Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele holds a gavel after he was elected chairman of the Republican National Committee on Friday, Jan. 30, 2009 in Washington. AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

 

On a day where momentum shifted and hopes were raised and dashed, Michael Steele was elected chairman of the Republican National Committee.

The former lieutenant governor of Maryland and the party's Senate nominee in 2006, Steele is the first African-American to lead the Republican Party. Democrats broke the party chair color barrier in 1989 with the election of Ron Brown.

Steele defeated a field that included South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson, Michigan party Chairman Saul Anuzis, former Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, and Mike Duncan, who had been the RNC chairman since 2007, when he was named by President Bush.

Steele defeated Dawson on the sixth ballot by a vote of 91 to 77. Eighty-five votes were needed to win.

In a rousing speech after the balloting was over, Steele promised to make the party's case in all parts of the country, especially in areas where the GOP has not won in recent years -- the Northeast and the West Coast.

Having lost the White House in 2008 after eight years of control, as well as both houses of Congress in 2006, the party is trying to find its way. In Steele, they have a charismatic figure who by his many appearances on the Fox News Channel is a familiar face to many Americans.

After having served in county and state Republican politics, Steele was elected lieutenant governor of Maryland in 2002 on the ticket headed by Bob Ehrlich -- the first Republican to win the governorship in the state in 36 years.

Results of the fifth ballot in the contest for Republican National Committee chairman:

Michael Steele -- 79 (up 19)
Katon Dawson -- 69 (up 7)
Saul Anuzis -- 20 (down 11)

Anuzis has withdrawn. And Steele is now only six votes away from the magic number of 85.

The first part of his speech was expected: Ken Blackwell, the former Ohio secretary of state mired in fourth place in his bid to be the next chairman of the Republican National Committee, withdrew his name from consideration.

"We must be a party that makes good the promise of Lincoln. We must unleash a new birth of freedom."

The second part was not expected. Blackwell endorsed the candidacy of Michael Steele.

Fifth ballot coming up. If all 15 Blackwell votes go to Steele, the former Maryland lieutenant governor will have 75 votes, 10 short of victory. Then everyone will be watching what happens with the 31 votes of Saul Anuzis, the Michigan GOP chair, if it is perceived that the race has come down to a two-way contest between Steele and South Carolina Republican Chair Katon Dawson.

This is probably the second-best day of my life.

Results of the fourth ballot in the contest for Republican National Committee chairman:

Katon Dawson -- 62 (up 28 from the third ballot)
Michael Steele -- 60 (up 9)
Saul Anuzis -- 31 (up 7)
Ken Blackwell -- 15 (no change)

Dawson apparently has been the big beneficiary of Chairman Mike Duncan's withdrawal from the race. He is now 23 votes away from the magic number of 85 needed to win. Lots of speculation here over what Blackwell will do.

It's been a long day. Can someone please check my first RNC post and see who I predicted would win?

As members of the Republican National Committee were preparing to vote on the fourth ballot, Mike Duncan -- the current chair -- came to the platform and announced he was withdrawing from the race.

"The winds of change are blowing at the RNC. I understand what is going on." And then he said he was taking his name out of consideration for another term.

During the speech, and at its conclusion, he was met with a standing ovation.

Duncan, named to head the RNC by President Bush in 2007, did not endorse a successor.

Results of the third ballot in the contest for Republican National Committee chairman:

Michael Steele -- 51 (up 3 from the second ballot)
Mike Duncan -- 44 (down 4)
Katon Dawson -- 34 (up 5)
Saul Anuzis -- 24 (no change)
Ken Blackwell -- 15 (down 4)

Steele just walked by and gave a thumbs up. Asked what he needs to do to get to the magic number of 85, he said, "That's the big question."

Do we ask probing questions here or what??

Results of the second ballot in the contest for Republican National Committee chairman:

Mike Duncan -- 48 (down 4 from first ballot)
Michael Steele -- 48 (up 2)
Katon Dawson -- 29 (up 1)
Saul Anuzis -- 24 (up 2)
Ken Blackwell -- 19 (down 1)

A gasp in the audience greeted the news that Steele had drawn even with Duncan. I think people are finally realizing that the longer this goes on, the less likelihood there will be ScuttleButton puzzle today. Maybe that explains the gasp.

A majority of RNC members -- 85 -- is needed to win.

Results of the first ballot in the contest for Republican National Committee chairman:

Mike Duncan -- 52
Michael Steele -- 46
Katon Dawson -- 28
Saul Anuzis -- 22
Ken Blackwell -- 20

The total for Duncan, the reigning GOP chair, was less than anticipated. They just announced box lunches are about to be sent in. Fried chicken, and deal-making, seem to be the order of the day.

P.S. The Capital Hilton has alerted the GOP that people need to be out of here by 5 p.m. so they can set up for a wedding. That might quicken things up. Or, in the words of one Anuzis backer, "Heck, we'll just go over to Burger King and continue."

The voting has begun for chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Five candidates were placed in nomination.

Gary Jones, the GOP state chair from Oklahoma, led off the speeches by nominating Ken Blackwell, the former Ohio secretary of state. He said Blackwell has stood up for conservative values, has been a strong leader and is someone who can broaden the base and "bring the base home."

Joyce Lyons Terhes, GOP national committeewoman from Maryland, nominated Michael Steele, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland. She called him a "dynamic new leader" with quality values, someone who doubled fundraising when he headed up the Maryland state party. Under Steele's leadership, Maryland elected its first Republican governor (Bob Ehrlich) in 40 years.

Matt Strawn, the newly elected GOP state chair from Iowa, nominated Mike Duncan, the current RNC chair. He said Duncan is ready to continue his fight on behalf of conservative values and "shared beliefs."

Glenn McCall, the GOP national committeeman from South Carolina, nominated his state party's chair, Katon Dawson. McCall said Dawson has "turned our party around with a lot of hard work." He has "inspired voters" and rebuilt the party's grass roots. "We're not like Democrats," McCall said. "We are about experience and accomplishments." Under Dawson's stewardship of the party, Republicans have elected two governors and majorities in both houses of the state Legislature (first time since Reconstruction).

Keith Butler, the GOP national committeeman from Michigan, nominated his state party's chair, Saul Anuzis. Butler called Anuzis a "consistent, outspoken and courageous conservative," the "ultimate techno-man who understands new techniques and new tactics." Anuzis is "willing to go anywhere to take our message to the people -- to the barrios, to the ghettos, everywhere."

The voting is taking place by secret ballot. This could take a while. If I never see you again, if I'm destined to spend the rest of my life here, please know that I really intended to post a new ScuttleButton puzzle today. Honest.

Sitting in the ballroom, waiting for the 168 members of the Republican National Committee to begin the process of electing their party chairman. The tension here is so thick, and the cliches are so prevalent, that you can cut them with a knife.

Voting begins at 10:30 a.m. Five candidates are in the running: Mike Duncan, who is seeking a second term, and four challengers: Michael Steele, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland who was his party's Senate nominee in 2006; Kenneth Blackwell, the former secretary of state of Ohio and 2006 gubernatorial candidate who, like Steele, is African-American; Katon Dawson, the GOP chair of South Carolina; and Saul Anuzis, who heads up the state party in Michigan.. Another candidate, Chip Saltsman -- who headed up Mike Huckabee's presidential bid last year and who achieved his share of notoriety for having sent out a CD to RNC members that included the parody song "Barack the Magic Negro" -- withdrew from the contest last night.

Duncan is thought to be going into the first ballot with the most votes. But having headed the GOP during the disastrous 2008 cycle, there is strong sentiment that the party should look elsewhere for new leadership.

A quick glance at the folks here shows strong sentiment -- or at least lapel stickers -- for all the candidates except Blackwell. But as I pointed out in my earlier post, he has an impressive roster of conservative backers. The question is, how many of them can vote today?

There is no provision for the low man on the totem pole to withdraw from the race at the end of each round. So there's no telling how long the balloting will go. But your faithful companion will be here with all the heart-racing, pulse-pounding details.

Michael Steele is one of two African-Americans hoping to head up the RNC.

Ordinarily I would concede that it's hard to even get political junkies excited about the election of a new national party chairman. This is inside baseball to the extreme.

But when you're the Republican Party, and you have no obvious front-runner to recapture the presidency, and that new guy in the White House who beat you is extremely popular, and your leader in the House is the same guy who watched the Democrats net 50 seats the past two cycles, and your leader in the Senate is more of a tactician than a charismatic national figure, maybe the person elected to head up the GOP is someone worth watching.

If we're not exactly sure what message the party is trying to deliver in the wake of its defeat last November, there is one thing we are sure of: Republicans want to move in a new direction. And that's why my gut tells me that Mike Duncan, who headed up the party since 2007 as the personal choice of President Bush, is not going to get re-elected. That's not to say that Duncan isn't a good guy; he's just Bush's guy. And with Bush's policies being repudiated by voters in both 2006 and 2008, keeping Duncan just doesn't make sense.

(Was Duncan a good fundraiser? Yes. Was it his fault that John McCain had trouble connecting with grass-roots conservatives? No. And shouldn't he get credit for the post-Nov. 4 Republican victories in the Georgia Senate race and picking up the House seat of Bill Jefferson in Louisiana? Sure, why not? Let's give him that. But with the "change" mantra working so well for the Dems, I would think that a party that so desperately needs a new course would look elsewhere.)

Four candidates are vying to replace him. Two of them are African-American: Michael Steele, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland and a regular commentator on the Fox News Channel, and Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio's former secretary of state and the GOP nominee for governor in 2006. The other two are white state party chairmen: Saul Anuzis of Michigan and Katon Dawson of South Carolina.

Another candidate, Chip Saltsman, dropped out of the contest yesterday. Saltsman, a former party chair from Tennessee who ran Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign last year, got some unwanted attention at Christmas when he mailed out a holiday CD to RNC members that included a song called "Barack the Magic Negro." He called it "light-hearted" satire; others called it poor taste. As it was, Saltsman's candidacy suffered because of it, and he never was a factor in the race.

To win, a candidate needs 50 percent plus one of the 168 members of the Republican National Committee who will be eligible to vote -- thus, 85 members. Duncan may indeed have the most committed votes at this stage, but I suspect that as the last place finishers drop out after each round, RNC members will coalesce around someone else. My guess is that it's Dawson.

It's not that the South Carolinian doesn't have his own problems. Until last fall, he was a member of an all-white country club, a curious message to send if the party is looking to increase its support among black and Latino voters.

But the other candidates have their own vulnerabilities as well. Anuzis has been feuding with other Michigan Republicans, who argue that under his watch the party has lost too many Senate, gubernatorial and congressional races. Steele is accused by many of being too moderate; Blackwell of being too far to the right.

On that latter point, it is fair to say that Blackwell has indeed picked up a slew of endorsements from both social and economic conservatives. That list includes Steve Forbes, Gary Aldrich, Phyllis Schlafly, Pat Toomey, Brent Bozell, James Dobson, Ed Meese, Tony Perkins, David Keene, Tim LaHaye and Richard Viguerie.

The other ghost in the room, other than that of George W. Bush, is Howard Dean. Dean, the recently departed chairman of the Democratic National Committee, pushed a "50-state strategy" when he took over the DNC in 2005. And whether you agree or not with the assessment that he did a good job -- I think he did -- he brought new technology and new troops to states that had long gone without any Democratic Party presence. The next Republican chairman can only hope to duplicate Dean's success.

Then-Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn talks to the media at a Jan. 23 news conference in Chicago. Quinn discussed what he would do if he were to become governor. M. Spencer Green/AP

 

Despite his long career in politics, he was never seen as a powerhouse. He was more of a "goo-goo" -- one of those "good government" liberal populist reformers. He was dismissed as a gadfly, an odd-duck publicity-seeker, not especially known as a team player. Certainly not a go-along-to-get-along type of guy. He made his share of political enemies, many from his own Democratic Party.

But he is Pat Quinn, and Pat Quinn is now Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn. His ascension became official today when the state Senate, by a unanimous 59-0 vote, officially ended the governorship of Rod Blagojevich.

If Blagojevich was vain and over the top, Quinn, 60 years old, is a mostly humor-challenged pol. He is an outsider who spent many years, and many elections, trying to make it on the inside. He champions the little guy, the powerless, with his longtime support for citizen initiatives, and he has spent a career battling special interests.

But he is not the most popular pol in Springfield either. His successful effort to cut the size of the state Legislature left him with some bitter enemies. And now he has become the most powerful person in Illinois state government.

Campaign record. In 1986, he sought the Democratic nomination for Illinois state treasurer but finished third in the primary to Jerry Cosentino. In 1990, with Cosentino running for secretary of state, Quinn was elected treasurer (with, by the way, the help of strategist David Axelrod).

Four years later he took the same route as his predecessor Cosentino: He ran for secretary of state. But he lost to Republican George Ryan, later the governor and later convicted of corruption. In 1996, Sen. Paul Simon (D) retired, and Quinn jumped into the primary to succeed him. But he got clobbered by a downstate congressman, Dick Durbin, now the Senate majority whip. In 1998 he lost a bid to become lieutenant governor.

But four years later, in 2002, he tried again, and he won the Democratic primary for LG and found himself on the same ticket as the party's gubernatorial candidate, Congressman Rod Blagojevich. Had it been an ordinary year, Quinn could have once again gone down to defeat. But by 2002, the Republlicans in Illinois were reeling, the governor under a corruption investigation that would eventually send him to prison. The Blagojevich-Quinn ticket won, and despite the hints of the governor's ethics woes throughout much of his first term, they were re-elected in 2006.

But by his own admission, he hasn't been close to the governor. At the time of Blagojevich's arrest on Dec. 9, Quinn said the two hadn't spoken in a year. He certainly didn't hesitate to talk about him, though, saying that the governor should resign his office.

He wouldn't. The Illinois state Senate decided the issue by convicting him today. And now Pat Quinn, gadfly outsider, is governor.

One of the interesting aftermaths of all this is the looming presence of 2010. Lisa Madigan, the state attorney general and a longtime Blago foe, had been preparing to run for governor next year, taking on Blagojevich in the primary if she had to. Now, with Quinn as governor, that dynamic has changed. Stay tuned.

The political career of Rod Blagojevich is over.

The Illinois state Senate has voted unanimously to remove Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) from office. The 59-0 vote comes nearly three weeks after the state House voted 114-1 to impeach him.

The vote came after a lengthy, but ultimately unsuccessful, effort by Blagojevich to make his case that removing him from office was unwarranted and, without (as he said) proof of wrongdoing, would be a "dangerous and chilling precedent." But lawmakers were well aware of phone conversations the governor had -- taped by federal prosecutors -- that talked of, among other things, a desire to sell Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder.

The first line of a press release from Rep. Phil Hare (D-IL): "Good riddance."

The lieutenant governor, Pat Quinn (D), will be the new governor. He will be sworn in shortly. Click here to see his political profile.

Jan. 29, 1984:

President Ronald Reagan declares his candidacy for a second term.

He will go on to win renomination with little opposition and defeat Democratic challenger Walter Mondale in November in a landslide, carrying 49 of 50 states.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

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Rod Blagojevich may be hours away from becoming only the eighth governor in U.S. history to be impeached and removed from office. The other seven:

William Holden of North Carolina, 1871
David Butler of Nebraska, 1871
William Sulzer of New York, 1913
James Ferguson of Texas, 1917*
John Walton of Oklahoma, 1923
Henry Johnston of Oklahoma, 1929
Evan Mecham of Arizona, 1988

POSTSCRIPT: Robert Yoon of CNN correctly notes that Ferguson resigned as governor of Texas on Aug. 25, 1917, the day before his conviction was announced.

Governor, but not for long.

Rod Blagojevich (D), in a last-ditch attempt to stave off a vote that would end his governorship, spent 48 minutes in an impassioned speech before the Illinois state Senate arguing that removing him from office without proof of wrongdoing would be a "dangerous and chilling precedent."

Blagojevich had been boycotting the state Senate trial, which was convened following the 114-1 vote to impeach him in the state House on Jan. 9. His "closing argument" today was not the same as testifying; had he done the latter, he would have been subjected to questions from lawmakers.

The governor was arrested on Dec. 9, with prosecutors alleging he had, among other things, attempted to sell Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder. They had been tapping his phone. From the outset, he has insisted on his own innocence, saying he had done nothing wrong and certainly that there was no proof he had.

He begged the lawmakers to let him prove his innocence by calling witnesses who he said would back up his case -- such as White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (his successor in Congress), Obama aide Valerie Jarrett, and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL), all of whom either spoke with the governor or were presumably taped in phone calls with the governor in conversations about the Senate seat.

For much of today's speech he talked about how he fought for seniors on the importation of cheaper drugs from Canada and what he accomplished in his six years as governor. At other times, he rambled. But all the while his argument was the same: How can you throw a governor out of office with no proof of wrongdoing? Why won't you allow me to call witnesses who will attest to my innocence?

He finished at about 12:53 p.m. Eastern time. Right now a prosecutorial rebuttal is being heard by Illinois lawmakers. A vote -- two-thirds of the 59 senators (40) is required to convict -- is expected later today.

Assuming the votes are there -- and there is no reason to suspect they are not -- Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn (D) will soon become the next governor of Illinois.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has begun to address the state Senate for his "closing argument" in his impeachment trial.

The Obama-Biden administration has been in power for nine days already, so you'd figure it's time to start thinking about 2012. Well, maybe not for everyone, but certainly for Noemi Levine of Berkeley, Calif., who asks this question:

Do you think Vice President Joe Biden will retire after his first term, giving another Democrat a foot in the door to run for president in 2016? Otherwise the Democrats will be in the same predicament the Republicans were in this go-round, and are sure to fall on their faces when Obama leaves after two terms to take up his seat in the Senate again.

