Wise action on Burris

Senate Democrats are wise to draw a line under the problem of Roland Burris.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s (D) nomination of Burris to fill the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Obama was perfectly calculated to cause maximum embarrassment to his own party.

It was certainly not lost on Blagojevich that his party did not rally round to defend him but, rather, expressed their contempt and revulsion for the alleged corruption crimes. They could hardly be expected to do anything else, but still, his desire to kick them back is hardly incomprehensible.

Blagojevich is accused, among other things, of seeking to sell the seat to the highest bidder. He denies all wrongdoing, and although prosecutors’ audiotapes show he is a cynic and vulgarian unfit for high office, they do not so obviously confirm that he sought a quid pro quo outside the wide bounds that politicians have granted themselves. That will be for a jury to decide.

Whatever Blagojevich’s guilt or innocence, however, his nomination of Burris presented Democrats with an acute problem. Blago was and is the governor of Illinois. It was his duty to nominate a replacement for Obama. And the Illinois Supreme Court has ruled the nomination valid even without certification by Jesse White, the Illinois secretary of state, who refused to sign the paperwork because of the cloud hanging over Blagojevich.

Much as Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill reasonably wanted to distance themselves from anyone who might be regarded as Blago’s buddy, the disgraced governor had them skewered. The decision to go ahead and seat Burris this week was the only way to cut the party’s losses and shove news media attention onto subjects that cast a more favorable light on Democrats.

Burris has played the politics of the issue brilliantly. He distanced himself and his nomination from Blagojevich without showing unseemly hostility and ingratitude toward the man who promoted him. He confined his arguments to issues such as the representational rights of Illinois’s inhabitants, constitutional principles, and the need for deference for the governor’s office and authority. Charges of racism were initially directed at Democratic leaders, but Burris later distanced himself from those ridiculous charges.

And he pursued his rights up to the door of the Senate, creating a spectacle at once dignified and sympathetic without going so far as to cause offense or prompt Senate leaders to dig in their heels.

It was, all in all, a deft demonstration that Burris has the qualifications to be a senator, at least insofar as he has the political skills to make things happen that he wants to happen and to emerge from the rough-and-tumble able to claim plausibly that he conducted himself in a decorous manner.

So now he can join the Senate, the turbulent waters can calm, and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) can turn his attention to the legislative agenda that was so obscured by the little local unpleasantness surrounding the seat.

At this point, everyone is probably allowed a small smile of satisfaction, even Gov. Blagojevich.