Professor Pitney's CNN Debut

It's about three-quarters of the way through this clip. Take a look. He's being quoted on Meg Whitman, the woman who would be governor. 

Oh, and for the record, I did see that he wrote that in his status on Facebook. So there. 

Jesus Can Pull Us Out of Depression?

I have the utmost respect for people of faith, but CMC alum and Christian Science minister Ron Ballard's approach of praying to get us out of an economic downturn strikes me as more than a little, well, misguided. 

I mean come on, doesn't Ballard know that the One, Obama, has already heard our prayers and will be president soon enough? The solution isn't prayer, it's Keynesian economics! Tax and spend, tax and spend! 

Breaking: Roland Burris' Attorney Went to CMC!

Meet Timothy W. Wright III CMC '77

One of the Claremont Conservative's readers just informed me that the main attorney for Roland Burris, Timothy W. Wright III, is a CMC alum! You can read Wright's resume here. 

Roland Burris, for those of you who don't know, is the pick that disgraced Democrat and Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich, selected to fill Barack Obama's Senate seat. Among other things, like cheating hospitals and threatening journalists, Blagojevich is in trouble for allegedly trying to sell the seat in exchange for campaign contributions.  Wright's been making the rounds and his case for why Roland Burris ought to be seated.

Here he is in CNN.

Timothy W. Wright III, an attorney for Burris, did not give specifics about the next move but said he was prepared to take the issue to "the highest court in the land."

He said the rejection of Burris' credentials was "improperly done" and "is against the law of this land."

"The outcome that we will be looking for is that Sen. Roland Burris will be standing on the floor of the Senate conducting his responsibilities as the junior senator from the state of Illinois," Wright said.

Thanks to former CI editor, C. Apollo Morgan CMC '04 I have this blog post on Bench Memos that directs you to the letter Wright wrote on behalf of Burris. Wright actually cites Marbury v. Madison in the letter! You can listen to Wright give a press conference here after about one minute in.

Politically, I thought the move to pick Burris was very smart for Blagojevich, who surely isn't feeling as much heat as he once was now that the nation's focused on the constitutionality of the pick. That Burris is black and the Democrat Senate would be refusing to seat him adds to the comedy as the Democrats tend to be so wedded to racial politics. 

I haven't yet made up my mind about whether or not Roland Burris should be seated. I generally agree with Reason Magazine's Steve Chapman that Burris is an empty suit, careerist politician. 

But the 17th Amendment is clear on this. The governor gets to appoint replacements. Now I happen to share Professor Ralph Rossum's view that the Seventeenth Amendment probably ought to be repealed given that it erodes the principles of federalism that are supposed to permeate the Constitution, but the People did vote for it and so they end up getting the government they deserve.  (You can read some great arguments about that mistake in National Review Online here. If you are more brave, here's the masterful review of Rossum's book in The Claremont Review of Books.)

 I suspect part of the reason Harry Reid is making a big deal about this is that he's going to get kicked out of the Senate in 2010 for how corrupt and poorly managed the Senate has been. He's trying to look tough and yet compromising. I don't think it will work. 

Meanwhile I suspect that if Burris is seated that the Republican challenger will announce his candidacy for 2010 sometime in the next week or so afterwards. He'd be wise to do that because that way he can be the shadow government that assumes control once the people of Illinois wake up and vote Burris and the rest of the crooks out of office.