Biden will be 70 years old in 2012, hardly an age where an incumbent vice president might think of retiring. As for the Democrats being without an heir apparent in '16 -- as what befell the Republicans last year -- that's less of a concern than what the state of the union will be by then. With or without a president-in-waiting, Democrats will have no shortage of candidates ready to succeed Obama, should he be re-elected in 2012. And, in case you are wondering, Hillary Clinton will be only 69 in 2016.

And speaking of Biden's age, there's this question from Ron Merlo of Glendale, Calif.:

Except for Alben Barkley, who was 71 on Inauguration Day, how would Biden's age compare with other vice presidents?

Only five were older. Barkley, as you correctly note, was 71. Charles Curtis, VP under Herbert Hoover, was 69 years old when he took office in 1929. Elbridge Gerry, the fifth vice president who served under James Madison, was 68 (and died in office a year and a half later). William King (VP under Franklin Pierce) was 66 years and 11 months old when he became vice president; he died of tuberculosis 45 days after he was sworn in. Nelson Rockefeller, appointed vice president by Gerald Ford, was 66 years and five months. Biden was 66 years and two months old at his swearing in last week.

Staying on the Biden theme, Jean Seibel of Bellevue, Neb., wants to know why his oath -- that of the vice president -- was different from Obama's.

I don't know the answer to that, though while the 35-word oath for the president is in the Constitution, there is no mention of a VP oath. Biden's oath was the same one he took as senator, so I suspect the reason for that is, as president of the Senate, the vice president was seen as more like a senator than as the chief executive. Anyone have a more coherent answer?

And then there was this from Mark Curley of New York:

Joe Biden and Dick Cheney both come from states with three electoral votes. Has it ever happened that two successive vice presidents came from such electorally insignificant states? And, since Sarah Palin also comes from a state with only three electoral votes, I wonder if the two major parties have ever nominated two VP candidates from such small states.

Never before have there been back-to-back vice presidents from states with so few (three!) electoral votes. And never before has an election featured VP candidates from such electorally deficient states. In the old days, of course, many running mates were chosen because of their hoped-for ability to bring along their vote-rich home states.

And yes, I made a mistake in yesterday's posting about the four new appointed senators in Delaware, Colorado, Illinois and New York. I wrote that in Delaware, Ted Kaufman was chosen to fill "the last two years of the term vacated" by Biden. Not so, correctly notes Des O'Dwyer from Roscommon, Ireland:

In fact, Joe Biden got re-elected to a full six-year term last year, but Kaufman can only do two years before a special election is called. He's not filling the last two years; he's filling the first two years of Biden's latest term!

Yesterday's trivia question during the Political Junkie segment on NPR's Talk of the Nation was, with the Super Bowl coming up on Sunday, what former player on a Super Bowl team later ran for Congress. The answer was Phil McConkey of the New York Giants, who sought a New Jersey congressional seat in 1990 but was defeated in the Republican primary by Dick Zimmer.

Evan Balkan of Lutherville, Md., thinks we're mistaken:

Today's quiz answer was incorrect (I'm fairly certain anyway). Peter Boulware, a linebacker on the Baltimore Ravens' 2001 winning Super Bowl squad, ran for and was subsequently appointed to a House seat in Florida this past November.

That is not correct. Boulware ran for a seat in the Florida House of Representatives, not Congress. Last year, he was the GOP nominee for the state House seat. After he lost -- narrowly -- he was appointed to the state Board of Education by Gov. Charlie Crist.

But Mason Macklem of Halifax, Nova Scotia (one of those pesky Canadian provinces) correctly takes issue with my assertion that J.C. Watts, the former Oklahoma GOP congressman, never played pro football:

Watts had a short (1981-1986) but moderately successful professional career in the Canadian Football League, playing for the Ottawa Rough Riders, and was even the MVP of the Grey Cup (the equivalent of the Super Bowl in the CFL) in his rookie season.

Minnick, an Idaho freshman, was one of only 11 Dems to vote against the stimulus bill.

He wooed them; he flattered them; he listened to them. But when all was said and done, no Republican in the House voted for the $819 billion economic stimulus bill pushed hard by President Obama. Nonetheless, it passed yesterday by a 244-to-188 tally.

I suspect that some House Republicans liked the attention they got from the new president; there's nothing worse when you're in the minority party in the House and your party doesn't control the White House. You're just not relevant. It's akin to being a Maytag repairman. But there was never any indication that despite the tax-cut sweeteners, a sizable number were going to be persuaded. As it was, the sizable number was zero.

And that was fine with Pat Toomey, the former Pennsylvania congressman and head of the fiscal conservative Club for Growth, who warned:

No congressman can vote for the stimulus bill and claim to be a defender of economic freedom. In fact, the Democrats' package is the antithesis of economic freedom. The bill is a paragon of government run amuck, a ballooning deficit, fiscal irresponsibility, and political greed.

And I suspect that some House Democrats resented the compromises made by Obama to get GOP votes, sensing that they didn't need to dilute the bill to pass it. Bob Herbert, in his New York Times column on Tuesday, wrote that it would be foolhardy to listen to the GOP when assembling this bill:

When the G.O.P. talks, nobody should listen. Republicans have argued, with the collaboration of much of the media, that they could radically cut taxes while simultaneously balancing the federal budget, when, in fact, big income-tax cuts inevitably lead to big budget deficits. We listened to the G.O.P. and what do we have now? A trillion-dollar-plus deficit and an economy in shambles.

In the end, I also suspect that what Obama was doing was less trying to win over Republicans than to make a point that he would consult with the GOP in trying to push his agenda -- unlike, say, his predecessor, who often eschewed the need to talk to congressional Democrats. And while it turned out that Obama didn't need any GOP votes yesterday, he might need them in the future. And thus the attempt at dialogue.

For the record, while no Republican voted for the stimulus bill, 11 Democrats voted against it. They are:

Bobby Bright (AL), Parker Griffith (AL), Allen Boyd (FL), Walt Minnick (ID), Brad Ellsworth (IN), Frank Kratovil (MD), Collin Peterson (MN), Gene Taylor (MS), Heath Shuler (NC), Paul Kanjorski (PA), and Jim Cooper (TN). Bright, Griffith, Minnick and Kratovil are all freshmen.

The Senate takes up a similar, more expensive, version of the bill next week.

John Cullerton, president of the Illinois state Senate, which is presently deciding the fate of Rod Blagojevich, said today that the governor wants to make a closing statement at his impeachment trial tomorrow. Cullerton pointed out that Blagojevich doesn't necessarily want to testify; that would put him in the position of answering questions from lawmakers.

This would be the governor's first appearance at the trial. Currently on a media blitz, he has refused to show up in Springfield because he says the rules governing the trial are unfair. He is not, for example, allowed to call witnesses, and the gov wants to bring White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Obama aide Valerie Jarrett, and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. to the stand to back up his claim that he never suggested anything illegal in his conversations with them about the Obama Senate seat.

The Illinois House voted 117-1 to impeach Blagojevich on Jan. 9 -- one month after his arrest on corruption charges. A two-thirds vote -- 40 of the 59 senators -- is needed to remove him from office. The vote could take place tomorrow.

If Blagojevich is removed, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, his fellow Democrat, would become governor.

Jan. 28, 1983:

Laxalt was President Reagan's best friend in the Senate.

The Republican National Committee elects Sen. Paul Laxalt of Nevada, a strong ally of President Reagan, as its first-ever general chairman, along with his protege, Frank Fahrenkopf, as chairman, who will run the day-to-day operations of the RNC.

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Lots to talk about in today's Political Junkie segment on NPR's Talk of the Nation:

-- Kirsten Gillibrand gets a new job in New York. Will David Paterson soon be looking for one as well?

-- Rod Blagojevich continues his Magical Mystery Tour.

-- Tim Geithner is in at Treasury; Eric Holder on his way.

-- Republicans, courted by Obama, look to elect a new national party chairman.

This week's special guest: Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), who will talk about his proposed constitutional amendment to take the power of appointing senators away from governors and instead have it decided by special elections.

Remember, the Political Junkie segment airs every Wednesday at 2 p.m. Eastern time on Talk of the Nation, NPR's call-in program, where you can often, but not always, find interesting conversation, useless trivia questions and sparkling jokes.

And remember, if your local NPR station doesn't carry TOTN, you can hear the program on the Web or on HD Radio. And if you are a subscriber to XM/Sirius radio, you can find the show there as well (siriusly).

You can listen to last week's show -- with special guest Jonathan Turley on the inaugural oath gaffe -- here.

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Not every gubernatorial appointment of a senator is as rocky or controversial as the recent situations in Illinois or New York. But nor do they always survive their next chance to stay in office.

Below, a list of the last time in the past half-century each state had an appointed senator and how that appointee fared in the next election:

ALABAMA -- Maryon Allen (D)
Appointed: 6/8/78 to replace her late husband, Sen. Jim Allen.
Next election: Defeated in 1978 Democratic primary runoff by Donald Stewart.

ALASKA -- Lisa Murkowski (R)
Appointed: 12/20/02 by her father, Gov. Frank Murkowski, who had resigned his Senate seat after he was elected governor.
Next election: Elected in 2004, defeating former Gov. Tony Knowles (D).

ARIZONA -- none

ARKANSAS -- Kaneaster Hodges (D)
Appointed: 12/10/77 to replace the late Sen. John McClellan (D).
Next election: Did not run.

CALIFORNIA -- John Seymour (R)
Appointed: 1/10/91 by Gov. Pete Wilson, who resigned his Senate seat after he was elected governor.
Next election: Defeated in 1992 by Dianne Feinstein (D).

COLORADO -- none

CONNECTICUT -- none

DELAWARE -- none

FLORIDA -- none

GEORGIA -- Zell Miller (D)
Appointed: 7/27/00 to replace the late Sen. Paul Coverdell (R).
Next election: Elected in 2000, defeating former Sen. Mack Mattingly (R).

HAWAII -- Daniel Akaka (D)
Appointed: 5/16/90 to replace the late Sen. Spark Matsunaga (D).
Next election: Elected in 1990, defeating Rep. Pat Saiki (R). Re-elected three times since and still serves.

IDAHO -- Len Jordan (R)
Appointed: 8/6/62 to replace the late Sen. Henry Dworshak (R).
Next election: Elected in 1962, defeating Rep. Gracie Pfost (D). Re-elected again.

ILLINOIS -- Ralph Tyler Smith (R)
Appointed: 9/17/69 to replace the late Sen. Everett Dirksen (R).
Next election: Defeated in 1970 by Adlai Stevenson III (D).

INDIANA -- Dan Coats (R)
Appointed: 1/3/89 to replace Sen. Dan Quayle (R), who was elected vice president.
Next election: Elected in 1990, defeating Baron Hill. Re-elected again.

IOWA -- none

KANSAS -- Sheila Frahm (R)
Appointed: 6/11/96 to replace Sen. Bob Dole (R), who resigned in pursuit of his presidential bid.
Next election: Defeated in 1996 GOP primary by Rep. Sam Brownback.

KENTUCKY -- none

LOUISIANA -- Elaine Edwards (D)
Appointed: 8/1/72 by her husband, Gov. Edwin Edwards, to replace the late Sen. Allen Ellender (D).
Next election: Did not run.

MAINE -- George Mitchell (D)
Appointed: 5/17/80 to replace Sen. Ed Muskie (D), who became secretary of state.
Next election: Elected in 1982, defeating Rep. David Emery (R). Re-elected again.

MARYLAND -- none

MASSACHUSETTS -- Benjamin Smith II (D)
Appointed: 12/27/60 to replace Sen. John Kennedy (D), his former college roommate, who was elected president.
Next election: Did not run.

MICHIGAN -- Robert Griffin (R)
Appointed: 5/11/66 to replace the late Sen. Pat McNamara (D).
Next election: Elected in 1966, defeating former Gov. Soapy Williams (D). Re-elected again.

MINNESOTA -- Dean Barkley (I)
Appointed: 11/5/02 to fill the final two months of the term of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D).
Next election: Did not run.

MISSISSIPPI -- Roger Wicker (R)
Appointed: 12/31/07 to replace Sen. Trent Lott (R), who resigned.
Next election: Elected in 2008, defeating former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove (D).

MISSOURI -- Jean Carnahan (D)
Appointed: 1/3/01 to replace her husband, former Gov. Mel Carnahan (D), who was elected to the Senate in 2000 two weeks after he perished in a plane crash.
Next election: Defeated in 2002 by former Rep. Jim Talent (R).

MONTANA -- Paul Hatfield (D)
Appointed: 1/22/78 to replace the late Sen. Lee Metcalf (D).
Next election: Defeated in 1978 Dem primary by Rep. Max Baucus (D).

NEBRASKA -- David Karnes (R)
Appointed: 3/13/87 to replace the late Sen. Ed Zorinsky (D).
Next election: Defeated in 1988 by former Gov. Bob Kerrey (D).

NEVADA -- none

NEW HAMPSHIRE -- Norris Cotton (R)
Appointed: 8/8/75. OK, this is a long story. Cotton had retired in 1974 after 20 years in the Senate. But when the race to replace him went months without being resolved, the governor appointed him to fill the seat until a winner could be determined. Cotton kept the seat warm for five weeks. If that one doesn't really count, then a better example would be Maurice Murphy (R), who was appointed 12/7/61 to replace the late Sen. Styles Bridges (R).
Next election: Murphy was defeated in the 1962 GOP primary by Rep. Perkins Bass.

NEW JERSEY -- Robert Menendez (D)
Appointed: 1/18/06 by Gov. Jon Corzine (D), who resigned his Senate seat after being elected governor.
Next election: Elected in 2006, defeating Thomas Kean Jr. (R).

NEW MEXICO -- Edwin Mechem (R)
Appointed: 11/30/62, essentially by himself -- he resigned as governor and was appointed to the Senate by his gubernatorial successor -- to replace the late Sen. Dennis Chavez (D).
Next election: Defeated in 1964 by Rep. Joseph Montoya (D).

NEW YORK -- Charles Goodell (R)
Appointed: 9/10/68 to replace the late Sen. Robert Kennedy (D).
Next election: Defeated in 1970 by James Buckley (Conservative).

NORTH CAROLINA -- James Broyhill (R)
Appointed: 7/14/86 to replace the late Sen. John East (R).
Next election: Defeated in 1986 by former Gov. Terry Sanford (D).

NORTH DAKOTA -- Jocelyn Burdick (D)
Appointed: 9/12/92 to replace her husband, the late Sen. Quentin Burdick (D).
Next election: Did not run.

OHIO -- Howard Metzenbaum (D)
Appointed: 1/4/74 to replace Sen. William Saxbe (R), who became U.S. attorney general.
Next election: Defeated in 1974 Dem primary by John Glenn.

OKLAHOMA -- J. Howard Edmondson (D)
Appointed: 1/7/63, essentially by himself -- he resigned as governor and was appointed to the Senate by his gubernatorial successor -- to replace the late Sen. Robert Kerr (D).
Next election: Defeated in 1964 Dem primary runoff by Fred Harris.

OREGON -- Hall Lusk (D)
Appointed: 3/16/60 to replace the late Sen. Richard Neuberger (D).
Next election: Did not run.

PENNSYLVANIA -- Harris Wofford (D)
Appointed: 5/9/91 to replace the late Sen. John Heinz (R).
Next election: Elected in 1991, defeating former Gov. Richard Thornburgh (R).

RHODE ISLAND -- Lincoln Chafee (R)
Appointed: 11/4/99 to replace his father, the late Sen. John Chafee (R).
Next election: Elected in 2000, defeating Bob Weygand (D).

SOUTH CAROLINA -- Donald Russell (D)
Appointed: 4/22/65, essentially by himself -- he resigned as governor and was appointed to the Senate by his gubernatorial successor -- to replace the late Sen. Olin Johnston (D).
Next election: Defeated in 1966 Dem primary by former Gov. Fritz Hollings.

SOUTH DAKOTA -- Joe Bottum (R)
Appointed: 7/9/62 to replace the late Sen. Francis Case (R).
Next election: Defeated in 1962 by former Rep. George McGovern (D).

TENNESSEE -- Harlan Mathews (D)
Appointed: 1/2/93 to replace Sen. Al Gore, who was elected vice president.
Next election: Did not run.

TEXAS -- Bob Krueger (D)
Appointed: 1/21/93 to replace Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D), who became Treasury secretary.
Next election: Defeated in 1993 by Kay Bailey Hutchison (R).

UTAH -- none

VERMONT -- Robert Stafford (R)
Appointed: 9/16/71 to replace the late Sen. Winston Prouty (R)
Next election: Elected in 1972, defeating Randolph Major (D). Re-elected two more times.

VIRGINIA -- Harry Byrd Jr. (D)
Appointed: 11/12/65 to replace his father, the late Sen. Harry Byrd (D).
Next election: Elected in 1966, defeating Lawrence Traylor (R). Re-elected two more times.

WASHINGTON -- Dan Evans (R)
Appointed: 9/12/83 to replace the late Sen. Henry Jackson (D).
Next election: Elected in 1983, defeating Rep. Mike Lowry (D).

WEST VIRGINIA -- none

WISCONSIN -- none

WYOMING -- John Barrasso (R)
Appointed: 6/22/07 to replace the late Sen. Craig Thomas (R).
Next election: Elected in 2008, defeating Nick Carter (D).

