I Not Only Deny The Allegation, I Deny The Alligator

The title is an almost certainly apocryphal quote attributed to Jesse Jackson Sr. Today, Jesse Jackson Jr. held a press conference where he denied both allegations and alligator. Crooks and Liars has the vid. As I said before, the question is what is the meaning of the word "emissaries." If people empowered by Jackson were sent to Blagojevich with the purpose of setting up a pay for play scheme for the Senate seat, that's one thing. If they were people SUGGESTING Jackson would agree to such a scheme without actual knowledge, that's another. Jackson says it's the latter, and Patrick Fitzgerald doesn't have Jackson on tape, so it's largely hearsay, and what's more, hearsay from a corrupted source like Rod Blagojevich.

Meanwhile, Harry Reid is warning Blago not to make any Senate appointments and to resign immediately. The problem here is that Blagojevich is under no need to listen to Reid, and can make any appointment he wants, and while the Senate could fight it, it's unclear whether they have the authority to do so.

The solution, of course, is for not only Illinois, but every state in the union to mandate special elections for all vacant Senate seats as an acknowledgment that we live in something called a "democracy." Selection by governors is a relic from a time when state legislatures chose Senators, which ended with the 17th Amendment in 1913. That we haven't cleaned this up yet is a disgrace.

While there will be an undeniable whiff of corruption surrounding anyone Blagojevich picks at this point, there is an undeniable whiff of aristocracy surrounding our method to replace vacant Senate seats in general. Democracies elect people and vote on stuff. Monarchies and oligarchies appoint people and make decisions in small groups of elites. (And then they often make aristocratic appointments like Caroline Kennedy.)

Our Constitutional method of filling vacant Senate seats is a hold-over from a far more aristocratic version of the Senate. It was written back when Senators weren't even elected by popular vote. It's bad enough that states are granted Senate seats instead of people, thus leading to the embarrassment of our "democracy" where California (population 36,553,215) has as many Senators as Wyoming (population 522,830), where Vermont (population 621,254) has as many as neighboring New York (population 19,297,729), and Pennsylvania (population 12,432,792) has as many as neighboring Delaware (population 864,764). Click here for more population figures.

That population discrepancy is bad enough, so let's stop compounding it by appointing Senators instead of electing them. If we want to export democracy around the world, let's start by improving democracy here at home.

Right on.

...The entire Democratic caucus in the Senate has now called on Blagojevich to resign before appointing a successor for the open seat.