Barack Obama’s old senate seat might not be filled for awhile. While technically Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was just arrested yesterday for trying to sell that seat, still has the power to fill it, just about anyone that he named would be immediately tainted with this whole scandal. While he could resign at any minute, he’s promising to fight on and it would take several weeks (at least) to impeach him–and it could be several months before he is convicted of a crime (at which point he would be forced, by Illinois law, to give up his seat). The state legislature wants to pass a law requiring a special election to fill that seat; but realistically, it takes several months to organize an election, and it would be more fair to the candidates to give them closer to six months to actually campaign for the job. All of which means that Illinois will be short on Senate representation for the next few months, at least. That state of affairs would be bad for Illinois, and bad for Obama who will need every ally on the Hill that he can get if he wants to pass a lot of needed legislation quickly.
So here’s what they should do. First, they should pass that special election law, to be held around June 1, 2009. That should give plenty of time for the candidates to figure out who wants to run, and start to make a bit of a name for themselves–not to mention to give the press time to investigate the candidates’ backgrounds for any improprieties. Second, the state legislature leadership ought to get together and demand that the governor immediately appoint a candidate that they have publicly named to that office, until the results of the special election are tallied.
Who should they name? Well, most importantly they want someone who is seen as incorruptible; not just a “clean” name, but someone who voters would scoff at the very idea that they were corrupted. For the same reasons, you don’t want someone who wants to hold the Senate seat for very long–you’re just looking for a “place-holder” senator until the people can make an informed choice of their own. So the person has to be seen as having no political ambition. Of course, the person needs to be popular, intelligent, well-spoken, and informed. They have to be a resident of Illinois, of course, and a native-son (-daughter) would certainly help bolster her image. And you want someone who will support Obama’s legislative agenda; although really you’d like someone who could do that and still not be seen as overly partisan.
Thankfully for the people of Illinois, they have someone who meets those qualifications perfectly: Oprah Winfrey.
It would be perfect. You send her to Washington for a few months. She takes a brief hiatus from her show; hands it over to a rotating group of guest-hosts or something in the meantime. When she comes back, she can tell her audience all about how Washington really works and what these guys are really like off camera. She’s just there for a few months, so she doesn’t need to worry about fund-raising or politicking, and she’d have no seniority so she wouldn’t be needed at committee meetings anyway. It immediately gets the taint of corruption off of that senate seat, and no one has to worry that it looks like they took the seat as the result of some back-room deal.
Draft Oprah!
You know, it sounds like a joke, but maybe it’s not such a bad idea.
Oh, he wasn’t joking.