"Politics As Usual" – Still and Again

When Rod Blagojevich ran for Governor of Illinois in 2002, he promised to end "politics as usual" in Springfield. He didn’t do it, of course - except possibly to make things worse.

However, when the news about Governor Blagojevich hit this week, it looked like politicians might actually start to think of the people, instead of themselves. Leaders from both parties called for a special election to fill President-elect Obama’s Senate seat. The governor shouldn’t decide, they said. The voters of Illinois ought to choose.

But then Harry Reid started thinking. A special election would take a lot of time, and that would mean the Senate Democrats would be down a vote when crucial votes came up in the Senate, for example to stop a filibuster.

Even worse, with all the negative publicity about Blagojevich, and maybe some other Democrats, a Republican might actually win the seat.

And so, Harry Reid said maybe there shouldn’t be a special election, after all. Other Democrats picked up the same theme, including some in Illinois who just a day or two before were talking about a special election and the people’s right to choose.

In other words, instead of protecting the people’s right to choose, leading Democrats are now more concerned about protecting the number of Democratic senators in Washington.

Oh well, that’s just politics, "politics as usual".