Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Making Lemonade

From a purely political perspective, regardless of Blagojevich's guilt or innocent, it would be nice to see the person he appointed become senator. I have no idea who Burris is. He sounds like a loser, but that is irrelevant, for we know it's not like Blagojevich would appoint a libertarian.

No, what would be cool about Burris becoming a senator is that a governor- a really politically damaged governor- would take the senate, not to mention a bunch of democrat elitists down a peg or two. Any power shift away from D.C. to the states is welcome. In the short term, it may mean bad state politicians getting more power, but in the long term, competitive advantage would go to the states with the best governments. Right now the federal government minimizes the effect healthy competition has on state government- you can clean up your own state, or your crooked politicians can send other crooked politicians to D.C., in order to steal from other states. Take the D.C. option away, and things will get better in a hurry.

All that said, it probably won't happen. This is a simple act of defiance, and unless Blagojevich (or Burris) has a few heavy backers we don't know about, this appointment will get shot down. But one must find comforting news where one can these days, and Blagojevich's metaphorical finger to his own party does warm my heart, be it ever so slightly.

If they refuse Burris, just keep appointing!

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