RECAP: Remember, this is not a list of all the instances where senators were appointed in the past half-century. This is the last time each state had such an occurrence. With that in mind, here are the totals (12 states did not have senators appointed in that time period):

Appointed senators who did not run: 7
Appointed senators who lost their next election: 16 (7 lost in the primary and 9 lost in the general election)
Appointed senators who won their next election: 15

There have been four Senate appointments by governors in recent weeks, Democratic senators chosen by Democratic governors, and all in their own way have had different degrees of controversy.

The one that ruffled the fewest feathers was the one no one had heard of: Michael Bennet, in Colorado, to replace Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. Bennet was the superintendent of schools in Denver and a former aide to Mayor John Hickenlooper, never having run for public office before. Whatever you think of Bennet, Gov. Bill Ritter made the choice without making all the hopefuls -- and there were many -- humiliate themselves. Bennet will still have to prove himself in next year's election, but by all accounts he is an extremely bright guy, Colorado has been trending Democratic, and the GOP bench is weak. Compare that with ...

... Delaware, where outgoing Gov. Ruth Ann Minner chose Ted Kaufman to replace Vice President Joe Biden. The choice of Kaufman, a longtime Biden aide, was a clear statement that he will be nothing more than a placeholder for Beau Biden, the VP's son, who is the state attorney general and who is currently serving with the National Guard in Iraq. Biden comes home later this year, just in time (!) to begin a campaign for the seat in 2010 (when Kaufman said he would step down instead of run in the special election). Minner could have chosen Lt. Gov. John Carney to fill the Senate seat, but the fix for Biden fils was in. Kaufman would keep it warm for young Beau, while Carney wouldn't play. Compare that with ...

... Illinois, where Rod Blagojevich (D-Fantasy Island) chose Roland Burris to replace Barack Obama even after the governor was arrested and charged with trying to sell the seat to the highest bidder. And compare that with ...

... New York, where Gov. David Paterson had a slew of Democrats jumping through hoops, a humiliating and inelegant process that tarnished Caroline Kennedy, infuriated others, and elevated Kirsten Gillibrand to the Senate.

You get the point. It's not always a clean and orderly process.

Sen. Russ Feingold has a solution. The Wisconsin Democrat plans to offer a constitutional amendment that would require a special election to fill any Senate vacancy, as is the process in the House. He is chairman of the Senate Constitution Subcommittee and said he will offer the amendment before the week is up; he hopes to hold hearings on it shortly. Feingold posted a blog post at Daily Kos on it.

Feingold was also today's guest in the Political Junkie segment on NPR's Talk of the Nation.

Jan. 27, 1987:

In his State of the Union address, President Ronald Reagan acknowledges that "serious mistakes were made" in his administration's decision to trade arms to Iran in a bid to release Americans held hostage. "It did not work, and for that I assume full responsibility."

Dealing with the Iran-Contra scandal will take up much of Reagan's second term in office.

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You may not have to pay your taxes to become Treasury secretary, but you need to understand how button puzzles work if you want to be the ScuttleButton winner. There's no two ways about that.

And you start by taking one word or one concept per button to arrive at a saying or a name.

I did give you a hint on this one. Usually the buttons are assembled vertically. This time, two of them were displayed horizontally, and I told you that that indicated the word I was looking for was plural.

The buttons from last week, in case you forgot:

Kennedy for President (with a picture of JFK)

below that, two other Kennedy for President buttons (both with a picture of RFK)

A surprisingly large number of folks guessed the punk rock group "Dead Kennedys." One, I wouldn't be that crass in doing the puzzle. But if that were the answer, why one JFK and two RFKs?

So ... when you add JFK with two RFKs, you get ...

John Roberts!

(Yes, the chief justice. And please don't ask me to allow a do-over, even though we allowed him to do one. Though I did like the response from David Zuckerman of Baltimore, who, when told he got it wrong on his initial guess, wrote, "It's only fitting that I bungled the first attempt.")

Anyway, the winner, selected at random among the correct responders, is (drum roll) ... Robin Winning of Santa Rosa, Calif.

They don't call her Robin Winning for nothing.

We've long understood, even before God gave us Rod Blagojevich, that there are some things you just can't make up.

Here's another one.

Even before her appointment to the Senate became official, when it was still in the rumor stage, Kirsten Gillibrand was attracting enemies within her own party, and none more so than her fellow member of Congress from New York Carolyn McCarthy. McCarthy was the Long Island housewife whose husband was murdered by a deranged gunman in a mass killing on the Long Island Rail Road in 1993. The tragedy -- and her outrage that her congressman voted to lift the ban on semiautomatic weapons -- propelled McCarthy into politics and national attention.

On Thursday, when Gillibrand's name seemed to go beyond the rumor stage as the choice of Gov. David Paterson to fill Hillary Clinton's Senate seat, McCarthy went public with her opposition. Focusing on Gillibrand's 100 percent rating by the National Rifle Association, McCarthy said, "To have a senator representing the NRA for New York, that would be wrong. If it comes down to that, I will [run in the] primary in 2010."

On Friday, Paterson indeed did name Gillibrand. And McCarthy didn't back down.

McCarthy, in fact, was so outraged that ... wait for it ... she contributed $1,500 to Gillibrand's congressional campaigns in both 2006 and 2008. Tom Brune of Newsday has the details:

McCarthy's leadership PAC gave Gillibrand a $500 contribution for her first run for Congress in 2006, and doubled it to $1,000 for her re-election bid last June, according to federal campaign finance records.

McCarthy made the second donation June 5, months after Gillibrand had publicly signed on to a legal brief that drew attacks from McCarthy's friends among gun-control advocates because it urged the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Washington, D.C.'s, gun ban.

"Yeah, I gave her money. I didn't know what her stance was," said McCarthy, a Democrat from Mineola who has made gun control her signature issue since she first ran for Congress. ...

McCarthy said she was trying to help a Democrat win an uphill race in a conservative Republican district. She insisted she did not know about Gillibrand's strong pro-gun views.

Meanwhile, Brune reports that a new potential candidate for the seat has been added to the mix: former Gov. George Pataki (R). That may or may not be the reason why Rep. Peter King (R) "wavered a bit" as to whether he would run or not, saying Gillibrand "could be a tougher opponent than Caroline Kennedy," whom King was preparing to run against had she been appointed.

Yesterday's Senate vote to confirm Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary is one more step toward President Obama's completing his Cabinet. There's still the matter of Attorney General-designate Eric Holder, whose confirmation vote will take place tomorrow in the Senate Judiciary Committee, before it reaches the full Senate. But it's still not 100 percent. Hence this question from Nate Beck of Akron, Ohio:

What's happening with the commerce secretary nomination? Since Bill Richardson withdrew, I've heard diddlysquat about who might replace him.

To recap, Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, withdrew his name from consideration on Jan. 4 amid an ongoing federal investigation into pay-to-play activities involving the state government. No one has been named to fill the post, though some were suggesting William Daley. The brother of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Bill Daley was commerce secretary during the Clinton administration.

What I'm hearing now is that it's going to be John Thompson, the outgoing CEO of Symantec, the Silicon Valley network security firm that makes the Norton anti-virus program, among other things. Thompson is 59, African-American and a fundraiser for Democratic causes; he gave money to the Obama campaign as well as the inauguration. He has been enthusiastically endorsed for the post by California Sen. Barbara Boxer. I'm guessing it's Thompson.

Back to the Geithner vote. It was 60-34, with most Democrats voting yes and most Republicans voting no. But three Dems -- Tom Harkin of Iowa, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Robert Byrd of West Virginia -- voted against Geithner, as did independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont. We can talk about the pressing economic needs until we're blue in the face, and we probably will. But Geithner's failure to pay his taxes on time and his constant acknowledging of "mistakes" during his confirmation hearings were certainly an inauspicious beginning for someone with a very important position.

... wait until Feb. 4!

That's when Howard Mortman, the DC blogger/comedian/media strategist/jack of all trades becomes -- gulp -- the director of communications for C-SPAN, the cable television network that covers Congress, politics, politicians and the media without editorial spin. Mortman, a former colleague of mine at The Hotline, is less a spinmeister than a guy who just loves this stuff and doesn't take himself too seriously. Still, it is a combination that makes us sit up and take notice.

Congratulations, Howard!

We did this wonderful edition of our "It's All Politics" podcast on Wednesday, a day earlier than usual, because my cohort in crime, Ron Elving, was out of town on Thursday.

So what happened within hours of recording it? Nothing really, other than Hillary Clinton getting confirmed as secretary of state, Caroline Kennedy dropping out of the New York Senate contest, Gov. David Paterson choosing Kirsten Gillibrand as the new senator, and President Obama and Chief Justice Roberts having an oath do-over.

Whew.

Obviously, if the president and the chief justice could have a do-over, then so could we. So Ron and I re-did the podcast on Friday, and the result is this:

Credits --
Nonstop talkers: Ron Elving and Ken Rudin
Producer: Evie Stone

A nice review of the podcast, from Chris Hokanson in his "Transit" blog:

This weekly podcast is, without question, the funniest non-humor podcast on the internet. The bantering and never-ending puns flying between Ken Rudin ... and Ron Elving ... keeps me laughing. But the humor doesn't obscure their in-depth analysis of the week's events in politics. The hosts' embrace and grasp of political trivia never ceases to amaze me.

Wanna subscribe to the podcast? You can do it through iTunes.

Wanna hear previous episodes? Click here.

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And then there were four.

Four, as in four new senators appointed in the wake of the results of the 2008 elections:

-- Roland Burris, appointed to replace Barack Obama in Illinois;
-- Ted Kaufman, appointed to replace Joe Biden in Delaware;
-- Michael Bennet, appointed to replace Ken Salazar in Colorado; and
-- Kirsten Gillibrand, appointed to replace Hillary Clinton in New York.

We've talked about the winners and losers in the Illinois case for nearly two months. It's hard to make the case that Gov. Rod Blagojevich "hurt" himself in choosing Burris. Actually, it's hard to describe anything Blagojevich has done in ways Earthlings can understand.

But the situation in New York became a soap opera of its own. And while Blago is not long for this world -- or at least not long for his office in Springfield -- New York Gov. David Paterson is another story.

The last time a Paterson looked this bad was in September of 1962, when heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson was knocked out in the first round by challenger Sonny Liston. AP

 

Paterson himself is an accidental governor; he won the job when his predecessor, Eliot Spitzer, resigned last March following his involvement with a prostitute. Spitzer had spent much of his 15 months in office battling the Republicans who ran the state Senate. Paterson's relationship with the GOP, and other lawmakers, has been much calmer, cordial and conciliatory.

But the opportunity presented to him to name a Senate appointment turned into a circus, much of it the governor's own making. We all knew about the Hillary-to-Foggy Bottom plan shortly after the election. It was made official on Dec. 1. But here it was, in late January, and he was still having prospective Democrats jump through hoops.

No one suffered more than Caroline Kennedy. After a near lifetime of avoiding the limelight, Kennedy signaled in 2008 that she wanted a more public role: a key endorsement of Obama, a leading role on his vice presidential vetting team, a prominent speech at the Democratic convention, and vigorous campaigning on Obama's behalf in the fall. But her bid to be the next senator from New York was trouble from the outset. After she told the governor of her willingness to serve in the Senate, Paterson suggested she tour upstate so voters could get to learn more about her. The tour -- modeled after Hillary Clinton's "listening tour" in 1999, when the first lady decided she was a New Yorker -- was an embarrassment. Kennedy never seemed to know what to say or how to say it, and the notoriously combative New York media were not about to cut her any slack.

Kennedy clearly had her weaknesses, but she also had her strengths. Had Paterson made a decision by the end of the year -- even if it had been Caroline -- it would have prevented the process from deteriorating the way it had. But Paterson insisted he didn't have a favorite in the race, and thus encouraged other Democrats -- state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (who led in the meaningless polls), Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, American Federation of Teachers Prez Randi Weingarten, and at least five members of Congress -- to make their case as well.

Last week, when Kennedy alerted Paterson that she wanted out, a slew of rumors and innuendo followed. She had nanny problems. Tax woes. Even worse stuff came out in the blogosphere. And a lot of it was attributed to people close to Paterson.

So, with Kennedy gone, Paterson picked Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand. The choice wasn't a shocker; for the record, it had been my prediction from the beginning. But the announcement itself was a bizarro, Blagojevich-like freak show. For all the mocking of Kennedy's speech patterns, Paterson had trouble conveying a coherent sentence. It almost seemed like a Saturday Night Live parody. Among the politicians standing next to Paterson on the platform was former GOP Sen. Al D'Amato, now a big-deal lobbyist close to Gillibrand. With Gillibrand armed with a 100 percent rating from the National Rifle Association, did they need to have a high-profile Republican like D'Amato up on the platform? (He was conveniently standing on the opposite side of Paterson from Chuck Schumer, who unseated D'Amato in '98.) It was almost like the bar scene from Star Wars.

Gillibrand's selection was lauded by many groups, including those favoring abortion rights and gay rights organizations. But the gun stuff was too much for some Democrats, notably Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, the Long Island Democrat who came to national politics following the murder of her husband by a deranged gunman in 1993. McCarthy is threatening a primary challenge in 2010, if no one else runs.

It's too soon to say that Gillibrand was the wrong choice. For Democrats who are comparing her to Charlton Heston, that's a bit over the top. You don't run as a Brady Bill poster child in upstate New York, in a solidly Republican district, and expect to win.

And remember what happened to Charlie Goodell. The Republican congressman from western New York was a moderate conservative during his near decade in the House in the 1950s and '60s. But when Gov. Nelson Rockefeller picked him to replace the murdered Bobby Kennedy in the Senate in 1968, he moved well to the left, knowing he would have to run statewide. The tactic didn't work for Goodell. But I suspect that Gillibrand will go out of her way to soften her image on the gun issue. Whether or not that holds off other Democrats from taking her on next year is something else.

And I'm not sure Caroline Kennedy would have been the wrong choice either. If Paterson had picked her right away, New York would have had a new star in the Senate, a Kennedy no less, and everyone would have been happy. Or he could have chosen Cuomo, or anyone else on the list. The point was not who but when. To allow it to go on for as long as it did not only hurt the Democrats' cause but opened Paterson up to serious questions -- and the possibility of a primary challenge in 2010, from Cuomo or someone else.

Continue reading "Gov. Paterson May Be The Big Loser In Gillibrand Appointment" >

Jan. 26, 1981:

Former Rep. Richard Kelly (R-FL) became the sixth member of Congress, and the only Republican, to be convicted of bribery charges in the wake of the government's Abscam probe.

Kelly, who was defeated for renomination the previous September, said he would appeal. He acknowledged taking $25,000 in cash but said he had done so as part of his own investigation into the "suspicious characters" he was dealing with.

The other five House members convicted in Abscam, all Democrats: Ozzie Myers and Ray Lederer of Pennsylvania, John Jenrette of South Carolina, Frank Thompson of New Jersey, and John Murphy of New York. The only senator involved in the scandal, Democrat Harrison Williams of New Jersey, would go on trial March 30.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

 

In what may have been the most rambling and unfocused announcement of a Senate appointment in U.S. history, Gov. David Paterson today named Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand (JILL-a-brand) from upstate New York to fill Hillary Clinton's seat. The announcement came just one day after Caroline Kennedy withdrew her name from consideration, a spectacular retreat after having spent six weeks trying to make her case she should have the appointment.

The choice of Gillibrand, which was our prediction the moment Clinton was picked for the Obama Cabinet, made sense in many ways: She is photogenic, able to raise huge sums of money (which she will need to run statewide in both 2010 and 2012), and hails from outside New York City -- unlike other Democrats who will be running next year, such as Paterson, Sen. Chuck Schumer and state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (himself someone who was angling for the Senate appointment).

But there are problems ahead. To win in a longtime Republican district -- she knocked off a scandal-ridden GOP incumbent in 2006 -- Gillibrand has broken from her party on several matters. She voted against the financial bailout bill in the fall. And she received an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association, which enthusiastically endorsed her bid for re-election last year. This is what Gillibrand said in response to the endorsement, as per the Albany Times Union's "Capitol Confidential" blog:

As a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, it is a privilege to have the endorsement of the NRA and the support of Upstate New York's gun owners and hunters. I come from a family of hunters, and preserving this strong Upstate tradition is a priority of mine in Congress. I will continue to oppose legislation that will restrict the rights of responsible gun owners and I will continue to advocate for policies that will keep our rivers, land and air clean, so that future generations can enjoy hunting and wildlife in our region.

And that's what got Rep. Carolyn McCarthy up in arms, no pun intended. McCarthy was a Long Island housewife when, in December 1993, her husband was murdered and her son seriously wounded by a deranged gunman on the Long Island Rail Road. Three years later, her congressman, Republican Dan Frisa, voted to eliminate a ban on semiautomatic weapons. An enraged Carolyn McCarthy talked to local GOP officials about challenging Frisa in the primary. When they refused to listen to her plea, she quit the Republican Party, became a Democrat and ran against Frisa, beating him by 17 points.

When word got out yesterday that Gillibrand was going to be the choice, McCarthy was livid and suggested she would challenge her in the 2010 primary. McCarthy did not back down today, after Paterson made the appointment.

New York Daily News' Kenneth Lovett quotes Gloria Cruz of the Million Mom March to Prevent Gun Violence as saying, "When I heard Gillibrand was his pick, I thought it was a joke. This is an insult to the families of gun violence victims across the state. Shame on Gov. Paterson." Lovett adds that Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is also considering mounting a primary challenge to Gillibrand.

