Blagojevich: A Bold Appointment

Will Roland W. Burris be sworn is as a Senator for the State of Illinois? He should be. The governor of his state has appointed him to fill the seat vacated by president-elect Barack Obama. The law gives to the governor the right to make this appointment.

Of course, Mr. Burris, a career Illinois politician of unblemished reputation, was appointed by none other thant Governor Rod Blagojevich, a man just about every righteous American seems these days to hate. Why the man tried to sell Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder, didn't he?

Those are the allegations of the United States Attorney's Office, which has presented the evidence against the governor to a secret grand jury and secured his indictment. What's more, the same U.S. Attorney's Office has taken its case against Blagojevich to the press. Secret recordings have been made public, and U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is egging on efforts of Illinois lawmakers to impeach the governor. It is a powerful lynch mob.

I do not know whether the governor did anything wrong. I do know that he is presumed innocent of the charges against him. He has yet to confront his accusers and tell his side of the story. Perhaps his defense will be an indictment of the status quo: "Money talks in electoral politics; what I did differs in degree but not in kind from what is done in each and every race for elective office." Or perhaps he will claim entrapment. Whatever the defense, he has a right to make it before he is strung up from a lamp post and left to swing in the wind.

Senate Democrats and President Obama have already denounced the appointment of Burris, yet no one can speak a foul word of him other than he was appointed by Blagojevich. Burris is qualified by age, citizenship and residency for the position. Attempts to bar him from sitting should fail as a matter of law, a lesson we already learned when Congress tried to bar Adam Clayton Powell from sitting in the 1960s.

What terrifies about the reaction to this appointment is the ease with which we abandon the rule of law for something akin to mob passion. Sure, Blagojevich governs under a cloud. His effectiveness as governor is compromised. He cannot lead. Whether these are grounds for impeachment is a political question best left to the Illinois legislature. A more gracious man might have stepped aside while he addressed the allegations. But grace is not required.

The German sociologist Max Weber taught a century ago that there are different ways in which societies transform raw power into legitimate authority. Rational political systems have transparent rules and norms for doing so. By contrast, charismatic systems rely upon the passion inspired by powerful leaders, and, perhaps, events. The problem with charisma is that is can lead just about anywhere. Hence, in a political system such as ours, we erect checks and balances to channel passions; we enact rights to place limits on what can be done to even those accused of the worst crimes imaginable. In the Blogojevich case, we appear willing to ignore the requirements of law merely to serve a furious sense of self-righteousness.

The question no one seems to be asking just now is whether Blagojevich will ever be able to get a fair trial. Hasn't the government now so fouled the pool of potential jurors with its unnecessary and unjustifiable pre-trial publicity that a fair trial is impossible? Will these charges be dismissed?

Such a result is unthinkable in the heat of the moment. We all hate the corrupt pol who has somehow managed to throw manure onto Obama's rose-petal covered procession to the White House. But I would be far more comforted by a dismissal of the charges as a sanction against abuse of prosecutorial authority than I would be by summary execution of Blagojevich.

Blogojevich is presumed innocent. If he cannot govern, he should be impeached. But until there is either a finding of guilt or a vote to remove him from office he is, like or not, governor of Illinois. As a matter of law, he has the right to appoint Obama's replacement.

Blagojevich: Charisma Kills

Repeat after me: Charisma kills. Sometimes it takes a life; more often it yields a willing suspension of belief. When overcome by a charismatic leader, we endow others with near mythic qualities. Charisma can make fools of us. It can rob us in the dead of night of things of great value.

Consider for a moment the prosecution of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The governor is accused of trying to sell a vacant U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder. We've heard his voice on tape, sounding like a surly thug looking to take care of Numero Uno.

His conduct was all the more jarring as the seat for sale was the one belonging to none other than Barack Obama, the new King Arthur, on his way to Washington for a second round of Camelot. Did John F. Kennedy break a religious barrier becoming the first Catholic to serve as president? Well, so, too does Obama break a barrier, in this case a more fundamental line, the color line. He is all hope for a better day. And so are we.

The contrast between Blagojevich and Obama is almost Manichean in intensity: good facing evil. We must expunge evil at all costs. Just days after the arrest of Blagojevich, Illinois' attorney general asked the state's Supreme Court to remove the governor from office as unfit. Where were the protests against this precipitous attempt to abuse the legal process? If Blagojevich cannot govern, that is a political question. The courts ought not to be conducting coups in response to allegations in federal indictments.

The Illinois legislature is now considering indictment of the governor. We're still punch drunk enough to want to rush to judgment. When Blagojevich stands his ground to fight, critics rail that he has lost his mind. I worry rather that it is we who have lost our bearings.

What has become of the presumption of innocence? Sure, the governor is on tape. Sure he said somethings that sound mighty incriminating. But tapes never tell the entire story. What was said before the recordings began? What was whispered before the "on" button was switched? What enemies set a perfect trap for a man they wanted to topple?

Barack Obama has been swept into office on a crest of hope. He is a spellbinding orator, a Black Everyman whose dream has become our reality. It is understandable that we sit back dazed, and suspend judgment, hoping, this once, that the gods will redeem their promise of redemption. This charismatic powerhouse promises to blur old distinctions and remake us anew. That is the gift of charisma, a transforming power to recast the very terms in which we conceive of the possible.

But charisma is invariably broken. Christ's cross, King's bullet, Kennedy's trip to Dallas. None of us are larger than life. And when dreams become nightmares lesser mortals find security in more mundane promises and procedures. The rule of law is such a source of mundane order.

Illinois is rushing headlong to judgment, trying to sweep the embarrassment of Blagojevich under a rug, the better to bask in Obama's rays of hope. But that is a mistake. The governor is within his rights to insist that he be tried by a jury before being found guilty. The rush to judgment in Illinois is the act of a righteous mob, the scariest sort of mob.

And who is the mob's ring leader? Why none other that Illinois' U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. He has asked a federal court for permission to share secret grand jury material to the Illinois impeachment committee. Where is the outrage over this? When a defendant seeks such material he runs face first into a stone wall of privilege. Why is the accused in this case being crucified on a cross of hypocrisy?

Don't get me wrong, from afar, Blagojevich does not look appealing. But he will soon be gone or acquitted. What scares me more than a rogue governor is a rogue Government, fueled by the passions of folks willing to sacrifice procedural safeguards and the rule of law the better to protect the afterglow of a newly elected and charismatic man to the presidency.

Charisma kills, I tell you. It is killing now. And no few seem to notice.