England for Obama

New readers start here:

Once upon a time, there was a Governor in Illinois called Rod Blagojevich. No one liked him much, because he was a cocky little so-and-so, and had a very silly hairdo.

There was also a Senator in Illinois called Barack Hussein Obama, who was greatly liked. Partly because he didn’t have a silly hairdo.

The Little Senator Who Could got elected to be President Of The United States – thus leaving his Senate seat empty. (Unlike in Britain, where you can be both the MP for Sedgefield and also the Prime Minister.  British MPs thus being more capable, or less conscientious, than American Senators. Take your pick.)

Now, when a Senate seat is left empty in such a case, it falls to a state’s governor (in our story: Blagojevich) to appoint the new Senator.

But guess what?! Blagojevich thought he could try to sell the Senate seat – for, y’know, gold and riches and haircuts and things – and was caught on tape a) trying to do just that and b) calling Obama a “motherf*****”.

An investigation ensued. The Democrats and Senator-turned-President-elect Obama’s team wiped their hands of Blagojevich and said that any selection made by Blagojevich (for a new Senator) would go unrecognised by them. What with him being under investigation, an’ all.

But remember that whole thing about Blagojevich being a cocky little so-and-so? Well, he is. So he went ahead and appointed someone anyway.

Enter Roland Burris.

And exit Roland Burris when he arrived in Washington to take that Senate seat:

Here was Rachel Maddow (and the great Ana Marie Cox) covering the Burris story – as well as coverage of the other Senators being sworn-in – yesterday:

Tags: ana marie cox, barack obama, barack obama news, countdown, keith olbermann, msnbc, Obama, rachel maddow, rod blagojevich, roland burris

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 10:50 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.