The most interesting stuff I've seen today came from Michael Tomasky in his Politics and Other Stuff blog:

Three thoughts on Governor David Paterson's selection of Kirsten Gillibrand as Hillary Clinton's Senate successor:

1. She's an odd choice. Two years in Congress, against all those members of the state's House of Representatives Democratic delegation with many years experience? In these cases, one smell test that ought to be passed is that a governor should be able to say "X was the best person for the job" with at least some degree of plausibility. I don't think Paterson can do that here. Even Blago could say that about Roland Burris, kinda-sorta. She was an obviously political choice: woman and upstater. Those are fair considerations of course, but when it's this obvious, it invites trouble.

2. Paterson has just made himself lots of enemies. I mean lots. Gillibrand will certainly face a primary challenge in 2010 -- one congresswoman, Carolyn McCarthy, has already vowed to. And others will see her as potentially beatable. Since so much of the statewide Democratic vote is from the city and the immediate suburbs -- and, crucially, so much of the donor base is too -- a city-based Democrat could look awfully formidable against her on paper.

3. This will be so controversial in intra-Democratic circles that Paterson may even have invited a primary challenge against himself in 2010. Today's New York Post suggests as much:

Democratic activists predicted that Cuomo, son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo, would also "seriously consider" challenging Paterson in a primary next year.

Believe me, you don't want to pick a political fight with the Cuomos. They throw elbows.

I don't much care about her National Rifle Association bona fides. Any Democrat from a rural district has to be pro-NRA. Even many New York City Democrats will, over time, come to understand that. That isn't the problem. And it should be said that Gillibrand has done some impressive things -- she beat a well-entrenched GOP incumbent when she first won the seat, a hard thing to do in upstate New York (I know the district well, having owned a house there for a few years).

The problem is that Paterson passed over lots of people who are more experienced. They will be pissed (not drunk; livid). He will gain countervailing support among upstaters and moderates for bucking the big-city liberal establishment. But when it comes to Democratic primaries in the state of New York, trust me: the smarter money is placed on the big-city liberal establishment.

Only once in the history of New York Democratic Senate primaries has the nomination gone to someone outside New York City, and that person, Rep. Richard Ottinger, was only barely outside the city; he represented Westchester. Below is a chart of classic N.Y. Dem Senate primaries; candidates outside NYC are in bold:

1998
Charles Schumer (Brooklyn) -- 51 percent
Geraldine Ferraro (Queens) -- 26 percent
Mark Green (Manhattan) -- 19 percent

1992
Robert Abrams (Bronx) -- 37 percent
Geraldine Ferraro (Queens) -- 36 percent
Al Sharpton (Manhattan) -- 14.5 percent
Elizabeth Holtzman (Brooklyn) -- 12.5 percent

1980
Elizabeth Holtzman (Brooklyn) -- 41 percent
Bess Myerson (Manhattan) -- 31.5 percent
John Lindsay (Manhattan) -- 16 percent
John Santucci (Queens) -- 12 percent

1976
Daniel Patrick Moynihan (Manhattan) -- 36 percent
Bella Abzug (Manhattan) -- 35 percent
Ramsey Clark (Manhattan) -- 10 percent
Paul O'Dwyer (Manhattan) -- 9 percent
Abe Hirschfeld (Manhattan) -- 9 percent

1974
Ramsey Clark (Manhattan) -- 48 percent
Lee Alexander (Syracuse) -- 30 percent
Abe Hirschfeld (Manhattan) -- 22.5 percent

1970
Richard Ottinger (Westchester) -- 40 percent
Paul O'Dwyer (Manhattan) -- 33 percent
Ted Sorensen (Manhattan) -- 17 percent
Richard McCarthy (Buffalo) -- 11 percent

1968
Paul O'Dwyer (Manhattan) -- 36 percent
Gene Nickerson (Hempstead, Long Island) -- 34 percent
Joe Resnick (Ellenville) -- 30 percent

Blagojevich is not going to leave voluntarily. Despite two new campaign buttons.

Now that the circus in New York seems to have been resolved, the continuing circus in Illinois -- the impeachment trial of Gov. Rod Blagojevich -- is expected to move on to a new phase on Monday.

And that leads to this question from James McKinstra of Freeport, Ill.:

Do you know if the general public will be allowed to attend and observe the Blago impeachment trial?

I didn't know the answer, so I turned to NPR's David Schaper, who has been following the fun.

I was just looking over the rules as I prepare to cover the trial, so here is the rule regarding the openness of the trial:

Rule 23. Sessions; open or closed.

(a) At all times while the Senate is sitting upon the trial of an impeachment, the doors of the Senate and the Senate galleries shall be kept open, unless the Senate directs the doors to be closed while deliberating upon its decisions. A motion to close the doors may be made by any member of the Senate, and the motion shall be deemed granted only if sustained by two-thirds of those elected to the Senate by record vote.

(b) By granting a motion under subsection (a), the Senate finds that it is in the public interest for the Senate, as provided in Section 5(c) of Article IV of the Constitution, to conduct deliberations and debate on impeachment matters in closed session.

I would expect most if not all of the impeachment trial, including deliberations, will be open to the public.

There is a gallery for the general public to view all the action on the floor of the Illinois Senate, but there may be space limitations. I believe the trial will be broadcast online, and can be viewed through the Illinois General Assembly's web site: www.ilga.gov

A Delay? Samuel Adam, Blagojevich's new attorney, is considering a lawsuit to halt the trial, calling the Senate rules "completely unfair." And the governor himself said he had no intention of mounting a defense if the rules don't change. In light of the overwhelming vote in the state House to impeach Blago, it is unlikely that the Senate vote to convict will be much different. Pat Quinn is expected to be the next governor of Illinois sometime in February.

That Explains It. In an interview this morning on WLS radio, Blagojevich said the reason Illinois lawmakers are anxious to get rid of him is so they can go ahead and raise taxes once he's gone.

Rod And Reel. He's not going to go willingly, but nonetheless a group called "Rod Must Resign" has been holding demonstrations in Chicago in the past couple of weeks calling for the gov to leave. Spokesman Phil Molfese said, "We believe that the governor can no longer lead our state, because he has lost the trust of the people he was elected to represent. His effectiveness as an elected official has been compromised beyond all repair." Scott Cohen, a local businessman who founded the group, said, ""Blagojevich has been asked by President Obama and Senator Durbin. Now, he's being asked by the voters, the people who put him in office, to resign." The group has the buttons to show for it. And that's good enough for us.

 

Groan.

We're still hours away from hearing New York Gov. David Paterson announce that his choice for the Senate is Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand. We don't know for sure if the Blagojevich impeachment trial will begin on Monday. And pitchers and catchers don't report until Feb. 12.

It may be Friday, but we're restless, cranky, fidgety. What to do?

Of course! It's time for ScuttleButton!!

And you know what that means. It's time to solve the button rebus: Take one word (or concept) per button, add 'em up, and what do you get?

(This week, for the first time, some buttons are lined up horizontally. And here's a hint: that means the word[s] I am looking for is/are plural.)

Anyway, a correct answer chosen at random gets his or her name in this column. You can't use the comments box at the bottom of the page for your answer. Send submission (plus your name and city/state) to politicaljunkie@npr.org.

Note: This will be an occasionally recurring feature on the Political Junkie blog. Here's the answer to last week's puzzle.

Plus, you can add your name to the Political Junkie mailing list, which, for some people, is even better than getting appointed to the Senate. Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

Good luck!

New York Gov. David Paterson (D) will announce his choice for the Senate seat vacated by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tomorrow, at noon.

Earlier in the day, the governor released this statement regarding his conversations with Caroline Kennedy:

Last night Caroline Kennedy informed the Governor that she was withdrawing her name from consideration for an appointment to the United States Senate for personal reasons. This decision was hers alone.

The Governor had a private conversation with Ms. Kennedy yesterday afternoon. Out of respect for her decision making process, the Governor's Office did not respond to any inquiries in order to allow her time to deliberate. The Governor considers Caroline a friend and knows she will continue to serve New York well inside or outside of government. We wish her well in all her future endeavors.

The Governor is now entering the final phase of his selection process.

He has not informed any Senate candidates that they have not been selected, nor has any information gathered during this selection process created a necessity for any candidate to withdraw. Any speculation to the contrary is both inaccurate and inappropriate.

Meanwhile, if the choice is Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, as I have speculated, she is not going to have an easy ride to the Democratic nomination in the 2010 primary. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of Long Island told The New York Times she would mount a challenge to Gillibrand if Paterson names her.

McCarthy is best-known for being the Long Island housewife whose husband was killed by a gunman on the Long Island Rail Road in 1993. Her outrage over the easy accessibility of handguns is what led her to run for Congress. Gillibrand's support for the National Rifle Association has "outraged" McCarthy, according to the Times account by reporter Danny Hakim:

"Obviously, I'm very upset," Ms. McCarthy said. "I came to Congress to reduce gun violence in this country, and Mayor Bloomberg has been working diligently to get mayors across this country to help reduce gun violence."

"To have a senator representing the NRA for New York, that would be wrong," she added. "If it comes down to that, I will [run in the] primary in 2010."

She said that, alternatively, she would support a younger candidate if one were to come forward.

"I'm 65," she said, "but if no one else will go forward with it, then I will do it."

Ms. Gillibrand's centrist views helped her win her House seat, which was long held by Republicans. Her district stretches from Adirondacks to the Catskills and parts of the Hudson Valley.

The Oscar nominations came out today, and among those up for Best Actor is Sean Penn, who portrayed assassinated San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, the city's first gay officeholder, in the movie Milk. More of that in a moment.

Not long ago, I received this note from reader Gary Crum:

Please add my name to the Political Junkie mailing list. By the way, I hear you are a serious collector of campaign buttons. I have about 1,000 of them and am always interested in conversation with other button nuts. To brag a little, I bet you don't have a Harvey Milk button.

Gary, Gary, Gary, what am I going to do with you? You should know better than to make such a bet. But it does, on this day of Oscar nominations, give me an excuse to show you the buttons I have of Milk.

As for the movie, for some reason I still have yet to see it. But for anyone who wants to learn more information about that awful day back in 1978, I urge you to listen to an extraordinary piece by NPR's Richard Gonzales, which ran on Morning Edition last Nov. 26. Thirty years after Dan White shot Milk and S.F. Mayor George Moscone, Gonzales recaptured that moment with great archival tape, including that of then-Supervisor Dianne Feinstein announcing the murders, the tape of White confessing, and interviews with players on the San Francisco political scene. It's a fantastic piece and you can hear it here.

Remember, you too can be famous like Gary Crum and appear in this blog. Sign up for the mailing list at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

James Pearson, a moderate-to-liberal Republican senator who represented Kansas for nearly 17 years, died on Jan. 13.

Pearson was the Kansas Republican state chairman in 1962 when Sen. Andrew Schoeppel (R) died in office. Gov. John Anderson (R), on whose campaign Pearson worked, appointed Pearson to fill the vacancy.

He won three Senate elections: 56 percent in a special election over Paul Aylward in 1962, 52 percent against Rep. J. Floyd Breeding in 1966, and 71 percent against Arch Tetzlaff in 1972. He retired in 1978 and was succeeded by Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R).

Pearson was instrumental in changing Senate rules that reduced the number of votes required to end a filibuster from 67 to 60. He also broke with President Nixon on the Vietnam War, urging a faster end to the conflict.

Note: Our comprehensive list of those politicians who died in 2008 was not as comprehensive as we thought. John Hiestand of Hillsboro, Ohio, had three we missed:

Glenn Andrews, an Alabama Republican who was elected to the House in 1964 on Barry Goldwater's coattails when he unseated Rep. Kenneth Roberts (D). He was defeated two years later by Bill Nichols (D), who was elected in part on gubernatorial candidate Lurleen Wallace's (D) coattails. Andrews, 99, died on Sept. 25.

Lyle Williams, an Ohio Republican who served three terms in the House from 1979-84. Williams narrowly defeated Rep. Charles Carney (D) in 1978 and won re-election twice. In 1984, he was defeated by Democrat James Traficant. Williams, 66, died on Nov. 7.

Paul Todd, a Michigan Democrat who served one term in the House in the 1960s. In 1962, Todd challenged Rep. August Johansen (R) and lost overwhelmingly. But in a 1964 rematch, Todd had the benefit of President Lyndon Johnson's coattails, and he ousted Johansen by 53-47 percent. Two years later he himself was defeated, by Republican Garry Brown. Todd, 87, died on Nov. 18.

And Tracy Fine of the United States Former Members of Congress adds three more:

John Mackie, who like Paul Todd (above) was a one-term Michigan Democratic congressman first elected in 1964. In 1966, Mackie was unseated by Republican Donald Riegle. Mackie, 88, died on March 5.

Dan Kuykendall, a Tennessee Republican from Memphis who served in the House from 1966, when he ousted Rep. George Grider (D), until his defeat in 1974 by just 574 votes to Democrat Harold Ford Sr. Two years before he was first elected to the House, he was the GOP Senate nominee against Democratic incumbent Albert Gore Sr., receiving 46 percent of the vote. Kuykendall, 83, died on June 12.

Tim Lee Hall, an Illinois Democrat who served one term in the House. In 1972, he unsuccessfully challenged Rep. Les Arends, the GOP minority whip. Two years later, when Arends retired and with Watergate as the backdrop, Hall won an upset victory. But in 1976, in his first bid for re-election, he was defeated by Republican Tom Corcoran. In '78, Hall tried again, and lost to Corcoran in a landslide. Hall, 83, died on Nov. 12.

It was, at the same time, surprising and not so.

Her bid for a soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat in disarray, Caroline Kennedy has pulled the plug. In a one-sentence statement released to the press, she said, "I informed Gov. Paterson today that for personal reasons I am withdrawing my name from consideration for the United States Senate."

Kennedy's brief emergence from a near lifetime of guarded privacy started off with excitement but ended disastrously. When she endorsed Barack Obama for president, about a year ago, she sent a signal that she might be entertaining thoughts of a public life. The endorsement was followed by her role in the Obama VP vetting process and a major speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Then, in mid-December, she signaled her interest in the seat that Hillary Clinton would vacate to become secretary of state. Many high-profile New York pols immediately indicated they would join her cause; New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was thought to be one of them.

Then it started to go sour. Her upstate "listening tour" -- modeled after Hillary Clinton's in 1999 -- was a disaster. She was shielded from the press, gave inarticulate responses to questions when the media had access, admitted she had a spotty voting record, and refused questions about her personal finances. Wherever she went, she was hounded with questions about "entitlement" -- as in, should she be given the seat simply because she's a Kennedy?

That last charge was completely unfair. She has a long, if not public, record of philanthropy, and everyone who has worked with her says she is smart, forceful and on target. But that's not what the public saw, and polls were showing that state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, another Senate hopeful, was surpassing her among Empire State voters.

It is being reported that Caroline pulled out because of concern about the health of her uncle, Ted Kennedy. The Massachusetts senator has been battling brain cancer for nearly a year, and shortly after Obama's inauguration on Tuesday, he suffered a seizure and was rushed to the hospital. (He has since been released; the seizure was linked to fatigue.)

But that rings hollow to me. Ted has been pushing Caroline for the seat from the beginning, as if he were intending to extend the Kennedy legacy -- there has been a Kennedy in the Senate ever since Jack was elected in 1952 (with a two-year hiatus in 1961-62). But Ted's health has been poor from the outset, so for Caroline to suggest that is the reason doesn't make sense.

I suspect that either she felt she was being humiliated by negative media coverage or, more likely, Paterson signaled he was looking elsewhere.

But where?

I don't think it's Cuomo either. The attorney general has been rumored to be pondering a challenge to Paterson in the 2010 primary, and the thought of Paterson picking him to avoid such a challenge is silly. Remember when people were speculating that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich would name rival Lisa Madigan, the state attorney general, to the Obama Senate seat to take her out of the '10 gov race? Ridiculous.

Besides, Paterson has said he would like to appoint a woman to succeed Hillary Clinton. And he doesn't like the idea of having an all-NYC ticket next year, when he (Manhattan), Cuomo (Queens) and Sen. Charles Schumer (Brooklyn) will all be running.

That leaves me with Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, the second-term House member from the Hudson Valley area upstate. She is photogenic, a good campaigner, and has tons of money. She's been my guess from the beginning, I've said it consistently in our podcast, and I'm sticking with it. (Oh, and when I wrote in 1999 that I was convinced the Democratic successor to Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan would definitely be Rep. Nita Lowey and not Hillary Clinton? Ignore that.)

Other names still apparently on Paterson's list include Rep. Carolyn Maloney of Manhattan, Rep. Steve Israel of Long Island, Rep. Brian Higgins of Buffalo, and Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi. It's going to be Gillibrand.

Still, what comes out of all this is Paterson's decision to delay the process. Whatever you think of Michael Bennet, the relatively unknown choice of Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) to fill the Senate seat of new Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, at least the governor made a decision.

We're expecting an announcement by Friday.

Sen. Hillary Clinton has been confirmed as secretary of state. The Senate vote today was 94-2, with Sens. David Vitter (R-LA) and Jim DeMint (R-SC) voting no.

Immediately after the vote, Clinton was sworn in in a private ceremony.

New York Gov. David Paterson (D) has said he will name a Senate successor by Saturday. (Click here for the last Junkie posting on the New York situation.)

There's only one thing more exciting than the inauguration of a new president, and that's the announcement of a new ScuttleButton winner. I'm sure you will agree.

There's no mystery in how to be inaugurated as president. You simply need to win a majority of the electoral votes at stake on Election Day.

But being the ScuttleButton winner is much different.

First, you have to solve the rebus. You need to take one word or one concept per button to arrive at a saying or a name.

The buttons from last week, in case you forgot:

Caricature of a man's head on a chicken's body -- this is actually former Texas Gov. Bill Clements (R). If memory serves, he either threw a rubber chicken at his 1978 Democratic opponent, John Hill, at a dinner, or somebody threw it at him. Whatever. At least there was a button commemorating the event.

