Burris may not have paid to play, but there may be other forces who did, planning to soften the competition in 2010. And the current game is not yet over. Harry Reid's dilatory tactics may produce game changing results.

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Burris may not have paid to play, but there may be other forces who did, planning to soften the competition in 2010. And the current game is not yet over. Harry Reid's dilatory tactics may produce game changing results.

Roland Burris is believable when he cliams he did not "pay to play" for his appointment as Illinois senator, replacing Barack Obama. That doesn't meant money was not in play.

A basic rule in politics is to  "follow the money?"

Burris could be a disaster for the Democrats' long-term plans for controlling the senate. He's been a failure as a candidate in recent years and there's no reason to expect otherwise in 2010, if he chooses to tap the power of incumbency to run for the full six year term.

The reason Harry Reid and others wanted someone strong as a candidate was because of that power of incumbency.  Incumbents win 95% of the time.

But Burris is such a weak candidate, he might very well be that one in 20 candidates who cannot be saved by the power of incumbency. It makes sense, if you are going to have to run a race in two years, to position a strong candidate who brings a LOT to the race, so the power of incumbency can be tapped rather than drained.

It's likely that in 2010, Burris will face a tough opponent in the Democratic primary, one supported by the DSCC and the DNC.

That brings me back to the adage, "follow the money?"

It costs about $30 million to run a senate race in a major state. If a Republican candidate could remove the incumbency edge from the 2010 race, what would that be worth?  Half a million, a million, five million dollars? Ten million?   We're talking about a huge advantage removed.

If the 2010 Republican candidate either runs against a weak Roland Burris or a non-incumbent Democratic primary victor, either way, it's an easier road than if a strong, viable candidate is appointed now, one vetted by DSCC (Democratic Senate Campaign Committee) and DNC leaders, who continues on as an incumbent.

About that money trail. It would make a lot of sense, if Governor Rod Blagojevich, was on the take, selling the senate seat, that he could do very well accepting an "investment" from Republican third party backers, to appoint a loser, someone who would soften the fight in 2010.

Did Burris give any money? Probably not. But maybe the target of the investigation should be on the other side of the aisle where there is still much to be gained by influencing the appointment.

As of the time of writing this, Burris has not yet been confirmed. If Blagojevich is impeached and replaced, his replacement may be able to void the appointment of Burris. Or he could simply appoint his own replacement for Obama, providing HIS appointee with all the needed papers. Then, the senate will be in an interesting position, having to decide who to accept.

Harry Reid was smart to shift his stance from tough to gracious. If he is sweet and kind and continues to sandbag Burris's senate confirmation until what looks to be a certain impeachment of Blagojevich, he could very well end up smelling like a slightly wilted rose and getting what he wants, a strong viable, 2010 Illinois candidate.

Update: 

The Impeachment process has started on Burris. The IL supreme court has decided that the secretary of state's signature is not required for his appointment. He is still not accepted as a senator.  The head of the Republican party for a neighboring state, MI, is now following me on twitter. Think there's a connection? 

Authors Bio:

Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect,
connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.

Check out his platform at RobKall.com

He is the author of The Bottom-up Revolution; Mastering the Emerging World of Connectivity

He's given talks and workshops to Fortune
500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered
first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and
Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful
people on his Bottom Up Radio Show,
and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and
opinion sites, OpEdNews.com

more detailed bio:

Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, debillionairizing the planet and the Psychopathy Defense and Optimization Project.

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Rob was published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com for several years.

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To learn more about Rob and OpEdNews.com, check out A Voice For Truth - ROB KALL | OM Times Magazine and this article.

For Rob's work in non-political realms mostly before 2000, see his C.V.. and here's an article on the Storycon Summit Meeting he founded and organized for eight years.

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