Tuesday
Hamburger, you're good!
One last Burris post, because both Laurence Tribe and Erwin Chemerinsky have now weighed in. Tribe argues that the Senate has the power not to seat Burris, Chemerinsky disagrees. As I understand the Tribe argument, and if I understand it I buy it (though I should admit I haven't read Powell), Powell stands for the proposition that the House and Senate can't consider any qualifications of the candidate outside of the age, citizenship, and residency qualifications specified in the Constitution. In particularly, in making the seating decision, they can't consider whether or not the candidate is personally corrupt, as this takes the ability to choose their own Senator or Representative away from the relevant locality.
But they can consider whether the process by which the candidate was elected (or, analogously, appointed) was corrupt. Tribe gives multiple pre-Powell examples of the Senate making such determinations about process as part of their seating decisions, and believes that Powell doesn't stand for the proposition that there was anything problematic in those.
Relatedly, the first segment of last night's Colbert Report, which was the first after a long vacation, was awesome. It included Alan Colmes joining the show as Stephen's co-host, Stephen confusing Plaxico Burress with Roland Burris, and a great clip-based joke about the taint on Burris's candidacy. I'm keeping score for which of The Daily Show or Colbert Report was better on each night that I watch both this year; so far Colbert is way ahead (n=1).
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But they can consider whether the process by which the candidate was elected (or, analogously, appointed) was corrupt. Tribe gives multiple pre-Powell examples of the Senate making such determinations about process as part of their seating decisions, and believes that Powell doesn't stand for the proposition that there was anything problematic in those.
Relatedly, the first segment of last night's Colbert Report, which was the first after a long vacation, was awesome. It included Alan Colmes joining the show as Stephen's co-host, Stephen confusing Plaxico Burress with Roland Burris, and a great clip-based joke about the taint on Burris's candidacy. I'm keeping score for which of The Daily Show or Colbert Report was better on each night that I watch both this year; so far Colbert is way ahead (n=1).
