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It has been said in politics, “to the winners go the spoils” but that was in Andrew Jackson’s heyday when Senate seats being sold to the highest bidder and political royalty being appointed to a spot in the world’s most exclusive club were frequent occurrences. One would think those times have passed, but history has a tendency to repeat itself.
In Illinois, embattled governor Rod Blagojevich is facing impeachment, possible criminal indictments and the ruination of his political career after being caught on tape espousing the view that his constitutional responsibility to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate could be a financial boon for himself. Blagojevich was caught on a federal wiretap saying that a U.S. Senate seat is “"a valuable thing - you don't just give it away for nothing."
And therein lies the problem. Giving governors the authority to fill vacancies in the Senate - which 39 states do - invites corruption, political maneuvering and influence peddling. In the early 20th Century, progressives fought for the direct election of U.S. Senators, but nearly 100 years later our system of sending representatives to the U.S. Senate has become even less democratic. Before direct elections were implemented an entire state legislature chose a Senate appointee rather than one person.
This same system of gubernatorial appointments is also bringing the Senate one step closer to looking like the House of Lords.
In Delaware, filling the seat vacated by Vice President-elect Joe Biden is his longtime chief of staff, Ted Kaufmann. Most political observers assume that Kaufmann is merely keeping the seat warm until Biden’s son, Beau, returns from Iraq and can run for the seat in 2010. At least the voters will decide in that instance.
In New York, Hillary Clinton’s replacement in the Senate will be chosen by Governor David Patterson. It appears as though the top two choices are Andrew Cuomo, son of the former governor of New York or Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the 35th President of the United States, John Kennedy. Patterson has quite the dilemma on his hands: should he appoint Cuomo - a possible challenger to his gubernatorial seat in two years - or Kennedy - a women sure to be a first-class fundraiser by virtue of her last name and one likely to have wide enough coattails to sweep Patterson to reelection in 2010. Qualifications seem to play second fiddle to political considerations.
In Colorado, Ken Salazar will be leaving the Senate to head Obama’s Interior Department. His likely replacement? His brother.
In Illinois, one of the names frequently bandied around to replace Obama happens to be the daughter of the Illinois Speaker of the House.
In politics, dynasties are nothing new. We’ve had the Clintons, the Gores, the Doles, the Bushes, the Bayhs and the Tafts, among others. However, in those instances those people earned their positions by going through the rigorous job interview process that is an election. The bottom line is you should have to earn your ticket to the U.S. Senate, not have it granted to you by virtue of a surname or the size of a bank account. The only way to avoid this in the future is to constitutionally strip governors of their right to make Senate appointments and put the power back in the hands of the American people.
Source (http://economyincrisis.org/)
