Harry,

Roland Burris has been lawfully appointed. You may not like it, but figure out how you are going to make it work. You, Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the losers in the House and Senate (both parties equally represented) need to get your arses back to work and start moving things forward – not figuring how to be an "impediment to progress".

I want legislation sitting on President Obama's desk as of Jan. 21st – ready for him to sign. Stop the madness!

"God help/ and bless Us"

The democratic senators are violating the law if they choose to bar the legal representative of Illinois from taking his constitutionally justified seat in the US Senate.

Just what we need, another full of himself blowhard going to Washington.

Happy New Year America.

(I am a Republican, not from Illinois, but I cannot believe the hypocrisy of the left– at least most of them– on this issue.)

Just let me say... the next 4-8 years are gonna be good with Obama.. especially if the Al Sharpton's, ACLU's, Bobby Rush's, Nancy Pelosi's and Harry Ried's if they all SHUT UP!!!!! PLEASE! AND I SAY THAT AS A BLACK MAN... I MEAN I AM BLACK BLACK.. LIKE VERY DARK SKINNED BLACK.

Until the governor of Illinois is impeached or resigns, the appointment of a replacement senator is his responsibility. Innocent until proven guilty and all that. If YOU were arrested, would you be OK with your boss firing you and your spouse leaving you before your innocence was disproved in court (and impeachment proceedings ARE a court), Our nation indicates innocence is presumed until a court finds one guilty, and no cop, prosecutor or media circus should be able to take that away.

The example of a country to look at is Sweden; they ran into the same problem, (Gov) realized what was going on, took similar steps (stimulus) and started upswing in their economy in ~2 years

Japan on the other hand went through same (90's) but took them 10 years to get out of it because they did not do enough up front and had to keep stimulating.

The good thing here is there is history of how to rectify the situation. I'm not fond of spending such large amounts of money, but neither am I fond of seeing looooooooooooong lines (soup kitchen), increased crime and more homeless so I favor spending the money.

Besides the U.S is lkind of ike a weeble (http://www.bigredtoybox.com/articles/weebleindex.shtml) and our history from the early days of the country to the wars to the depression to the recessions to etc.. prove it.

Buckle up kiddies, we gots 4 years of this. Then we can get things back on the right track (or hopefully get things started with Congress in 2010).

Let's give the Dems a chance to fall on their faces, and then the libs will be revealed as they truly are – know-nothing whiners who couldn't find their way out of a cardboard box.

the dems are in an excellent position. They should try to NOT seat him which would require the support of republicans (votes). If the all the dems vote yes to NOT seat him and they get no repub support (votes); then dems can claim they tried NOT to seat him, but got no support from the repubs. So had no choice to seat him and we move forward until time for re-election of that seat in 2010

If they get enough repub votes then he does NOT get seated and the dems can claim bipartisan (no Bull Conner – LOL) support to NOT seat him. Either way it is to the dem advantage.

Harry Reid wake up!!!

p.s. the nutjob congressman who injected race into the issue most likely won't get re-elected when his turn comes up, but that is up to the folks in ILL, hopefully they will remember so we can rid ourselves of divisive folks in power.

is Illinois in the midst of a coup?

with his logic he could argue that no senator can be republican because republicans lost and he is in charge and na,na, na na.

what happened to state's rights!

Senator Reid consistently lets the GOP leadership push him around on important issues, but when he has a chance to accept a distinguished public official like Roland Burris into the US Senate, he decides to go down to the basement, put on the gloves and duke it out.

Mr. Burris does not deserve to be treated disrespectfully.

Whatever problems Gov. Blagojevich have pertain to him.

Roland Burris should end his career as the junior Senator from the great state of Illinois.

A return to the rule of law. The Governor is still the Governor, he has the power to appoint the replacement Senator, no one else does. The Us Senate as pronounced by the US Supreme Court may only question and refuse to seat a Senator based upon age, citizenship qualifications.

If the Senate leadership contiues on this path they are no more qualified to lead than the Republicans that thet replaced.

The Illinois Sec of State has the administrative duty to confirm the Governors appointment, he does not under Illinois State Consitution have the authority to deny confirmation of the appointment, his authority amounts to a rubber stamp and in reality is not required.

I agree that Blagojevich is quite premature with his nomination and feel he has been extremely arrogant. But he has not been convicted of any crime, as yet.

Half of you say the dems in the Senate should block this appointment and that actions of impeachment should have been done quicker.

The other half of you say that Reid and the senate doesn't have the constitutional authority to block the appointment.

The half that says the Senate and Reid should be doing something to block this should know that the Senate doesn't have this authority. Until convicted, Blagojevich would still have the power to appoint someone to the vacant Senate seat. The odd thing is you people should know this and yet are coming down on the Senate for this.

The other half that says the Senate doesn't have the authority to do this, I agree with you because it is fact. But you are the same half that, if the Senate doesn't make an 'attempt' to block the appointment, would be coming down on Reid and the Senate Dems for just sitting around doing nothing.

So both groups want something that can or can't be done but cry wolf and complain about it regardless.

Where do i stand? Burris shouldn't accept the appointment. But on the same note if he knows he is innocent and has no ties to the scandal then you know what, accept the appointment!

~Lawrence in Denver

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WAS,,,,,,,,,,,,,IN,,,,,,,,,,,,GOOD,,,,,,,,,,STANDING,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,AT,,,,,,,,,,,,,THE,,,,,,,,,,

TIME,,,,,,,,,,,AND,,,,,,,,,,,HAD,,,,,,,,,,,,THE,,,,,,,,,,,,,AUTHORITY,,,,,,,,,,,,,TO,,,,,,,,,

DO,,,,,,,,,,,,SO

Fitzgerald has asked for an extension on the indictment of Blagojevich because so many new witnesses are coming forward. It's not going to be pretty and now Burris has become a part of it.

Reid and Jesse White are following the law. I applaud Reid and the others for working to keep this mess confined to Illinois and Blagojevich's office. Let Fitzgerald clean up the mess - he's known for being tough and effective, taking on high-profile cases involving the mafia as well as both Democrats and Republicans.

It's unbelievable that Blagojevich would do this to the country at this time. What a jerk.

Reid and the rest of the Senate chamber have no authority anymore to prevent Burris from taking his seat.

As the user below me mentioned, the Illinois legislature should have acted quicker to remove Blagojevich from his position in order to inhibit him from making any sort of appointment. They did not do this, however; thus, the United States Constitution cannot be circumvented. Please read the first comment for this article. The Constitution is very clear.

Would we say that it is was a good pick because PE Obama has good judgment, and because of his good judgment in choice, the Gov. could not have made a tainted choice. PE Obama sat in a church which many disapprove of for 20 years, but we hold the opinion that the Reverend words were not those of the President Elect? If a father commits a crime, does that taint his son/daughter future who is doing good in his/her life. Why should we decides someone's future based on someone else's mistake. I believe we were told not to "judge" one another.

Change we so desperately need, that along with huge tax increases, safer world (NOT) with his style of kumbaya negotiations with Iran, Palestinians, Russia and others. I think he will say things like Rodney King did, Why can't we all just be friends, and be shocked when they don't buy his brand of kool-aid.