Ed Koch for Governor -- the mayor of New York City sought the Democratic nomination for governor of New York in 1982, but he lost the primary to Mario Cuomo.

A -- a button from the Anarchist Party. I got this from an Anarchist book store in Manhattan in the early '70s.

Photo button of Margaret Thatcher -- the former British prime minister.

Anyway, when you add Chicken + Koch + A + Tory (Thatcher's political party), you get ...

Chicken Cacciatore!

The winner, selected at random among the correct responders, is (drum roll) ... Tom Unzicker of Hillsboro, Ore.

Congratulations Tom! You have executed the button puzzle faithfully.

Lots of questions from irate listener wondering what happened to last week's "It's All Politics" podcast.

We recorded it Friday, a day later than usual. And because Monday was a holiday, and yesterday was the Inauguration, there was no posting of the podcast in this blog. But, I swear, it exists! Not only that, you can hear it here:

Since it was last week, it may already feel outdated. But I do believe that Ron Elving and I flatly predicted that Barack Obama would become the 44th president of the United States.

Credits --
Nonstop talkers: Ron Elving and Ken Rudin
Producer: Evie Stone
Gavel-pounding sound effects: Cathy Shaw

Wanna subscribe to the podcast? You can do it through iTunes.

Wanna hear previous episodes? Click here.

Wanna be on my mailing list? Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States.

Or is he?

Ponder this question from Marc Spear of Denver:

The oath of office is the only direct quote in the U.S. Constitution. After Chief Justice John Roberts' mangling of the oath, Barack Obama "faithfully" misquoted, and that leads me to ask: Do we have a constitutional problem? Obama has not taken the oath as written in the Constitution, since the word "faithfully" was ultimately in the wrong place.

"Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:

'I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.'"

This oath has, technically, not been taken.

Other readers had the same question. Rick Lohmeyer of Broomfield, Colo., asks, "Would it be necessary for President Obama to repeat the oath of office in private with the correct words?" Jennifer Loustau of West Grove, Pa., wondered the same thing.

Well, guys, you're not alone. Jonathan Turley, the famed legal scholar, says we may have a problem. And he will talk about it today during the Political Junkie segment on NPR's Talk of the Nation.

Remember, the Junkie segment airs every Wednesday at 2 p.m. Eastern time on TOTN, NPR's call-in program, where you can often, but not always, find interesting conversation, useless trivia questions and sparkling jokes.

And remember, if your local NPR station doesn't carry TOTN, you can hear the program on the Web or on HD Radio. And if you are a subscriber to XM/Sirius radio, you can find the show there as well (siriusly).

You can listen to last week's show -- Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour was the special guest -- here.

Wanna be on the Junkie mailing list? Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

Everyone may not be celebrating.

Lots of excitement, lots of tears, lots of joy. You would think that this is a unanimous sentiment.

Of course, it's not.

Republicans, I suspect, are mostly torn about today. Yes, let's give our new president our best wishes and sincerest prayers. But criticize him if he's wrong. Anything less would be ridiiculous, argues California GOP consultant Sal Russo, who is consulting for the Our Country Deserves Better organization:

It's ideological suicide for conservatives to sit back silent while Obama pushes for untold hundreds of billions in new spending and bailouts. If conservatives and Republicans can't find within them the ideological conviction to oppose this fleecing of the taxpayers, then what is it that we stand for?

Some people have said we shouldn't speak up now for our beliefs, but instead hold off for now. To these individuals I ask when do they propose we begin to stand up for our principles? Will waiting a month or year to fight for our beliefs somehow advance the cause of conservatism? Will it help America for us to sit back and let Obama push his agenda forward unopposed?

It seems to me that being silent and acquiescent now further empowers Obama, and further entrenches this notion that big government liberalism is somehow acceptable. It's the antithesis of our individual liberty and freedom, and it requires men and women of good conscience to step forward, take action and oppose it vigorously.

Rep. John Boehner, the Republican House minority leader, sees an era of comity:

The next four years will be marked by considerable challenges -- but also considerable opportunities for all leaders in Washington, regardless of party, to work together on behalf of the American people. House Republicans look forward to finding common ground with the President on solutions to rebuild our economy, strengthen American families, and keep our country safe. Today is a day of celebration -- a celebration of our thriving democracy and a celebration of our nation's first African-American President. I wish President Obama and his family all my best and look forward to traveling the next four years with him in our continuing American journey.

Republican commentator David Limbaugh feels differently, urging the GOP to "turn down the Kool-Aid":

It's going to take real courage the next four years for Republicans to swim against the tide and oppose Barack Obama -- in whom so many have placed their hopes, almost to the point of idolatry. But if Obama governs in a way that's consistent with his promises, the country's future security and prosperity will depend on spirited opposition.

It's bad enough for the liberal media to deify Obama, but it's almost unbearable for right-wing commentators and politicians to jump on this bandwagon, as well, as if Obama's personal attributes have blinded them to the policy dangers he represents. ...

I am not advocating that Republicans return the same mean-spirited partisanship with which the left pummeled Bush. But conservatives must not abandon their principles in pursuit of the seductive, illusory goal of bipartisanship.

Just hours after Barack Obama was sworn in as 44th president, six of his Cabinet nominees were confirmed by the Senate by voice vote.

They were:

Steven Chu, secretary of energy
Tom Vilsack, secretary of agriculture
Janet Napolitano, secretary of homeland security
Ken Salazar, secretary of interior
Eric Shinseki, secretary of veterans affairs
Arne Duncan, secretary of education

Also confirmed: Peter Orszag, to head up the Office of Management and Budget

At an inaugural luncheon for Barack Obama, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), who has been battling brain cancer, collapsed and was taken to a nearby hospital. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) is quoted as saying it sounds as though the 76-year-old Kennedy may have suffered a seizure.

Other reports stating that Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV.), the longest-serving senator in history, also collapsed cannot be confirmed. But he did leave the luncheon for some reason.

At the luncheon, Obama said of Kennedy, "And so I would be lying to you if I did not say that right now a part of me is with him. And I think that's true for all of us. This is a joyous time. But it's also a sobering time. And my prayers are with him and his family and [Kennedy's wife] Vicki."

More details as they arrive.

Ken Rudin, the Political Junkie, Ron Elving, NPR's supervising senior Washington editor, and author Earl Ofari Hutchinson take part in a daylong chat about President Barack Obama's inauguration.

Click on the window below to replay NPR's Inauguration Day chats.

President Barack Obama delivers his inaugural address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Tuesday. Jae C. Hong/AP

 

Barack Obama -- President Barack Obama -- gave his inaugural address today from the West Front of the Capitol. He quickly thanked President Bush "for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition."

OK, he did say that "44 Americans have now taken the presidential oath." That's not exactly correct. It's 43. (Unless you count Grover Cleveland twice.) But this is not about math. It's about leading the nation. And Barack Obama knows what's at stake:

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet. ...

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America -- they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

At some points, I heard a bit of Franklin Roosevelt, a bit of John Kennedy, a bit of Ronald Reagan.

The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness. ...

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions -- that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

He seemed to understand American power, and when that power should be used:

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience' sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: Know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort -- even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

And he reached out to Muslims around the world, with words that brought back Sept. 11 -- and its aftermath:

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict or blame their society's ills on the West -- know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

And he closed with this:

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

"Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive ... that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Flag-waving, fireworks, cannon fire. It's official. Barack Hussein Obama has been sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts.

By the way, regarding my earlier post: There was no constitutional crisis after all. Obama officially became president at noon, even though he had not been sworn in. Oh well, it was exciting while it lasted.

President Barack Obama shakes hands with Chief Justice John Roberts after taking the oath of office at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Tuesday. First lady Michelle Obama stands between them. Elise Amendola/AP

 

Uh oh, a constitutional crisis.

Joe Biden has been sworn in as vice president of the United States, the first Roman Catholic to hold that position.

But it's one minute past 12. George W. Bush's term as president has expired. Barack Obama has not yet been sworn in. At this writing, there is no president of the United States.

Barack Obama made his first appearance on the inauguration platform and received a thunderous ovation. Several minutes earlier, President George W. Bush appeared and, according to NPR's Ina Jaffe, the first sight of Mr. Bush on the Jumbotron elicited boos from the crowd.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), chair of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, just finished addressing the crowd. No mention of any pique about not being consulted in advance about the choice of Leon Panetta to head up the CIA.

Right now: The Rev. Rick Warren is giving the invocation. NPR's Andrea Seabrook reports "thousands of bowed heads along Pennsylvania Avenue" during the invocation.

A question from Sejal Shah of Palo Alto, Calif.:

What is the basis for why the vice president is sworn in before the president? Why is it set up that way in the Constitution? Does that mean that for a few minutes Joe Biden will be President Bush's VP?

In the old days, both the president and the new Congress were sworn in on the same day, March 4. It was like that from 1789 until the 20th Amendment was ratified in 1933. Because the vice president is president of the Senate, he was sworn in first, and he then went on to swear in members of the Senate. With the 20th Amendment, the dates were changed: Congress to be sworn in on Jan. 3, the president on Jan. 20. The first president sworn in at this earlier date was Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1937, his second inauguration.

Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, arrive at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Tuesday for the swearing in of President-elect Barack Obama. Ron Edmonds/AP

Any inauguration is not only a look ahead but a look back as well. Watching Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton on the inauguration platform, we are reminded that this democracy of ours, though imperfect, does work now and then. Especially on days like this.

Also seen: former first ladies Rosalynn Carter, Barbara Bush and Hillary Clinton. As for Clinton, she is not going to be secretary of state just yet. A request for a unanimous voice vote in the Senate later today was blocked by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). He says he is not satisfied by Clinton's responses to concerns about potential conflicts regarding foreign donations to her husband's foundation.

Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, says a roll call vote will come on Wednesday. Regardless of Cornyn's action, there is no threat to her confirmation.

By all accounts, today's inauguration is taking place under the tightest security measures in history. And while everything seems to be running smoothly, there is this somewhat vague statement from the Department of Homeland Security:

The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security (including the USSS) and the intelligence community are coordinating with other law enforcement authorities to investigate and analyze recently received information about a potential threat on Inauguration Day. This information is of limited specificity and uncertain credibility. Authorities at all levels are vigorously pursuing any lead relating to this threat information. The Transition Team has been briefed and is fully integrated into the process.

There is an unprecedented level of security involving more than 58 federal, state and local agencies for this Inauguration, and related events. As we have previously said, Inauguration events could present an attractive target due to the large public gatherings and participation of many dignitaries. Authorities are constantly reviewing security measures in light of this threat information, as we would with any threat information.

We encourage the public attending Inauguration events to go about their normal plans. As always, we remind the public to be both thoughtful and vigilant about their surroundings, and to notify authorities of any suspicious activity. We also remind the public that they can expect very high levels of security at Inauguration events, and we ask for their patience and cooperation.

Barack Obama has completed his ride down Pennsylvania Avenue and has arrived at the Capitol, where at noon he will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States.

At noon today, Barack Obama will be sworn in as the nation's 44th president. He will be sworn in by the chief justice of the United States, John Roberts.

On Sept. 29, 2005, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Roberts by a 78-22 tally. One of the 22 "no" votes was cast by Obama.

By most accounts, the relationship between Roberts and Obama is cordial; the chief justice recently had the president-elect over to visit the Supreme Court.

One not-so-cordial relationship between chief justice and the man he was to administer the oath of office involved Earl Warren and Richard Nixon. The poor relationship between Warren and Nixon, two California Republicans, went back to at least 1952, when Warren, then governor, was seeking the GOP presidential nomination. Rather than back Warren, his state's favorite son, Nixon -- then a recently elected senator -- backed Dwight Eisenhower for the nomination. Ike rewarded Nixon with the vice presidency. Warren never forgave Nixon. And Nixon, when he ran for president in 1968, spent much of the campaign criticizing the "Warren court" and what he called its liberal decisions.

And there they were, on Jan. 20, 1969, Earl Warren administering the oath to Richard Nixon, president of the United States. Only in America.

9:55 a.m.: Barack and Michelle Obama have arrived at the White House for their coffee with George and Laura Bush. The 43rd president and first lady greeted the Obamas, posed for photographs and then went inside. (Vice President-elect Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, arrived moments earlier.)

People wait in line Tuesday for access to the inaugural parade route prior to the swearing in of President-elect Barack Obama in Washington. Rob Carr/AP

 

Some dispatches from NPR correspondents around the city:

Neda Ulaby:

New Jersey Avenue is a major D.C. thoroughfare -- you can take it all the way to the Mall. Usually, it's filled with grim-faced commuters in cars. Right now it's filled with streams of people, walking with a palpable sense of solemnity and purpose. One lady has set up a hot chocolate stand outside her house near New Jersey and M. The hot chocolate is free. She's hung bunting all over the house and the stand, and covered the table with little golden angels. Another neighbor brought his boom box, and he's blasting vintage soul. "Free hot chocolate!" the lady yells. Three young white women in brightly colored scarves and fleece jackets are clustered around the free hot chocolate stand, giggling in excitement and chatting with two older African-American men in heavy dark overcoats and hats. Everyone -- even the clusters of National Guardsmen standing nearby -- is grinning.

Brian Naylor:

There are masses of people lined up to pass through security checkpoints to see the inaugural parade. At least one checkpoint, at Seventh Street N.W., is closed. At the 12th Street checkpoint the line stretches nearly a block long, a scene repeated at 10th Street. People seem to be in good spirits. One woman, Lisa Jones, came here from Atlanta: "I expected this -- crowds, long lines, everything. I don't mind."

Metrobuses have been parked to block off the street from vehicles. Helicopters can be heard buzzing overhead, and sirens are constantly wailing in the background, mixing with the cries of vendors hawking everything from DVDs to T-shirts.

Larry Abramson:

On ordinary days, the 14th Street Bridge is a freeway or, during rush hour, a parking lot. But today, pedestrians, cyclists and Rollerbladers are pouring across the pedestrian walkway. They have biked up from Alexandria, Va., or they have flown in from Kansas City, Mo., and then taken the Metro to the Pentagon. Everyone has a story of some circuitous route he has taken. They trek over the bridge and gaze down at the frozen river. Nearby roadways are blocked off by a menagerie of vehicles, loaders and plows and flashing police vehicles. It looks like a picture from a Richard Scarry children's book. In the background the Pentagon looms. This has been the scene of tragedy before -- the 9/11 attacks, the Air Florida crash. Today, the bridge is a gateway home.

A quick update from Laura Sullivan:

The scene at the entrance to the Purple section (at the Capitol) is chaotic ... large crowd backed up ... lots of pushing and shoving ... only 20 people at a time being allowed to cross the parade route ... there is no crossing at Third Street ... people have to cross at Seventh Street.

Metro: D.C. Metro Authority says 318,442 passengers traveled on the system by 8 a.m.

Match the inaugural quote with the president:

(1) "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

(2) "Ask not what your country can do for you."

(3) "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right."

(4) "Ah choo!"

(a) William Henry Harrison

(b) Abraham Lincoln

(c) Franklin D. Roosevelt

(d) John F. Kennedy

9 am: Barack and Michelle Obama are attending a service at St. John's Church, not far from the White House. It is a familiar stop for incoming presidents. The soon-to-become First Couple left the Blair House, where they had been staying, for a quick ride to the church.

From there, the Obamas will go to the White House, where they will have a private coffee with George and Laura Bush.

President-elect Barack Obama and Michelle Obama are welcomed by the Rev. Luis Leon as they arrive for services Tuesday morning at St. John's Episcopal Church across from the White House.

Charles Dharapak/AP

 

Possibly the first button exchange in Metro history happened this morning on the Red Line.

Days of dire warning. Of crowds, of traffic snarls, of jammed Metro cars.

At 5:50 a.m. this morning, I approached the Shady Grove station stop on the Metro with trepidation.

But the ride was anything but a grind. What I witnessed was an indescribable celebration. Enormous crowds, as advertised. But unlike the usual mornings of sleepy folks on their way to work, the Red Line -- from Montgomery County, Md., into the nation's capital -- was filled to capacity with old and young, black and white, all smiling, all cheering, all wide awake, all taking pictures. Chants of "Obama!" would go up every few minutes.

I looked at all the faces, and wished I had access into their deepest thoughts. Many elderly African-American women, dressed in furs, some with tears in their eyes. I couldn't help but wonder what they have seen in their lives, if they ever envisioned this moment.

Young families, many with young children. I smiled at the kids and they smiled back. I wondered what they were thinking, and would they remember this day the rest of their lives.

The local government announced that 207,335 passengers were on the Metro as of 7 a.m.

It was still dark out when I got off the train. It's 8:37 a.m. now, the sun long up in the sky. It's cold, very cold, but no one is complaining. The lines of people, of cars, heading down Massachusetts Avenue toward the Capitol are just enormous. Chanting, singing, waving flags and wearing buttons.

Full disclosure: I traded an NPR pin for the Obama button shown above. It was from a woman and her young son, who took a bus from Iowa for today's ceremonies. The transaction took place on the Metro. It is believed to be the first button exchange in Metro history.

Whether they won in a squeaker or in a blowout, the 42 men who preceded Barack Obama all started with an inauguration. And we celebrate that today.

The first light of dawn above the U.S. Capitol on Inauguration Day.

Kevin Wolf/AP

 

We've used a lot of ink (or bandwidth) in the 77 days since the election to talk about hiccups and distractions and embarrassments and whatnot. We went on and on about Blagojevich and Burris, Richardson and Geithner. And, no doubt, we'll be talking about those subjects again.

But not today.

