"If the latest survey from Public Policy Polling is right, Caroline Kennedy's support has fallen sharply of late, and state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is the public favorite to fill New York's Senate vacancy."

This isn't much of an improvement. Yes, Cuomo has put himself out there and got himself elected. But, he is also primarily riding on his old man's accomplishments. As with Caroline Kennedy, there are other possibilities with better judgment, skills and merit than Cuomo. Consituents, in this case Governor Paterson, should not be asking "who's your daddy?".

NY Rep Peter King was an outspoken supporter of the IRA

He endorsed their tactics and even the resulting civilian casualities

What is the difference between the IRA and Hamas?
What is the difference between the IRA and Hezbollah?

Ask Peter King

Good Job, Senators. You can refuse to seat an IL politician who is legitimately selected by a sitting governor, but you cannot prevent war criminals from committing their war crimes.

congratulations!

st john

Wow, It's clear Burris thinks very highly (or low of himself, but did you know he's built a huge monumental gravestone which lists all his career achievements --and there is plenty of room for more.

If that's not enough of an indicator of how Narcissistic the guy is, it also appears he has two children named Roland and Rolando.

Poor kids.

RE: Burris' children names: Maybe the name is "Rolanda" (?).

In any case, I had no idea he was that desperate to demand a legacy. It's really sorta pathetic to me when I see adults do this.

Anyone else with an ounce of dignity would've bowed out by now--he's ridiculing himself and the Illinois electorate. And Reid and the rest of the Democratic Party.

Peter King sexually harassed me when I was a staffer in the Office of the Nassau County Controller (his previous post) in the early 1980s. When I quit in fear and disgust, his secretary was quick to get all my paperwork in order and offer me any job-hunting support, etc. that I needed; it was clear she'd done this kind of clean-up work previously. He is a total slimeball, and if he runs, I will be happy to share everything I know with any journalist or political opponent who's interested.

I have some sympathy for Burris on a general level, but his statement that his Senate seat is "ordained by God" sends off a bazillion red flags by itself. Factor in the tomb thing and some rather fuzzy ethical issues and I think there's more than enough reason for the Senate to take some time and think this thing over.

As an aside...on time.com, there is a blogger (Michael Scherer(?)) who wrote about Al Franken being an "Intellectual Terrorist". Boy, are his readers in an upset!

NY Rep Peter King was an outspoken supporter of the IRA

He endorsed their tactics and even the resulting civilian casualities

What is the difference between the IRA and Hamas?
What is the difference between the IRA and Hezbollah?

The difference between the number of Irish and Palestinians on Long Island, that's what.

As this serves somewhat of an open thread (and on-topic, it's about time Obama says something about my subject), let me remark about Gaza: Just what "is" Gaza, anyway? It isn't really a nation, like France, Israel itself, Kenya, etc. A disputed territory, what? Israeli settlers were in there until recently. That means it's like a "minor" in law: fewer responsibilities but protected. If you don't extend the ironic combination of the respect and the "vulnerability" of nationhood, especially to a place you control to some extent, you can't be as hard on them either. Under international law Israel can't treat it like it would Syria's military lobbing such rockets. It's almost like the US invading Guam after a separatist movement lobs bombs (if they could.) Would we bomb them (or be able to "get away with it" the same way we would a true foreign state? This point seems missing from most discussions of the invasion of Gaza.

It's more like the IRA in Northern Island, officially part of the UK - and can you imagine, what the reaction in the US (even among the right-wing crowd) to pictures of dead, pretty red-haired lasses in buildings bombed from the air by the English? Our Irish-heritage folks would be rioting in the streets, no? The Brits would never get away with it.

delver17

Yeah, the whole issue of IRA v. Hamas already brought up, and very to the point of US hypocrisy on the issue. BTW peace was finally made reasonably well in NI, so such things are possible. See also proposal in current Newsweek, which however wants to let Israel keep most of the WB settlements in exchange for a corridor to Gaza (they could indeed try that, and some of the Negev region - but couldn't Egypt donate some more land? Not that they "should have to" but maybe it would help.)

Neil B: I'm in no way an IRA supporter, but the British Army got away with killing unarmed Irish lasses and lads, red-haired and otherwise, for decades, Bloody Sunday being just one example.

Gradysu, just get it out there anyway.

