* My weekly syndicated newspaper column takes a snarky look at the Obama replacement scramble…
I was interviewed the other day by National Public Radio about the “campaign” to fill President-elect Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat. Most of what I said was left on the cutting-room floor, but my message to the NPR reporter was crystal clear: Ignore all the punditry and prognostication.
Admittedly, it’s been enormous fun to watch all the hopefuls scramble for Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s favor. The governor, by law, fills the vacancy, which was created when Obama resigned Sunday. Blagojevich hasn’t been this popular with this many politicians since he first took office and was handing out plum jobs and contracts.
Times have changed, and pretty much everybody has treated him like a radioactive monster for the past couple of years, so I’m sure he’s enjoying all the recent attention.
U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. has gone so far as to line up newspaper endorsements and at one point convinced several Washington, D.C., reporters that he was the front-runner to replace Obama. He even commissioned a statewide poll that he claims shows he’d be the best candidate of the bunch.
The Politico’s Roger Simon recently pointed to Obama’s choice of Illinois Veterans Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth to accompany him to a Veterans Day wreath-laying ceremony as a significant clue. Duckworth is on just about everyone’s short list. But some Chicago media outlets have reported that U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin’s advocacy of Duckworth’s appointment might be hurting her. Durbin and Blagojevich don’t have the best relationship, goes the logic. Then again, almost everybody has a lousy relationship with this governor.
The potential appointment list is almost endless. Congressmen like Luis Gutierrez and Jan Schakowsky have their hands out. Former statewide officials like Roland Burris have said they’re ready, willing and able to serve.
Pretty much every story published about the vacancy also has mentioned retiring Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, partly because Jones is allied so closely with Blagojevich.
Jones’ downsides are many. He specializes in crony politics. His family has benefitted mightily from state jobs and contracts. He has almost no respect in the media. And his antics have lost him most of the respect he once had in political circles.
Logic would seem to dictate the governor would use this appointment to finally start turning around his absolutely awful reputation with voters. I mean, you’d think a guy with a 13 percent approval rating would want to nudge that upward a little.
But when has reason or or logic ever entered into Blagojevich’s playbook? Was the Statehouse war he waged about the past two years reasonable or logical? It tanked his poll numbers, but he kept on fighting. We’re talking about a Democratic governor of one of the most Democratic states in the union who has lower job approval ratings than lame duck Republican President George W. Bush. Reason and logic? Please.
The point is that while the scramble for Obama’s seat may be fun to watch, particularly Jackson’s over-the-top circus, none of the “clues” pointed to in the media probably mean anything.
Reporters, pundits and the professional prognosticators all are looking at this in a logical, traditional way. As mentioned above, this is not usually how Blagojevich tends to operate.
The entire spectacle finally became so bizarre that I started to push my own replacement candidate last week. I decided a longtime commenter on my blog who goes by the name of “Bill” and defends Blagojevich through thick and thin deserved the Senate seat as much as everyone else.
Within 24 hours of starting a FaceBook group for “Bill,” more than 160 people had signed up for the cause. That’s almost as many “followers” as two sitting congressmen attracted to their own FaceBook groups which were designed to bolster their Senate dreams.
Bill’s “candidacy” now has its own blog and three YouTube “campaign” videos, all created by a volunteer.
It’s almost a movement.
Yeah, OK, that’s a little over the top. But I figure Bill has just as much of a shot as anyone, considering who’s doing the appointment.
Bill now has 259 supporters.
* Meanwhile, Obama’s media guru David Axelrod tells Newsweek about his disgust with Gov. Blagojevich…
At the time of that meeting with the Obamas in 2006, Axelrod had been “so disgusted with the state of politics, so disillusioned—we were about to elect a governor [Rod Blagojevich], he was an old client of mine and a friend, but he was disappointing—I wanted to be involved in something that reminded me of why I got into this work in the first place,” he recalled.
* You may have noticed that I deleted the blog’s Obama news feed. He resigned his Senate seat, so he’s no longer our Senator, hence the deletion.
* Related…
* Jackson: May the Best Man Get Obama’s Seat
* Senate appointee must serve all of Illinois
* Obama: National Press Tamer than Chicago Press