There is something about the inauguration of a president where, for at least this day, politics and partisanship make way for celebration. And this is an especially special Inauguration Day. In a country where racial divisions are as old as the nation itself, today, at noon Eastern time, we are set to swear in an African-American as president.

It is a moment that few of us thought we would see in our lifetime. Today's events do not eliminate those divisions. And Barack Obama may never again see his approval ratings this high. But on this day, we all hope, and many of us pray, that this young 47-year-old man can succeed in tackling what is on his plate.

NPR will be covering the inauguration round the clock. And I will be here, blogging away, doing my best to share observations of the day and reflections of the past, in Political Junkie.

Jan. 16, 1980:

Rep. Steve Symms (R-ID), a strong conservative, announced his bid for the Senate against four-term Democratic incumbent Frank Church. Symms would go on to narrowly defeat Church in November by just over 4,000 votes. Idaho has not elected a Democratic senator since.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

For those who get their news from this blog, Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States last November. But in the process, he lost the state of Missouri -- which has voted with the winner every time in the past century except for 1956, when it preferred Adlai Stevenson (D) over President Dwight Eisenhower (R).

And that leads to this question from Charles Vigneron of Walla Walla, Wash.:

Missouri has long been the bellwether state for presidential voting, but no longer. What state takes its place?

It's Nevada. Going back to 1912, it has voted for the winner in 24 of the past 25 elections -- missing only 1976, when it voted for President Gerald Ford (R) over Democratic challenger Jimmy Carter (D).

New Mexico may also try to make a claim for the title. Like Nevada, it also missed on 1976. True, it voted for Al Gore over George W. Bush in 2000. In that case, it didn't get the winner, but it did get the popular vote winner.

Unreported by the mainstream media is that in yesterday's Senate vote releasing bailout funds, money for another ScuttleButton puzzle was included. Many lawmakers voted against this provision, upset with last week's "Baby Fish Mouth" puzzle. Hopefully, they'll like this one better.

Here's what you need to do to solve this rebus: Take one word (or concept) per button, add 'em up, and what do you get?

A correct answer chosen at random gets his or her name in this column. You can't use the comments box at the bottom of the page for your answer. Send submission (plus your name and city/state) to politicaljunkie@npr.org.

Note: This will be an occasionally recurring feature on the Political Junkie blog.

Plus, you can add your name to the Political Junkie mailing list, even though these are the first people they will come after when you-know-who takes over. Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

In the last gasp of the Clinton presidency, the president made a controversial -- to this day -- pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich.

In the course of American history, most presidential pardons have been routine. Some have not.

Four more days of the Bush presidency, and people are wondering who, if anyone, might be pardoned by the president. The list of possible beneficiaries includes Lewis Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, and Ted Stevens, the former Alaska senator who was convicted of corruption charges in October.

But the question I'm posing is this: Whom do you think should receive a pardon? Who's on your list? Plaxico Burress? Harry Whittington? Ron Elving? Serious or not, send me your choices, and tell me why you think they should be pardoned, and if this bit works, I'll run it in an upcoming post.

Jan. 15, 1982:

Democratic superdelegates helped Walter Mondale win his party's prez nomination in 1984

The Democratic National Committee changed the rules for its 1984 delegate selection, announcing the creation of "superdelegates" -- party regulars and elected officials -- who would automatically become delegates at the convention. The change was orchestrated by North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt and New York Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro, who headed up a party commission looking at changing the nominating process.

The move was seen as an indication that Democrats did not want to see a repeat of what happened in 1972, when an outsider like George McGovern could win the party's presidential nomination, and repeated in 1976, when a similar outsider like Jimmy Carter won the nomination. By making Democratic governors, members of Congress, and state party officials automatic delegates, Democrats were saying that it was time for the "adults" in the party to put their foot down when it came to nominating presidential candidates.

(P.S. The first Democrat to benefit from this change in the rules was Walter Mondale, the former vice president, who won the 1984 presidential nomination thanks in part to the role played by the superdelegates. Mondale lost 49 of 50 states that year to President Reagan.)

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

The improbable journey of Roland Burris to the United States Senate is complete. A former Illinois attorney general and the pick of disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich to fill the seat left vacant following the resignation of Barack Obama, Burris was sworn in today at 2 p.m., the fourth African-American senator since Reconstruction.

Three blacks have been elected to the Senate: Ed Brooke (R-MA, 1967-78), Carol Moseley-Braun (D-IL, 1993-98), and Barack Obama (D-IL, 2005-08).

BIDEN. Joseph Biden, the vice president-elect, gave his farewell speech in the Senate today. The Delaware Democrat was first elected in 1972 and was re-elected six times, the last time in November. He is the 14th-most-senior member in the history of the Senate. His appointed successor, longtime aide Ted Kaufman, will be sworn in tomorrow at 11 a.m. Eastern time.

CLINTON. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) also gave her Senate swan song speech today. The Foreign Relations Committee voted 16-1 to confirm her as secretary of state; only David Vitter (R-LA) voted no. NPR's Robert Smith is hearing that New York Gov. David Paterson (D) may be closer to naming a Senate successor to Clinton than had previously been thought. And it may indeed be Caroline Kennedy:

The end is nigh for New York's favorite political guessing game. Paterson indicated yesterday that he was ready to end the months of speculation and finally pick a Senate replacement for Clinton. He's been waiting for Clinton to actually resign the seat, but he now he's ready to get the whole thing over with. He told reporters that she is "floating right through" her confirmation hearings, and now he "feels the duty to act."

Thank God. The speculation over Clinton's successor has been a huge distraction to the state. Poor David Paterson has been trying to rally the state to drastically cut its budget and increase revenues. But all the reporters want to ask him about is Caroline Kennedy.

The moment the Kennedy name got uttered as a possibility for the seat, the whole process turned into a referendum on Caroline. Is she too aloof? Too private? Does she have too little experience? Kennedy didn't help matters by bumbling through her quasi-campaign for the seat. Running from reporters, then refusing interview requests. Then when she did sit down, peppering her answers with "um"s and "you know"s.

Her approval ratings with the public dropped. If it were an election, polls show she'd be losing to Cuomo. But the smart money is that Paterson will appoint Kennedy anyway, "you know"s and all. The governor has been backed into a corner. Caroline may not have much experience, but she has a lot of sympathy. Does Paterson want to be the man who keeps Kennedy from following in her father's and uncle's footsteps to the Senate? Picking someone else at this point would seem like a personal rejection of Caroline.

Women's groups have already made it clear to Paterson that they would not appreciate a man being named to take over from Clinton. Upstate communities are already steaming over the prospect of another New York City senator. Unless Paterson can pull a very attractive long-shot candidate out of a hat at the last minute, it's hard to imagine that he can say no to Kennedy.

A Marist College Poll out today pretty much mirrors the one released yesterday by Qunnipiac University. It has New Yorkers giving Cuomo 40 percent, to 25 percent for Kennedy. (Others: Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi 6 percent, Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Steve Israel 5 percent each, and Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand 3 percent.)

Note: Twice have New York governors appointed senators, and twice the senators have been defeated at the polls at the next election. In 1949, Gov. Thomas Dewey appointed John Foster Dulles (R) to fill the seat of Robert F. Wagner Sr. (D), who resigned because of illness; and in 1968, Gov. Nelson Rockefeller (R) appointed Rep. Charles Goodell (R) to fill the seat of Robert Kennedy (D), who was assassinated in his pursuit of the Democratic presidential nomination. Dulles lost a special election in 1949 to ex-Gov. Herbert Lehman (D), and Goodell lost a three-way race in 1970 to Conservative Party candidate Jim Buckley.

Here's the latest on some Senate seats:

No certified winner yet in Minnesota.

 

Florida: Rep. Kendrick Meek (D) has become the first candidate to officially declare for the seat being vacated by Republican Mel Martinez. Former Gov. Jeb Bush (R) took himself out of the running on Jan. 6.

Illinois: Roland Burris (D) will be sworn in as the junior senator from Ilinois tomorrow at 2 p.m. Eastern time. There's nothing more to say on this one. But wow. (Previous Junkie post on Burris here.)

Minnesota: Al Franken (D), who continues to hold a 225-vote lead, has gone to the state Supreme Court to force Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Democratic Secretary of State Mark Ritchie to certify his victory over Norm Coleman. Both state officials turned Franken down on Monday, saying that Coleman is still fighting the apparent result and the legal process needs to be played out.

New Hampshire: Tom Fahey of the N.H. Union Leader reports that Gov. John Lynch, the state's most popular Democrat, announced today he will not challenge Sen. Judd Gregg (R) next year.

Lynch ... acknowledged speculation in political circles that he might challenge ... Gregg. He said he plans to focus on budget issues here in New Hampshire.

"I can tell you that although I don't know what I'll be doing in 2010, I'm not going to run for the United States Senate. So, that shouldn't be a distraction as I continue to work on the budget."

Lynch made the statement before taking questions from reporters at a brief press conference today.

He has just begun his third two-year term as governor, on the strength of a landslide victory at the polls. He and his staff are struggling to close both a $90 million budget deficit this year, and a revenue gap of as much as $500 million over the next two years.

Lynch declined to say whether he will seek a fourth term as governor, referring again to his focus on budget issues and the state economy.

Gregg announced in November that he plans to run for election to a fourth term in the Senate.

New York: A Quinnipiac University poll released today shows that New Yorkers "have cooled" on Caroline Kennedy and "more voters now prefer" state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo over the former first daughter by 31-24 percent. This is for the seat that Hillary Clinton will relinquish once she is confirmed as secretary of state. Three members of Congress are well behind in the poll: Carolyn Maloney of Manhattan has 6 percent, Kirsten Gillibrand from upstate has 5 percent, and Steve Israel from Long Island 2 percent. Eighteen percent suggested someone else, and 14 percent were undecided.

(To paraphrase an old expression, the only poll that matters is Gov. David Paterson [D]. He will select Clinton's successor.)

Kenneth Lovett and Glenn Blain of the New York Daily News report today that Paterson interviewed Cuomo for the job last month. That ordinarily should not sound surprising; Cuomo's name has been mentioned as a possible Clinton Senate replacement from Day 1. But this is the first confirmation that Cuomo has taken a step to get the appointment.

Previous Junkie posting on the New York race here.

Ohio: Rob Portman, the former congressman, Bush trade rep and OMB chief, announced his candidacy today for the Senate seat being vacated by fellow Republican George Voinovich.

"Just as it was an honor to serve the people of Southern Ohio in the U.S. House of Representatives for 12 years, so it would be an honor to serve all Ohioans in the U.S. Senate. At a difficult time in our state and national economy, I believe I can make a positive difference in the lives of people throughout Ohio."

Portman seems to be the early favorite for the GOP, but of course it is early. Among the Democrats mentioned as potential candidates are Lt. Governor Lee Fisher and Rep. Tim Ryan.

Jan. 14, 1977:

Still smarting over their defeat in the 1976 elections, Republicans elected former Sen. Bill Brock of Tennessee as their national party chairman. Former President Gerald Ford had preferred James Baker, his campaign manager, and GOP rival Ronald Reagan backed Richard Richards, the Utah party chair. Brock, the second pick of many, was considered a compromise choice. Brock himself was part of the '76 loss, as he was beaten for his seat by Democrat Jim Sasser.

Brock would help lead Republicans to pick up congressional seats in 1978. In 1980, when he was still chair, the GOP won the White House with Reagan and took control of the Senate for the first time since 1954.

Richards, Reagan's choice, succeeded Brock as party chair in 1981.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

Lots to talk about in today's Political Junkie segment on NPR's Talk of the Nation::

-- It will be Sen. Roland Burris after all.

-- Easy confirmation seen for Hillary Clinton. But new questions arise for Treasury hopeful Timothy Geithner.

-- Retirements of Sens. Voinovich and Bond increase GOP exodus to four.

Remember, the Political Junkie segment airs every Wednesday at 2 p.m. Eastern time on Talk of the Nation, NPR's call-in program, where you can often, but not always, find interesting conversation, useless trivia questions and sparkling jokes.

And remember, if your local NPR station doesn't carry TOTN, you can hear the program on the Web or on HD Radio. And if you are a subscriber to XM/Sirius radio, you can find the show there as well (siriusly).

You can listen to last week's show -- Rep. Danny Davis of Illinois was the special guest -- here.

Wanna be on the Junkie mailing list? Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

With the 111th Congress all settled in, Karen Schafer of Rio Rancho, N.M., has this question:

What's the best way to find out the office address of a newly elected U.S. senator or representative?

You can find out everything you want about members of the Senate, including their office address, by going to the official Senate Web site. The same information for House members can be found at the House Clerk's Web site.

You can also always send a note to any senator c/o Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510, and to any representative at House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515.

And how can they be holding Cabinet confirmation hearings if Barack Obama is not yet the president? That's what Nathan Irwin of Peoria, Ill., wants to know:

We all know that Cabinet members are nominated by the president, subject to Senate confirmation. But how can these nominations be taken up this early? Obama, of course, takes office on Jan. 20, at which point he has the authority to send his nominations to the Senate, but before that date, he's not the president.

Because Obama is, as you correctly say, not yet the president, he has not officially "nominated" anyone to his Cabinet. But he has named them. And the idea is for the Cabinet to be in place the moment Obama takes office. What happens is the respective Senate committees investigate the choices, hold the confirmation hearings and then vote on them -- that's what's going on now. Once Obama is sworn in on Jan. 20, he then officially nominates the members of his Cabinet, and the full Senate votes on them.

Here's a question from Debbie Warren of Milwaukee, Wis:.

What's the date of Obama's State of the Union address this year?

The short answer is that there is none. A newly elected president doesn't have an SOTU address, but he does give a speech to both houses of Congress, usually to discuss his goals. George W. Bush, first sworn in on Jan. 20, 2001, gave his speech to Congress on Feb. 27. There is no date scheduled as of yet for Obama's congressional speech.

Finally, a question all of America -- including Jeff Roberts of Ankeny, Iowa -- is asking:

What relation, if any, is Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper to Iowa's former Sen. Bourke Hickenlooper (1945-68)?

Actually, Bruce Gerhardt of Omaha, Neb., asked the same thing a while back. It came up when Mayor Hickenlooper was high on the list of prospective Senate replacements for Ken Salazar (D-CO) once he is confirmed as secretary of interior. So it may indeed be a question that's sweeping the nation. Just like Baby Fish Mouth.

Anyway, according to Sabrina D'Agosta of the mayor's office, there was a relationship: They were cousins.

Yes, there has been a lot of criticism directed at Caroline Kennedy, who is hoping to be appointed to the soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat in New York. A lot of people point to her family, her last name, and that she has this sense of "entitlement." Dynasty was a word thrown around a lot.

We talked about this in depth in a Dec. 18 posting. And it's not just about Caroline Kennedy. How did Lisa Murkowski come to the Senate? What about Bayh and Dodd and Pryor and those other senators whose fathers served before them? Heck, what about George W. Bush?

But now it's gone even further.

Tonight, on the season premiere of Fox's American Idol, the new judge will be Kara DioGuardi.

Yes, that's right. The daughter of former Rep. Joe DioGuardi (R-NY). How else do you explain she got her job?

This entitlement stuff has now gotten out of control.

Jan. 13, 1978:

Sen. Hubert Humphrey (D-Minn.), a former vice president and the Democratic nominee for president in 1968, died of cancer at age 66.

In 1948, as mayor of Minneapolis and a candidate for the Senate, he gave an electrifying speech at the Democratic National Convention on civil rights that caused Southerners, including South Carolina Gov. Strom Thurmond, to walk out and form their own party. That year he unseated GOP Sen. Joseph Ball; he was re-elected in '54 and '60. Humphrey also sought his party's presidential nomination in 1960, losing out to Sen. John F. Kennedy.

He became President Lyndon Johnson's running mate in the 1964 election, and the ticket went on to win in a landslide. When LBJ decided in late March of 1968 against seeking re-election, Humphrey declared his own candidacy. He entered no primaries but won the nomination at a riotous convention that summer in Chicago. With his party split in two over the Vietnam War, he lost the 1968 presidential election to Republican Richard Nixon.

Humphrey came back to the Senate in 1970, winning the seat vacated by fellow Democrat Eugene McCarthy. He again tried for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972, losing out to Sen. George McGovern. After his death at his Waverly, Minn., home, his body was flown to Washington, where an estimated 60,000 people came to pay their respects.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

As Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton goes through the motions of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today, there is still no word on whom New York Gov. David Paterson will name to succeed her.

Paterson met with Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, on Saturday, and came away "impressed," according to an interview with the New York Daily News published today. And while he refused to declare anyone the "front-runner" for the seat, he did say about Kennedy, "She didn't eliminate herself in the meeting."

Faint praise indeed.

Paterson said he has now interviewed 15 people for the job. While he won't give names, those also thought to be on the Senate wannabe list include state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, and Reps. Kirsten Gillibrand, Steve Israel and Carolyn Maloney.

My prediction from the outset has been Gillibrand. But I have no idea where things stand now.

I've Got A Secret. Several good government groups have decried Paterson's refusal to reveal either the names of those he has spoken to or the answers these candidates gave to a questionnaire he sent to each of them. The governor says the list of candidates is "personal." The Associated Press' Michael Gormley quotes a disappointed Barbara Bartoletti of the League of Women Voters as saying, "The law is on his side as far as whether he has to do any of this with transparency. But good government is not on his side here."

Wanna Be A Senator? Here's the questionnaire Paterson sent out to the hopefuls. Good luck!

Isn't That Special. New York state Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco wants Paterson to call for a special election to resolve the issue, rather than fill the seat via appointment. Tedisco has, if nothing else, a great sense of humor.

