Various commentators have argued that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had to make a big fuss over the seating a disgraced Illinois governor's appointee to fill Barack Obama's old Senate seat. Reid and the national Dems had to show backbone on this issue, they said.
This doesn't look like backbone. It looks like craven facing down corrupt Democrats over process. If this is a political ploy to appear to show backbone, it's not working. Op/eds and talking heads aren't gushing about Harry Reid's principled leadership or the national Democrats' tough line on corruption.
Instead, everyone's muttering about how Reid kind of had to do this in order to seem tough on corruption, but even these same commentators aren't fooled.
If you're going to stand on principle, at least pick a good principle to stand on.
The Dems are searching for an ad hoc justification to thwart Blago. They have, at best, a tenuous legal basis for refusing to seat Burris. Reid and Obama want to make a big show of repudiating Blagojevich. That's not standing on principle, that's caving to political expediency.
As Sen. Diane Feinstein pointed out yesterday, acting as if the Secretary of State has veto power sets a bad precedent for all future gubernatorial appointments. Tactically, they gave the crazy governor and his flunky exactly what they wanted: A big embarrassing scene.
Reid should drop this silly crusade as soon as possible. The alternative is to deprive the people of Illinois of a senator and while canceling out the Democrats' hard won gains in the Senate. When it comes to political theater, "I am not a crook like that guy" is a non-starter.
Update: Looks like the Dems are going to seat Burris after all.
Update II: Reid's spokesman told TPM's Election Central blog that those reports are "wrong."
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