Happy New Year to all of you and thank you for visiting my blog.
With everyone waiting with bated breath for the inauguration and the festivities it will entail in Washington, DC ( the recommended means of transportation is walking, even for people living more than a few miles away!), it's time to find out what has been going on in the last couple weeks.
1. The Blagovich story is still alive and kicking or rather picking.
The governor of Illinois, despite being indicted for corruption in the 'pay to play' scheme for the nomination of President Elect Obama's successor, has nominated Rolland Burris to the Senate. On Meet the Press Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader had made clear that he would not seat Blagojevich's appointee, who ever s/he may be, because, regardless on the capacities on any appointee, the appointment process is tainted by the appointor.
But Roland Burris who was denied his credentials once and thrown out of the Capitol under the rain, is making his voice heard and basically daring Harry Reid not to seat him, with rather clear undertones of accusations of racism. So it now seems that the Senate Leader will have to give in and accept Blagojevich's appointee.
Meanwhile, the Illinois House has voted to impeach the governor with a majority of 114 to 1 ! However, Blagojevich was still operating as the governor for several weeks.
He had been nominated by the Obama administration to be commerce secretary but decided to step down because of a pending investigation into potential misconduct from administration; i.e. the awarding of a lucrative contract to a political donor. Without admitting any wrong doing, Bill Richardson decided not to seek confirmation since the inquiry could lenghthen the hearing process in the Senate and thus hinder the government's tackling of the economic crisis which should be highly prioritized. Obama did not encourage Richardson to drop out, nor did he try to stop him. Whether the incoming administration knew anything about this is uncertain. How good is President Obama's vetting process? ( more on that soon!)
3. The Minneasota Senatorial race reached an end with the election of the Democrat Al Franken, with a margin of only 200 votes and with criticism from the Republicans that the votes were not counted fairly, that is the ambiguous ballots were overwhelmingly counted in favour of Al Franken. If you want to see for yourself why the attribution of some ballots is difficult, check this out; you'll see you different American ballots are from their French counterparts. Norm Coleman, the Republican incumbent has challenged the election through the State justice system we will see how this plays out : click here for fresh news ( February, 3).
I hope this prolonged break has not cost me all me readers, and I am looking forward to your questions to spur me on...
All the best for 2009
