3 to 1 spending advantage in Alabama and Mississippi bought him only a third place finish. We'll have to wait until Tuesday to see what his spending in Illinois has accomplished. This graph shows what the Illinois spending looks like:

Blagojevich's Payback

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has suffered a lot of humiliation recently. First, he was arrested by the feds for trying to sell the senate seat vacated by Obama to the highest bidder. Then Democrats in Illinois and across the country demanded he resign as governor. They also wanted him to leave the senate nomination to his successor.

But yesterday, Blagojevich thumbed his nose at everyone as he tried to get a little payback. Ignoring the wishes of his party and his state, Blagojevich decided he would pick the next senator anyway. He held a press conference and announced he had picked former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris for the position.

Knowing the Democrats in the United States Senate would not be happy, Blagojevich then tried to make his pick a racial issue. Burris is an African-American, and the governor brought another African-American (Rep. Bobby Rush) to speak in favor of the pick and frame it in racial terms.

Rush compared the possibility of Burris not being seated by the U.S. Senate to a "hanging" or "lynching", and said no senator would dare vote against the only African-American in the senate (Burris). Blagojevich and Rush should both be ashamed of themselves for so shamelessly playing the race card.

This is not a racial issue. It's about corruption and payback -- nothing else.

Majority Leader Harry Reid said no pick by Blagovich would be seated in the senate. I hope he has the courage to stick by that decision. The people of Illinois deserve a senator without the taint of corruption, and anyone picked by Blagojevich will have that smell of corruption.

I have to wonder why Burris accepted the nomination. It shows a serious lack of judgement on his part, especially since he has been known to raise funds for Blagojevich in the past. Did he promise Blagojevich anything? That question will always haunt him. He must have wanted to be a senator really bad!

For the good of the U.S. Senate, the state of Illinois and the Democratic Party, Burris should not be allowed to be sworn in and serve the appointed term. And Blagojevich should be impeached so a new governor can appoint a senator not tainted by corruption.

Blagojevich has embarrassed himself, his party and his state. He's a selfish and small-minded fool.

More Political Corruption

I am a left-wing Democrat and proud of it. But that does not mean I am willing to put up with political corruption from a Democrat any more than I would if it came from a Republican. Both are equally bad and equally deserving of condemnation.

That's why I was disgusted to learn this week of the unforgiveable actions of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. After being elected on a platform of cleaning up government (the previous governor of Illinois is a Republican currently serving time for corruption), Blagojevich turns out to be just another corrupt politician, who wants to use his office to enrich himself.

Not long ago, Blagojevich actually said anyone could tap his conversations and they would only find that he obeys the law. Well, the U.S. Justice Department took him up on that challenge, tapped his office and home phones, and it only took them six weeks to make a case against him for corruption.

Blagojevich used his office to solicit and try to force payment of bribes from businessmen and others. But perhaps his most egregious crime was trying to sell the senate seat vacated by Barack Obama. As Illinois' governor, it was his job to appoint a replacement for Obama when he resigned the senate seat. But it was never his to sell!

He was caught on tape saying the senate appointment should get him a high-paying job at a non-profit organization or an organization affiliated with a labor union. He also wanted a job for his wife that would pay at least $150,000 a year. If he didn't get what he wanted, he was going to appoint himself, and then use the senate seat to enrich himself. What a scumbag!

The sad part is that as long as he is still governor, he can still legally make the senate appointment. He has that right unless he resigns, is convicted or is impeached. If he had an ounce of decency left, he would resign and let his Lt. Governor make the senate appointment. At this point, any appointment made by Blagojevich would be tarnished.

This whole matter is disgusting. I hope he gets at least as long a sentence as his Republican predecessor.