An ill wind in Illinois

The ill wind that has blown through the Land of Lincoln this week has caused a sickening throughout the United States. Embattled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich briefly presided over the swearing-in of the new Illinois Senate yesterday, knowing that one of the first items on the new legislative agenda was his own impeachment for corruption.

Today, the U.S. Senate swore in Blagojeich appointee Roland Burris as the new senator to replace recently ascended Barack Obama. One of the reasons Blagojevich will probably be impeached is because he tried to sell this U.S. Senate appointment to the highest bidder while, unbeknownst to him, the Feds were listening in because of an ongoing corruption investigation.

A few weeks ago, everyone from president-elect Barack Obama, to Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, to Sen. Harry Reid, to Sen. Diane Feinstein had said that anyone appointed by Blagojevich should not be sworn in due to the improper actions of the governor in trying to sell the seat.

In a classic case of "that was then, this is now" nearly everyone from Obama on down changed their position when other prominent politicians played the race card on Burris' behalf. These prominent politicians screamed that we didn't have any black U.S. Senators, apparently forgetting that the only reason we had a vacancy was because the country elevated a black U.S. Senator to the Oval Office.

So Roland Burris is now a U.S. Senator, even though he failed to win any of the last four elections that he ran for. We can only hope that the people who failed to vote for him in his last four trips to the ballot box will turn out in droves to vote him out of office in 2010.

I hope the people of Illinois will consider electing current Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White as their U.S. Senator in 2010. Mr. White was one of the only prominent Illinois politicians, and prominent black Democrats, who refused to sign off on the tainted appointment of Roland Burris. We need good men like Jesse White in office. We don't need men whose overwhelming qualification seems to be the color of their skin.