Not Happy. Julie Sells of Cincinnati sent the following note:

With regards to the Jan. 7 Talk of the Nation program in which you appeared, it was very disappointing to hear your cutting remarks about Caroline Kennedy. I could not begin to tell you how many people I know or have met who insert "you know" into their conversations. It's always hard to hear ourselves but I probably say it too without realizing it. Please listen to that interview and count the number of times you say "uh" or "ummmm." Isnt that the same? It certainly was with Barack Obama. His campaign coordinators even hired a speech therapist to help him prior to some of the debates. ...

I really don't like ever to criticize someone for their speech difficulties and wish you would show more courtesy to others as well since after all few of us speak perfectly. ...

I think the media has been really nasty in the way [Caroline] has been treated. It should be about a person's qualifications, not the deficiencies in the way they speak. A big fat zero to NPR on this one!

Julie, I respect your argument but I'm not sure I agree with your conclusions -- except for your point that it should be about a person's qualifications. I think the media have been far more tolerant in their coverage of Kennedy than they have with anyone else with similarly limited qualifications or campaign abilities.

As for her Valley Girl-esque way of talking, it's hardly just Neal Conan and I who have been critical or sarcastic. Here's the New York Times' Michael Barbaro's account of Caroline's linguistic abilities:

In her pursuit of a Senate seat, Ms. Kennedy has raised eyebrows with her penchant for what are known, informally in language circles, as filler words.

Ms. Kennedy has liberally sprinkled her interviews with "you know" and "um," as can be seen in transcripts posted on newspaper Web sites.

When asked recently by New York Times reporters about a potential rival for the Senate seat, Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, she responded:

"I'm, you know, actually, Andrew Cuomo is someone I've known for many, many years, and we've talked, you know, throughout this process, so, you know, we have a really good relationship and I admire the work he's doing now and what he's done."

That's three "you knows," for those keeping score.

And the leading paragraph in a recent Maureen Dowd column in the Times went as follows:

Ask not, you know, what your country can, like, do for you. Ask what you, um, can, you know, do for your country.

I am not saying that just because Maureen Dowd does it, NPR should do it. There is a well-documented history of snarky comments made by Ms. Dowd that we don't really need to emulate. But that's not the point. Sure, you can count all the times I say "uh" and "ummm." Of course, I'm not seeking appointment to the U.S. Senate. And let's keep in mind the media have mocked the language skills of George Bush, pere and fils, for years.

I'm just saying, and have been saying, that with all those out there who could be appointed to the seat, Caroline Kennedy seems to have less of an argument than many of the others. I'm sorry if you thought our having fun with Ms. Kennedy's speech patterns was, you know, over the top.

Sen. John Kerry, the new chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, talked about the historical nature of this morning's hearings that will ultimately end up with the confirmation of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. The previous committee chair, Joe Biden, is now vice president-elect. Another committee member, Barack Obama, is the president-elect.

And, lest anyone think the path to the top is easy, Kerry reminded everyone who was sitting in the room that Clinton, Chris Dodd, Dick Lugar and he are all examples of those who tried for the brass ring and failed.

One major piece of history left unsaid: if confirmed, Clinton would be the nation's first female secretary of state since Condoleezza Rice.

Check out today's New York Times' Op-Ed page for a series of questions by 10 experts that they would like Clinton to answer at her confirmation hearing.

For the record, Clinton came to the hearing accompanied by her daughter, Chelsea, but not by her husband, the former president. Bill Clinton's foundation and its taking of foreign donations was the subject of the opening statement by ranking Republican Dick Lugar.

More to come.

After having the day off yesterday, the Senate committees holding hearings for Barack Obama's Cabinet selections and other administration officials resume today. Here's the latest schedule:

Tuesday, Jan. 13
Steven Chu, secretary of energy -- Energy and Natural Resources Committee
Hillary Clinton, secretary of state -- Foreign Relations Committee
Shaun Donovan, secretary of housing and urban development -- Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee
Arne Duncan, secretary of education -- Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
Peter Orszag, budget director -- Budget Committee (also: Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Jan. 14)

Wednesday, Jan. 14
Lisa Jackson, Environmental Protection Agency administrator -- Environment and Public Works Committee
Ray LaHood, secretary of transportation -- Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee
Eric Shinseki, secretary of veterans affairs -- Veterans Affairs Committee
Tom Vilsack, secretary of agriculture -- Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee

Thursday, Jan. 15
Timothy Geithner, secretary of the Treasury -- Finance Committee
Eric Holder, attorney general -- Judiciary Committee
Janet Napolitano, homeland security -- Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
Susan Rice, U.N. ambassador -- Foreign Relations Committee
Christina Romer, Council of Economic Advisers chair -- Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee
Ken Salazar, secretary of interior -- Energy and Natural Resources Committee
Mary Schapiro, Securities and Exchange Commission chair -- Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee

Last week, confirmation hearings for Tom Daschle, the health and human services secretary-designate, and Hilda Solis, the choice for labor secretary, were both held by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (Jan. 8 and 9, respectively). The Senate Finance Committee must also hold hearings on Daschle's nomination.

Still to be scheduled: hearings for Ron Kirk (U.S. Trade Representative) in the Finance Committee.

And we're waiting for a commerce secretary nomination to replace the withdrawn Bill Richardson.

No confirmation hearings are required for Defense Secretary Robert Gates, since he is a carryover.

Note: This listing will be updated as necessary.

We've seen turnarounds in Washington before, but this one will always stand out, if for no other reason than the startling about-face.

Following the arrest of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) on corruption charges last month, most particularly on the allegation that he attempted to sell Barack Obama's former Senate seat to the highest bidder, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid warned the gov: Don't even think about sending a Senate appointee to Washington. That person will not be accepted. And Reid said the entire Democratic majority was onboard, along with Obama.

Blagojevich called their bluff. On Dec. 30, he named Roland Burris, a former state attorney general and comptroller, to the seat. He basically dared them to reject Burris, who is African-American and would be the Senate's only black member.

For a while, it looked like Reid & Co. would stand their ground and prevail. The Illinois secretary of state, Jesse White (D), refused to add his signature to Blagojevich's certification of Burris. Reid and Dick Durbin, the Senate majority whip and the only Illinois senator, said whoa, we certainly can't certify a new member in light of that 1884 law that demands signatures of both the governor and the secretary of state! No signature, no senator, was the Reid/Durbin mantra.

No longer.

By all accounts, Burris will be sworn in as senator later this week. Reid, the Senate parliamentarian, the secretary of the Senate and Senate lawyers all now say that Burris' credentials are in order. White actually added his signature to Burris' certification last Friday, but it's more than that. The Dem solidarity began to fall apart when Sen. Dianne Feinstein said last week that Burris should be seated. The sight of Burris, a diminutive black man, being turned away from the all-white Senate earlier in the week because of faulty credentials reminded some, fairly or not, of black students being turned away from all-white Southern schools in the 1950s and '60s. Reid's case was falling apart right before his eyes.

Today, in a statement from Reid and Durbin, the Democratic leaders said that, "barring objections from Senate Republicans," they expected Burris to be sworn in and seated later this week.

The complete turnaround in the situation was nothing short of breathtaking.

Yeah, sure. You all complain that the ScuttleButton puzzles have been too easy. So what happens when I try to make it a bit more difficult? A drastic drop-off in guesses.

Easy or difficult, the rules remain the same. In order to solve the rebus, you need to take one word or one concept per button to arrive at a saying or a name.

The buttons:

"Keep the Faith Baby" with a photo of Adam Clayton Powell -- a favorite slogan of Powell, the legendary New York congressman.

I'm Voting For Hamilton Fish Jr. -- an upstate New York Republican congressman who served on the House Judiciary Committee during the Nixon impeachment hearings.

Caricature of man with tape over his mouth -- actually, this is Mark Plotkin, once a political commentator for D.C. public radio station WAMU (now with commercial station WTOP); the theme behind the button is that Plotkin likes to talk too much.

Anyway, the answer: Baby Fish Mouth! -- the memorable (to some!) line from Bruno Kirby during the charades scene in When Harry Met Sally. In case this classic scene escapes you, here it is.

The winner, selected at random among the correct responders, is (drum roll) ... Susan Daigle-Leach of Prescott, Ariz.

Jan. 12, 1976:

Sen. Hiram Fong (R-Hawaii) announces his retirement after three terms. Fong was also the state's favorite son candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968. Hawaii has not sent a Republican to the Senate since Fong retired.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

Hard to believe, but there were some inaccuracies in the Political Junkie in recent weeks. They are cleared up here.

Neuhaus ran in a caucus, not a primary; Chichester was the nominee, not Coleman

Following the death of theologian Richard John Neuhaus last week, we said that back in 1970, during his "liberal" phase, Neuhaus ran against conservative Rep. John Rooney (D-NY) in the Democratic primary in Brooklyn's 14th District. Not so, wrote Jerry Skurnik of New York City. Neuhaus actually tried to win the backing of a caucus of anti-Vietnam War Democratic activists to run against Rooney. That honor went instead to Peter Eikenberry, who went on to lose to Rooney in the primary. (Good news: A button from Neuhaus' campaign survives!)

In a Dec. 22 posting, as an aside to someone who confused Paul Weyrich with Richard Viguerie, we illustrated a Viguerie button and said it was from his 1985 bid for lieutenant governor of Virginia, when he lost the nomination to Marshall Coleman. Yes, Viguerie ran for LG in '85, but he didn't lose to Coleman. In fact, both candidates lost. David Ray of Annandale, Va., has everything you always wanted to know about the 1985 Virginia state convention but were afraid to ask:

There were five candidates for lieutenant governor: Viguerie, Coleman, state Sen. John Chichester, state Del. Pete Giesen and Maurice Dawkins (the GOP Senate nominee against Chuck Robb in 1988).

Coleman was clearly the candidate of the Rockefeller/Linwood Holton [liberal] wing of the GOP. Viguerie was the candidate of the Northern Virginia/Inside-the-Beltway conservative movement types (pro-Life Catholics and other religious fundamentalist Protestant conservatives). Chichester was the "other" conservative in the race -- the candidate of establishmentarian conservatives, business types who leaned conservative, and some former allies of the late Dick Obenshain Chichester was seen as the other committed pro-lifer in the race -- conservative, and NOT a carpetbagger from Northern Virginia.

We then began voting, and each ballot seemed to take forever. The GOP generally uses a majority rule, and there was no provision requiring any candidate to drop out at any time. So we emerged on the first ballot with no winner. I can't remember who led (Viguerie never led, nor did Giesen), but over the next three ballots, I seem to remember there wasn't much movement.

Finally, on the fifth ballot, enough Viguerie conservatives perceived the most important thing was to stop the pro-choice Coleman. Chichester emerged with the nomination. (He went on to lose to Democrat Douglas Wilder -- as you may remember, the Democrats swept all three statewide races that year.)

Well, the name of this blog is indeed Political Junkie, so what did you expect?

By the way, David also came through last October, when a particular Political Junkie column focused on trying to come up with a case prior to 2008 of a senator who was the son of a House member. In 2008, we saw Mark Begich of Alaska elected to the Senate (son of the late Rep. Nick Begich), Mark Udall of Colorado (son of the late Rep. Mo Udall of Arizona), and Tom Udall of New Mexico (son of ex-Rep. Stewart Udall of Arizona).

I could only come up with one from the past: Jon Kyl of Arizona, son of the late Rep. John Kyl of Iowa.

David had one more: Howard Baker Jr. of Tennessee, son of the late Rep. Howard Baker Sr., also of Tennessee.

In last week's "It's All Politics" podcast, there was a mention that Supreme Court Justice Alan Page, the former Minnesota Vikings great, would hear or decide the challenge by Norm Coleman to his apparent Senate defeat. Not so, writes John Worrell of St. Paul:

Page's role is to appoint a three-judge panel from the Ramsey County District Court. The panel will hear the evidence and render a ruling, which is then subject to appeal.

Other than that, we've been perfect.

Add another Senate Republican who won't seek re-election in 2010: George Voinovich of Ohio.

The moderate Republican, a former mayor of Cleveland and Ohio governor, announced his plans this morning. His decision follows that of Missouri's Kit Bond (Jan. 8), Florida's Mel Martinez (Dec. 2) and Kansas' Sam Brownback, three other Republicans who have decided not to run again.

Continue reading "Ohio's George Voinovich To Retire; 4th Republican To Do So" >

I'm still awaiting a final transcript. But in his farewell news conference as president, George W. Bush said this morning that he had a "Taipei personality."

I'll admit it had me puzzled.

Barack Obama resigned his Senate seat, to no great fanfare, back on Nov. 16. And while no one foresaw the circus that would result in Illinois from his resignation, it certainly seemed to make sense at the time. With the Senate coming back for a lame-duck session, Obama felt that his priority should be his transition from senator to president.

But what about Joe Biden? Previous senators who became VPs were already gone from the Senate by now. Al Gore, Dan Quayle and Lyndon Johnson all gave up their Senate seats in early January, just before the new Congresses were sworn in. Walter Mondale and Hubert Humphrey gave up theirs in late December. But not Biden. The vice president-elect has held onto his Senate seat; in fact, he was sworn in for a seventh term last week.

That subject came up during last Wednesday's Political Junkie segment on NPR's Talk of the Nation, and I didn't have an answer for it.

Carrie David of Newark, Del., does.

Carrie directed me to this posting on Delawareonline.com from Nicole Guadiano of the Wilmington News Journal:

A smiling Joe Biden took his seventh oath of office among friends on the U.S.Senate floor Tuesday, hitting a personal and historic milestone before becoming the next vice president.

At age 66, he was the youngest person ever sworn in for a seventh full Senate term, a fitting distinction for someone first elected at the age of 29 in 1972. He is the longest-serving senator in Delaware history and among the longest-serving senators in U.S. history.

"In all my life, the greatest honor bestowed upon me has been serving the people of Delaware as their United States senator," he said in a statement. "It is truly humbling today to take the Senate's oath of office for a seventh time." ...

Biden chose to extend his Senate service even after President-elect Barack Obama resigned from his Senate seat shortly after the election. His friends said taking his final Senate oath was important to him.

"He wants to be able to tell his grandchildren he did it," said Mark Gitenstein, a Biden adviser who previously served on his Senate staff. "I just know that he feels it's important. He's told me that. I've been in meetings where he said, 'I really want to do this one last time.' "

Kaufman said, "We all encouraged him to do it. It's historical."

It was a part of history that we weren't aware of. Biden will resign from the Senate this Thursday at 5 p.m. Eastern time. Ted Kaufman, a former top aide, has been appointed to serve in his stead until 2010, when a special election will be held ... and, conveniently, when Biden's son Beau -- the state attorney general -- will have returned from his National Guard stint in Iraq just in time to run for his dad's seat.

No. 14. By extending his Senate tenure to Jan. 15, Biden snuck past Claiborne Pell (D-RI) and Pete Domenici (R-NM) and will be the 14th-longest-serving senator in history.

1. Robert Byrd (D-WV) -- 50 years

2. Strom Thurmond (D/R-SC) -- 47 years, 5 months

3. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) -- 46 years, 2 months

4. Daniel Inouye (D-HI) -- 46 years

5. Carl Hayden (D-AZ) -- 41 years, 10 months

6. John Stennis (D-MS) -- 41 years, 2 months

7. Ted Stevens (R-AK) -- 40 years

8. Ernest Hollings (D-SC) -- 38 years, 2 months

9. Richard Russell (D-GA) -- 38 years

10. Russell Long (D-LA) -- 38 years

11. Francis Warren (R-WY) -- 37 years

12. James Eastland (D-MS) -- 36 years, 3 months

13. Warren Magnuson (D-WA) -- 36 years, 2 weeks

14. Joseph Biden (D-DE) -- 36 years, 11 days

Cornelia Wallace, the second wife of Alabama Gov. George Wallace, who was with him in Laurel, Md., in 1972 during an assassination attempt -- when she threw herself on top of him after he was shot -- died yesterday. She was 69 years old and had cancer.

George Wallace's first wife, Lurleen, ran for governor in 1966 because he was constitutionally barred from succeeding himself; she won in a landslide. She died of cancer in 1968, as he was seeking the presidency on a third-party ticket. He married Cornelia, the niece of former Gov. Jim Folsom, in 1971.

During a campaign swing in Maryland in 1972 -- while he was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination -- Wallace was shot four times at a campaign rally at a Laurel shopping center by Arthur Bremer. The image of Cornelia throwing herself on top of her husband as he lay there bleeding has long been etched in the memory of those who were alive back then.

The couple divorced in 1978. That same year, she ran in the Democratic primary for governor but finished last in a field of 13 candidates.

In a 1997 TV movie about George Wallace, the part of Cornelia was played by Angelina Jolie.

The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, once a liberal, anti-Vietnam War Lutheran minister who later became a Catholic priest and intellectual leader among religious conservatives, also died Thursday. He was 72.

Neuhaus had been one of the more prominent anti-war religious figures of the 1960s, working with the Rev. Daniel Berrigan on behalf of civil rights and against the war. As pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church in Brooklyn, he was arrested at a protest demonstration demanding integration of public schools. In 1968 he was a Eugene McCarthy delegate at the Democratic National Convention, where he was also arrested for disorderly conduct. In 1970 he lost a primary for Congress in Brooklyn to pro-war Democratic incumbent John Rooney.

He broke with the left in the 1970s, partly over the Supreme Court's decision legalizing abortion. He later converted to Catholicism and became one of the most influential thinkers in the Catholic movement. His 1984 book, The Naked Public Square, is one of the most important books on the issue of church and state.

