By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
It sounds like a big joke.
Former "Saturday Night Live" comedian Al Franken is the elected U.S. Senator from Minnesota. Or maybe not.
And Roland Burris of Illinois is on the cusp of becoming the only black member of the new Senate. Or maybe not.
On Tuesday the Senate is poised to decide whether either Democrat may join the exclusive club.
My call?
Seat them both -- provisionally, as the rules allow -- and let legal challenges take their course.
Franken has been declared the winner against Republican Norm Coleman after a vote-counting delay from November's election.
Burris has been legally appointed by Rod Blagojevich, the duly elected governor of Illinois.
Sure, lots of people don't think Blagojevich -- facing federal corruption charges -- should be appointing a replacement for Barack Obama.
But he legally has the right to do so. Blagojevich has placed the U.S. Senate in a fix if it denies entrance to Burris, who would be its only black member.
Provisionally seating Franken and Burris would allow legal challenges to proceed against allowing both candidates into the Senate.
And it would allow Minnesota and Illinois to be represented by two sitting Senators.
But keeping one or both out of the Senae would ratchet up the level of farce surrounding the whole issue.
Delicious
Digg
Sublime irony
Wah! Wah! Wah! Call the Supreme Court!
If we don't protect the freedom of speech how will we know who the a$$#@les are?
The Circus is back in town!
The circus has begun! Obama hasn't even been inaugurated yet, the new Congress hasn't even been seated yet, but we're already seeing the kinds of "Hope" and "Change" we can expect from the "democrats", that were foretold. Richardson, Panetta, now the Burris meltdown! I suggest that we might now consider an additional descriptive term besides the commonly used "Cluster----", we could also refer to this type of situation now as a "Full Blagojevich!" This is to be expected when qualifications, experience, patriotism, and the best interests of the nation are held in contempt, and only naked politics, cronyism, and self-interest are valued. (By the way, how much did BURRIS pay for the appointment?)
The Dems tried the re-count
The Dems tried the re-count until we win idea in Florida in 2000. It looks like they made it work in Minnesota in 2008.