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Monday, Nov 24, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* I e-mailed Sen. Dick Durbin’s press staff today asking if the Senator and Gov. Rod Blagojevich had ever hooked up to discuss Barack Obama’s US Senate replacement. Here’s the reply…

Yes. They connected this afternoon by phone.

Will wonders never cease?

* Meanwhile, I’m with Larry. Nate Silver has no clue what he’s talking about…

The way Democrats lose [Obama’s US Senate] seat is if they pick a nominee who (i) has some heretofore-unknown scandal or, (2) just doesn’t have the political acumen to click at the statewide level, particularly on his or her first try and a high-profile position as US Senator.

The best way to prevent these things would be to appoint a placeholder like Jones and then let the younger candidates battle it out on a level playing field in the primaries

Emil Jones would prevent that, eh? I’d beg to differ.

The only placeholder I could possibly support is Bill.

* Joe Biden has been replaced, but Gov. Blagojevich said today that he’s still working on his Obama replacement decision…

The governor also said he was not ready to make an appointment to Obama’s old Senate seat. He has had a team working on vetting candidates for weeks.

In some of his remarks, he implied he may do so by Christmas, but he gave no indication of who might get the plum appointment.

“We are still working on it,” he said. “It is a process that requires a lot of deliberation. It is not the sort of thing you should push.”

You’d better comment quickly, because I’m just about to shut ‘er down for the holiday.

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Durbin and the crazy

Monday, Nov 24, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* I’m not sure what brings out the crazy in some people when it comes to US Sen. Dick Durbin. He sure does attract the tinfoil hatters.

For instance, a bizarre cottage industry has sprung up which believes that Durbin will refuse to support the reappointment of US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald’s reappointment was never in doubt, and as you saw on Saturday if you surfed this way, Durbin has made that point crystal clear for the doubters…

“I think he has done an extraordinary job as U.S. attorney; I have the greatest confidence in him,” Durbin said. “I want to do what he wants to do, I want to support what he wants to do and I won’t presume what that is.”

By the way, whomever gets Obama’s Senate seat will have zero input into the reappointment. This is the perogative of the president, who also supports Fitzgerald, and the state’s senior Senator. So, spare us your conspiracy theories about the governor’s appointment, please.

* Meanwhile, a far larger group of online and talk radio denizens has been whacking the Senator for months after he made this 2007 comment to The Hill…

“It’s time to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine,” said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). “I have this old-fashioned attitude that when Americans hear both sides of the story, they’re in a better position to make a decision.”

Google “Durbin” and “Fairness Doctrine” and you get 28,300 hits - most of them quite unkind.

* Durbin is now walking that all the way back…

Rauschenberger accuses U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) of wishing to restore the Fairness Doctrine to squelch right-wing talk radio, but Durbin’s office says the senator was merely giving a flip answer when he was asked about it by Roll Call last year. Durbin has no desire and no plan to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine, his office says.

* Durbin’s spokesperson also had this to say to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution…

“That’s a completely made-up issue,” the press secretary to Sen. Dick Durbin told Cogan, stressing that Durbin has “no plans, no language, no nothing.”

So, either the pressure got to him, or Durbin really was being flippant. Either way, with President-elect Obama opposing a return to the Fairness Doctrine, I don’t see any way this happens.

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Ministers want black replacement, but not Emil Jones

Monday, Nov 24, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* This was inevitable…

A group of Chicago clergymen is urging the governor to appoint an African-American to the Obama seat. They’re not endorsing any candidate but say the person the governor picks should be electable and carry on a progressive agenda.

* There are at least two African-American congressmen vying for the seat - Danny Davis and Jesse Jackson, Jr. - so the ministers say they won’t choose between the two.

The reverends did make one other interesting demand…

But they don’t want a short-term fill-in, which Emil Jones, the retiring 71-year-old state senate president, would likely be.

At least that’s some progress. Choosing Jones would be a huge outrage and likely political suicide. It would be political insanity, which is why I won’t rule it out.

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