...Oh, and let's not forget the infamous Diplock Courts the British set up in Northern Ireland--their own version of Guantanamo--where prisoners could be held without charges indefinitely, tortured, etc.

Historygirl, yes the Brits did, but not areal bombing AFAIK. The scale of Israel's response is what I intended to mention.

I'm thinking of the best way to do it, NB; this happened in 1983, and I don't know how newsworthy it would be considered now, but I think this would bee a sort of Packwood thing, where one person comes forward and suddenly there's a long queue of people who've been through the same thing.

As long as I've brought this up, does anyone have any suggestions as how to "out" Peter King as a harasser? Bear in mind this happened quite a bit ago, but I think if a reporter looked into his past, they'd find quite a pattern. Whom should I contact?

Burris seems to be a total clown and, as I asked on another blog, didn't I see him in a red wig and tight shorts on 43rd and 9th in Manhattan?

And please let's not get caught up in a too-rigid following of Powell because the cases can easily be 'distinguished.' Powell was a long-time Congressman, in fact, he was the first black Congressman from any state other than Illinois since Reconstruction -- Chicago had one, William Dawson. He was a gadfly who supported Eisenhower in 1956 because the Democrats didn't have a strong Civil Rights plank in their platform and picked an avowed -- if never very vocal -- segregationist for VP. (Sen. John Sparkman from Alabama.)

He was brilliant, eloquent, and once he became Chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, proved to be an excellent Legislator, steering much of the Great Society Programs to passage. But he had a flamboyant personal life. (Two pictures I could count on seeing every winter were the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree and a spread of Powell on the beach at Bimini, surrounded by beautiful women, some of whom were usually identified as staffers.)

The point was that his constituents saw the same pictures and loved him for it. They -- and remember this was before the Civil Rights movement had made much change in the North -- enjoyed 'living vicariously' through him as they dealt with the roaches and discrimination their color had 'gifted them' with.

Most -- not all -- of Powell's opponents were Southern racists -- and many of those who were 'shocked, shocked at such goings on' had their own 'staffers with special duties.' They just kept them discretely out of sight -- and the staffers could rarely match Powell's in beauty or youth. (If a teenaged Bill Clinton saw Powell and said 'that's who I want to be when I grow up' he never came close.)

The racial component in the exclusion was an 'open secret' but the Supreme Court couldn't disallow it just because it was racist, especially since he was 'guilty as charged.'

However, and here we come to the difference between Burris and Powell, Powell had been ELECTED and again, by constituents who were aware of his actions. (I couldn't find the election results on a quick scan, but
I doubt if he ever had a Republican opponent who got more than 10%, and he never had serious primary opposition until the end of his career.)

(It was also relevant that he was a Member of the House, which has been elected by popular vote since the beginning.)

Burris was NOT elected by anybody, and thus I'd distinguish his case and would argue that the relevant precedents are the Frank Smith one and a number -- hungry cats keep me from checking the details -- from when Senators were selected by the State Legislatures and when Senators who were legally but corruptly selected were excluded. (And the fact that the Senators may have themselves been 'blameless' -- as many argue Burris is -- was not a reason for accepting them.)

Heh, I've been defending Burris per the basic principle of the thing (wrong to blame him for Blago's issues) but he does look more assholey all the time. After his God talk and the Mausoleum etc, I can imagine Burris at that weird "coronation" of Rev. Moon (at which some Democrats disgraced themselves. Who was it that actually laid the "crown", and where are pics and list of attendees/attendants? tx.) BTW his sharing a name with mind-as-knee-jerk BF Skinner ticks me off too, not that it's a valid parameter.

Gradysu, try posting a diary at Kos - ?. But be aware, there's a downside to coming forth like that as you might expect.

Thanks for the suggestion, Neil!

I was also thinking of contacting TPM Muckraker, to see if they wanted to do a little digging.

When it first happened, after I quit, I got a "visit" from one of Al D'Amato's friends (D'Amato and King are practically brothers), who looked like a refugee from the cast of "Goodfellas," telling me to keep my mouth shut. And while I doubt any physical threats would be made against me now, they'd certainly try to slime me up one side and down the other, although there's not much dirt they'd find on a long-married VP for a financial firm! (I did rip the tag off my mattress once...)

Harry Reid needs to get his head out of his ass.

