Not exactly but almost exactly, I transcribed remarks made by “Representative” Bobby Rush (D-IL) on C-SPAN, pursuant to Blogojevich’s arrest for brazen corruption.
[Brackets are mine.]
”I am astounded, stunned and appalled. I’m in pain because once again it seems as though the CEO of a state has fallen victim [I LOVE that] to greed and gross malfeasance in office. People have been dealt a terrible blow.
They are entitled to look to the CEO of a state to try to help them deliver themselves from the pain of this economic downturn, this recession that we’re all going through. So I really am pained as are all the people of Illinois.
I am committed, as I have been, to a long term principle [PRINCIPLE?!] that whosever selects the replacement for President Elect Barack Obama, that that person chooses an African American.
In the midst of this hubbub and indeed hysteria, that principle is still cogent for me and rises up even out of the controversy that whoever chooses the next senator from the state of Illinois that that person indeed chooses an African American.
We do not currently have any African Americans in the senate. There are three or four Hispanics, two or three Asians, a number of women, but there are no African Americans in the Senate. And I think that is shameful that we don’t have an African American in the senate, so I have been for the three weeks, two weeks as a matter of fact, leading a petition drive trying to petition Governor Blogojevich to appoint an African American to replace Obama.
I am currently now assembling a team of lawyers to ascertain what is the legal avenue, what are the legal options in order to ensure that, one, we have quickly a decision to replace President Elect’s seat and, two, that we can have the best and most favorable way to position ourselves to make sure that that person is an African American. [Huh?]
We are studying the issues around a special election but it is my feeling that a special election would probably put MY community at a disadvantage in that we would be hard pressed to come up with the money and the mechanism to elect an African American in the next two to three months. [See Obama’s campaign surplus.] And I believe that the process, that the mechanism for a special election will have to take place no later than April because the people of the state of Illinois deserve to have another U.S. senator.
But I’m again personally, I feel in pain that this Governor had no limits that he was bound by. It seems to me that in his mind, anything goes.
And he’s been a friend of mine, but until I read the actual conversations and his reported comments, I never really believed that he just had very little restraints and restrictions on what he would and would not do.”
Bobby Rush…who stands firmly if not clearly on the point that it is an African American’s “turn” for a senate seat…answered the first reporter’s question thusly, at which point I had to turn off the television.
“I have been trying to operate based on a principle rather than on a personality.”
Coulda fooled me. Based on the flimsy evidence of his own words, I’da said that “representative” Bobby Rush operates very much on the basis of Race.
He should be recalled from office at the earliest opportunity.
And someone needs to quit pussy footing around just cuz our president-elect is black. Someone needs to roll up their sleeves and get to the bottom of WHY, until his arrest, pond scum Rod Blogojevich continued to enjoy a substantially higher favorability ranking among BLACK Illinois voters than among ALL Illinois voters.