First, he paints the Senate into a corner over the Illinois Senator and a delusional smarmy crook like Blago completely outmaneuvers him, resulting in a press field day today as the Dems turn away the 71-yr old who would be the only African-American Senator (and, more importantly, the Dems look like a circus, not a well-oiled machine).

Now he says he might seat Franken early. Personally, I'm all for seating Franken today. But there is simply no principled way in hell to say that Burris' credentials aren't in order because the Sec. of State has not done a ministerial duty, and then seat Franken when Minnesota law expressly contemplates election challenges within 7 days after certification.

This is (a) Bush-like in its "laws are at my option" approach and (b) the kind of nonsense that brought 40 years of Democratic control of Congress to an end in '94.

Seat 'em both or seat neither, but whatever you do, you lousy excuse for a leader, quit getting played and quit making the Dems look like the freakin' Keystone Kops.

Since I work in Andy Cuomo's office, I should probably make clear that the "CJ" whose comments lead off this thread is not me. I make it a practice not to comment on my boss, for obvious reasons.

I hope and expect Senator Burris to take this to the Supreme Court.

Citing things like Burris' tomb or things he's said about God is meaningless. Ad hominem attacks against Burris are not germane to the legality of his senatorship.

Reid is an idiot.

I make it a practice not to comment on my boss, for obvious reasons. CJColucci

Especially comments like he is also primarily riding on his old man's accomplishments, I would imagine.

Zeit:
Glad to see you back, guy. As usual, you make a lot of sense. If the law is as you say, then Reid can't seat either, beause, as I argued above, he's right to refuse to seat Burris.

One more point about Burris that ties into your comment. This whole thing has been a war between Blago and Obama, with Burris merely a stupidly willing tool. I have not seen it suggested, but I see only one explanation for Blago being so openly corrupt over a line he knew was tapped.

He expected that somebody from Obama's office would compromise themselves by agreeing to his demand for a bribe. That way, when Fitzgerald brought out his indictment, Blago could go to Obama or an aide and say 'If I go down, you go down, so get rid of Fitzgerald.'

Poor guy. Like most crooks, he thought evcerybody else was as crooked as he did, so when Obama didn't offer him anything but 'appreciation,' and backed the Democrats in refusing to seat anyone he suggested, he started Round II. Attack Obama in the black community. Was it a coincidence that his leading 'point man' has been Bobby Rush, the only person to beat Obama in an eletion -- in a black community, aqn,, in effect, by arguing that Obama wasn't 'black enough'? And the 'only black in the Senate' bit is a beautiful manuever, but it didn't work for Lynn Swann and it shouldn't work here.

(See the trap. Either "Obama is keeping the Senate all white" or "Obama is all for the rules when they affect white people, but he'll bend them for a black." Nobody denies Blago is clever, but fortunately Obama is choosing the right course.)

Meg Whitman appears to be gearing up for a gubernatorial campaign in California.

Ah. Cashing in on all that great press John McCain's stamp of approval bought her.

Yes, Meg "Massive Layoffs at HP" Whitman: For Those Who Think Unemployment Is Not Quite High Enough

[...] peace was finally made reasonably well in NI, so such things are possible. -- Neil B, @13:27

Oh well, if we're gonna compare NI and England to Palestinians an Israel... Give the latter two 400+yrs and they'll sort themselves out too, most likely.

Haik: Sure, Burris' quirks aren't "officially compelling" reasons to reject someone for Congress, but make sense for commentators (anyone really, in their own minds - are you saying such selections are a rigid science?) to size up his character and how good a choice. But indeed Reid has made a fool of himself as many noted. Here we are, squandering much good political capital over silly things (Burris, Franken) not even fundamental to the Democratic program. It's pitiful and shouldn't have happened.

Re Israel: Note how conservatives gripe about the UN and how irrelevant or lacking in legit authority, but they slip over that Israel was created by UN fiat (mostly.) It's such hypocrisy. Hence Israel is in effect a ward of the UN, and should be even more subject to the UNs resolutions and rules, not less.

Yes, Meg "Massive Layoffs at HP" Whitman: For Those Who Think Unemployment Is Not Quite High Enough

Wrong McCain flack. You are confusing Meg 'eBay' Whitman with Carly "Massive Layoffs at HP" Fiorina.

Wrong McCain flack

Right. Meg Whitman was the flack responsible for layoffs at Ebay.

My bad! I get my creepy GOP female CEOs confused sometimes! Carly Fiorina was the HP sleazebag...