Jan. 9, 1975:

The two candidates in the still-undecided 1974 New Hampshire Senate race, Republican Louis Wyman and Democrat John Durkin, took their case before a Senate subcommittee. The N.H. Ballot Law Commission ruled that Wyman won the race by two votes, but Durkin appealed the decision to the entire Senate.

(With the Senate hopelessly deadlocked, a new election was called, for September 1975, which Durkin won.)

(P.S. Yes, I know, today would have been Richard Nixon's 96th birthday. But he got a "This Day" mention yesterday. Fair is fair.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

The whining has gotten out of hand.

The last ScuttleButton puzzle ("Merry Christmas") was "too easy," wrote Kyle Dirck of Odessa, Mo. Brooks Hilliard of Phoenix, Ariz., wrote the exact same thing. The answer was "pretty obvious," echoed Jean Cappello. "Even I can get this one," sniffed Brook Soltvedt of Madison, Wis.

OK. You asked for it. This one is a bit tougher.

(Though, for the record, NPR producer Evie Stone got it in 3 seconds. But that's because she thinks like I do. Which is distressing for Evie.)

Here's what you need to do to solve this rebus: Take one word (or concept) per button, add 'em up, and what do you get?

A correct answer chosen at random gets his or her name in this column. You can't use the comments box at the bottom of the page for your answer. Send submission (plus your name and city/state) to politicaljunkie@npr.org.

Note: This will be an occasionally recurring feature on the Political Junkie blog. You can still see last week's contest here.

Plus, you can add your name to the Political Junkie mailing list, even though these are the first people they will come after when you-know-who takes over. Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

The vote wasn't close, nor was it expected to be: 114-1. One hundred fourteen members of the Illinois House of Representatives voted to impeach Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) for an assortment of alleged crimes, the first chief executive in the state's 190-year history to suffer that fate.

Chicago Sun-Times' Dave McKinney describes the mood:

For more than 90 minutes, House members solemnly laid out a list of transgressions against Blagojevich that warranted his impeachment -- from his alleged offer to sell the state's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder, to his alleged extortion of a children's hospital for a campaign contribution from its CEO, to his $2.6 million expenditure for imported flu vaccines that never reached Illinois and had to be thrown out.

"We wanted him. We elected him. We supported him. And he's disgraced us," said state Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) said.

"Today, we are taking the first step in taking back our government from the darkness and bringing it back to the light. The plague -- it is a plague that has been brought on our state by Rod Blagojevich -- will be lifted. This is a new day, a better day," said state Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock).

House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago), chairwoman of the House panel that recommended impeachment, said the evidence to drive Blagojevich from office was overwhelming.

"The evidence we gathered makes it clear this governor tramples on the legislative prerogative. He breaks state and federal laws. In his own words, he expresses a willingness to barter state official acts and state taxpayer money for personal and political gain. This governor has violated his oath of office. This governor has breached the public trust. This governor must be impeached," she said.

The only House member to vote against the resolution was state Rep. Milton Patterson (D) of Chicago, who said there "wasn't enough" evidence against the governor to warrant such an action. Elga Jefferies, another Chicago Democrat, voted present.

The case now goes to the state Senate, where a two-thirds vote is required to remove Blagojevich from office.

The last governor impeached was Arizona's Evan Mecham (R), who was removed from office in 1988. Before that, it was Huey Long (D) of Louisiana, in 1929. But he was acquitted in the Senate.

Down in the dumps? You weren't named to a Cabinet position or to a vacant Senate seat? You don't understand why tax cuts were bad when Bush did it but good when Obama does it?

Not to worry! This week's "It's All Politics" podcast is up and filled with deep, deep analysis and lame, lame jokes.

And, in the wacky world of homonyms, you can hear it here!

Credits --
Nonstop talkers: Ron Elving and Ken Rudin
Producer: Evie Stone
Door-knocking sound effects: Joe Catapano

Wanna subscribe to the podcast? You can do it through iTunes.

Wanna hear previous episodes? Click here.

Wanna be on my mailing list? Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

Meanwhile, the Listener, Kharma Foucher of Chicago, has a question:

I am so sorry to contact you for something so frivolous but I am DYING to know what the closing song was from the October 16th podcast. I'd love it if someone could get back to me on this. I still have this show on my player and I occasionally rock out to that 30 second snippet.

I'm so glad you asked this question. Ordinarily, our indefatigable producer, Evie Stone, comes up with the music at the end of the episode (or the clever stuff inside the podcast -- check out her subtle insertion of the Bill Richardson campaign ad in this week's show). But this particular song was my doing. It's "Kitchen Motors" by Crash Course in Science. I was sitting at home one day, maybe 1980 or '81 or thereabouts, working on a cassette mix and listening to WNEW-FM in New York. I still remember the disc jockey, Vin Scelsa, warning us in advance that we're not going to believe what he's about to play. Well, I couldn't believe it either. I taped it at the time and have loved it ever since. You now know more about this than you bargained for.

But here's the good news. You can listen to it here! Rock on!

No more questions, but I can't go without including some podcast fan mail.

Alan Miles, who for obvious reasons has not supplied his city/state, writes:

I love your witty, insightful political commentary. I listen to many news and political podcasts, but "It's All Politics" is MY VERY FAVORITE. I'm always happy to see when it becomes available for downloading and I often listen to it multiple times. Aside from great political insight, the podcast works perfectly as comedy! ("The listener. . . .") My only criticism is that it is too short -- 30 minutes would be better, 60 minutes even better!

Erin Teare Martin of Stoughton, Mass., agrees, at least on the last point:

Time to work harder Ken and do a daily podcast!!

Robin Winning of Santa Rosa, Calif. has also swallowed the Kool Aid:

Between the blog, the podcast, and now these live webchats, I think you're turning NPR's politics coverage into an exciting and interactive place to be. Keep up the good work (and the bad puns).

Matt Leaverton of Roseburg, Ore. adds:

Keep up the good work and I can't wait for the next edition of the podcast with you and Ron. I've been listening to it for over a year, and it's by far my favorite political podcast, of which I have about 100 from all sorts of sources. THANKS!

Susannah Mowris of Paris, France explains why the rest of the world thinks we're odd:

I am the listener of the "Its all Politics" podcast (yes, I know, we all say that). I may be a bit different from many in that I have lived outside the U.S. for over 25 years (I'm in Paris, France, home to an openly gay mayor that no one gets worked up about), but wonderful work like your podcast with Ron Elving allows me to keep up, and keep smiling.

Ditto from Chris McAfee of Belfast:

Keep up the good work! The Political Junkie segment on "Talk of the Nation" and the podcast are the best ways to follow U.S. politics from the U.K.

We received this question from James McKinstra of Freeport, Ill.:

Will Joe Biden be the first Roman Catholic vice president?

The answer is yes, and it's interesting that, in this year of history-making, this hasn't been widely pointed out.

Five other vice presidential candidates were Catholic: William Miller (R-1964), Ed Muskie (D-1968), Thomas Eagleton (D-1972, briefly), Sargent Shriver (D-1972) and Geraldine Ferraro (D-1984).

Have a question? Write us at politicaljunkie@npr.org. Please include your city and state.

The Illinois legislative committee investigating the conduct of Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) has unanimously recommended his impeachment and conviction. The 21-member committee comprised 12 Democrats and nine Republicans. A vote in the full House is expected soon.

Blagojevich was arrested on Dec. 9 on an assortment of charges, including allegations that he tried to sell Barack Obama's now-vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder. The governor has insisted he is not guilty of any wrongdoing.

More on this tomorrow, along with the continuing saga of the Roland Burris Senate nomination plus a new ScuttleButton puzzle!

Bad news: President-elect Barack Obama says the recession is not going away anytime soon.

Good news: We have a winner for the last ScuttleButton puzzle!

You'll be forgiven if you can't remember. It was back in December of 2008. The rebus consisted of three buttons; your job was to take one word or one concept per button to arrive at a saying or a name.

The buttons:

Mary Louise Foust for Governor -- she was a 1963 Democratic hopeful in Kentucky.

Run Chris Run -- Chris Spirou was the Democratic nominee for governor of New Hampshire in 1984.

What a MESS / McGovern Eagleton Sargent Shriver -- a button mocking the 1972 Democratic presidential ticket(s).

The answer: Merry Christmas! (Mary ... Chris ... Mess)

The winner, selected at random among the correct responders, is (drum roll) ... Chris Collins of East Greenbush, N.Y.

A new puzzle appears tomorrow. Note: People at NPR who had an early look either got it immediately or couldn't solve it at all. Good luck!

There was a time, not long ago, when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said without hesitation that if Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich dared to appoint someone to fill Barack Obama's now-vacant seat, the Senate would promptly reject him/her.

On Dec. 30, the governor went ahead and named Roland Burris, the former state attorney general, to fill the seat. Fuggeddaboudit, said Reid. No way, agreed the president-elect.

That was then. This is now.

He served 12 years as state comptroller and four as attorney general. But he lost Dem primaries for Senate (1984) and governor (1994, 1998, 2002) as well as for mayor of Chicago in 1995. But he may finally be getting something he really wants.

 

A 45-minute meeting between Burris and Senate Dem leaders Reid and Dick Durbin on Wednesday has seemingly resulted with everyone on the same page: Burris will be the next senator from Illinois, apparently; it's just a matter of dotting the i's and crossing the t's.

When Burris showed up at the Capitol the other day, he was turned away by the secretary of the Senate because of incomplete credentials. His certification from Springfield included the signature of the governor but not that of Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White. White refused because Blagojevich is under federal corruption charges.

(Still, that didn't keep White from adding his signature when Blago the other day proclaimed the date of a special election to fill Rahm Emanuel's former House seat. White is, if nothing else, pro-choice.)

Following their meeting with Burris, Reid and Durbin did a CYA by saying that of course they would love to have Burris join the club, but a rule in effect since 1884 requires both signatures for a senator to take his/her seat, whether it's by election or appointment. It's not about Blago making the appointment, they now said. It's about that missing signature from the secretary of state. The rule has never been waived, they said. 1884! 1884!

But is it ironclad? First of all, the Senate language only says the signature of a secretary of state is "recommended." White himself is quoted as saying, "My signature is not required. My signature is mostly ceremonial, rather than being a point of law." So much for Reid's new argument. In any event, the Illinois Supreme Court is expected to rule on that today. Burris also appeared today before a state House committee discussing the possible impeachment. Illinois lawmakers grilled him on how the appointment came to pass and stuff about his relationship with the governor. Both sides of the Burris struggle have indicated that once the court rules, and once Burris testifies, the roadblocks to his taking the Senate seat should vanish.

The beginning of the end of the Democratic wall against seating Burris came Tuesday when Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the outgoing chairwoman of the Rules Committee, said this: "If you don't seat Mr. Burris, it has ramifications for gubernatorial appointments all over America. Mr. Burris is a senior, experienced politician. He has been attorney general, he has been comptroller, and he is very well-respected. I am hopeful that this will be settled."

Feinstein had also raised eyebrows the day before by questioning the apparent choice of Leon Panetta as Obama's next director of the CIA. The new chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, she was apparently peeved that Panetta's name was leaked without her having been first consulted.

She ran for governor once before. Is she thinking about it again?

Her back-to-back, off-the-reservation comments surprised many political watchers, and some are wondering if this is not the prelude to a potential announcement that she has had enough of Washington and wants to go back home to run for governor. She ran once before, in 1990, losing to Republican Pete Wilson, and some think she never lost the bug. But she's 75 years old, and California state government is currently in a mess. Something perhaps to watch for.

Whatever, her words indicated that Democratic solidarity against accepting Burris might be melting away.

And there is the race factor.

Both Reid and Durbin expressed unhappiness over how race has become part of the conversation. Both stated that race had nothing to do with this, and Durbin quoted Burris, who is African-American, saying the same thing. I agree. I don't think for a second the legal roadblocks for Burris taking a Senate seat have anything to do with race. It's been all about Blagojevich, no more, no less. Yes, it should be noted, that with Obama departing the Senate, there is no longer a black senator, but that is secondary. Some have speculated that Blago named Burris for this very reason, daring the Senate to reject a black candidate. And Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) pitched in on the topic, urging the Senate "to not hang or lynch the appointee as you try to castigate the appointer" and daring lawmakers "to go on record to deny one African-American from being seated in the U.S. Senate."

Rush's playing the race card was unmistakable, and unsurprising. And if he made the Democratic establishment uncomfortable, so be it. Perhaps he was also taking a jab at Obama as well. Remember, back in 2000, when Obama was a relative political unknown, he decided to take on Rush in the 2000 Democratic primary. Obama may have figured that Rush, coming off a disastrous challenge to Mayor Richard M. Daley in 1999, was vulnerable. Obama figured wrong; Rush clobbered him.

And maybe there was something sad about Burris being so eager to serve in the Senate that he would accept the nomination from someone so discredited. Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL), long thought to be interested in the Senate appointment and who is also African-American, said Blagojevich offered him the seat first but he had turned it down. Good for him.

But Davis is happy for Burris and wants him to be senator; in fact, as he said to NPR's Neal Conan during the Wednesday Junkie segment on Talk of the Nation, when he turned down the offer from Blago's emissary he urged Burris be picked in his stead.

And it was a bit surreal watching Burris, a diminutive and unassuming man, try to bring his credentials to the Senate, only to be turned away. And then have to hold a news conference outside, in the rain. He almost appeared sympathetic.

And that photograph, of Burris speaking to the press in the rain under umbrellas, which was on the front page of so many newspapers across the country, may have been what changed the dynamic here and what forced Reid and the Senate leadership to back down. Reid ultimately looked bad in the process, but I sense it's a temporary blip. The pressure, should he finally get the seat, will now be on Burris. If he wants to hold on to the seat in 2010, he has only 14 months to make a strong impression before the Democratic primary ... a primary that, as of late, has not done him any favors.

Let's look at the record:

1976 -- got crushed in the Democratic primary for state comptroller by Michael Bakalis, 72-28%.

1978 -- with Bakalis leaving for a gubernatorial bid, Burris again ran for comptroller. He defeated John Castle (R) to become the first African-American to be elected statewide in Illinois history.

1982 -- re-elected comptroller over Cal Skinner Jr. (R).

1984 -- ran for the U.S. Senate, finishing second in the Democratic primary to Rep. Paul Simon, who won the seat.

1986 -- re-elected comptroller over Adeline Jay Geo-Karis (R).

1990 -- elected attorney general when the incumbent, Neil Hartigan (D), sought the governorship. Burris defeated Jim Ryan (R).

1994 -- ran for governor, finishing second in the Democratic primary to Dawn Clark Netsch.

1995 -- ran for mayor of Chicago, losing to incumbent Richard M. Daley, 60-36%.

1998 -- ran for governor, finishing second in the Democratic primary to Rep. Glenn Poshard.

2002 -- ran for governor, finishing third in the Democratic primary won by Rep. Rod Blagojevich.

Jan. 8, 1960:

Vice President Richard Nixon declared his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

Sen. Christopher (Kit) Bond, a four-term Republican senator from Missouri, is expected to announce within the hour that he will not seek re-election next year. The Kansas City Star reports that the political fallout of such a move would be "huge":

One person to watch: seven-term Congressman Roy Blunt of southwest Missouri, a Republican and father of the current governor, who might be tempted into a race to succeed him.

Other Republicans who might be interested: Congressman Sam Graves, former Sen. Jim Talent and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder.

The Democrat most often mentioned for the seat: Robin Carnahan, the secretary of state.

Bond was first elected to the Senate in 1986, succeeding Democrat Thomas Eagleton, who retired.

1986: defeated Harriett Woods 53-47%
1992: defeated Geri Rothman-Serot 52-45%
1998: defeated Jay Nixon (now governor) 53-44%
2004: defeated Nancy Farmer 56-43%

Prior to his Senate tenure, he was elected governor in 1972, defeated for re-election by Joe Teasdale in '76, and beat Teasdale in '80. Before that he was state auditor.

Bond would be the third GOP senator to opt out of seeking re-election in 2010. Mel Martinez of Florida called it quits on Dec. 2, and Kansas' Sam Brownback long ago announced he would quit after two full terms; Brownback is looking at the governorship.

P.S. Bob Levine of St. Louis, Mo. reminds us in the comments below that Bond also ran for Congress in 1968, losing to Rep. William Hungate (D) by a 52-48 percent margin.

Jan. 7, 1960:

Rep. Richard Simpson (R-PA), the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee and the ranking GOPer on the House Ways and Means Committee, died at 59 following brain surgery.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

The Political Junkie segment on NPR's Talk of the Nation starts off the New Year with a bang. Or, at least, with some questions:

-- What to do with Roland Burris?

-- On what side of the bed did Dianne Feinstein get up from this morning?

-- What changed Jeb Bush's mind about seeking the Senate seat?

-- Will the American public have the patients for Sanjay Gupta?

-- Will President-elect Obama fill in the blanks at his morning news conference?

The good news: I will not be reading any poems on today's program.

Remember, the Political Junkie segment airs every Wednesday at 2 p.m. Eastern time on Talk of the Nation, NPR's call-in program, where you can often, but not always, find interesting conversation, useless trivia questions and sparkling jokes.

And remember, if your local NPR station doesn't carry TOTN, you can hear the program on the Web or on HD Radio. And if you are a subscriber to XM/Sirius radio, you can find the show there as well (siriusly).

(You can listen to the Dec. 24 show, our year in review, here.)

Wanna be on the Junkie mailing list? Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

Two new reports circulating in the blogosphere:

Politico's Jonathan Martin reports that Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, will not run for the Senate seat of retiring Republican Mel Martinez. Martin quotes Mario Rubio, the ex-state House speaker, as saying Bush felt "it just wasn't the right timing." Rubio himself now looks likely to run, writes Martin:

Rubio, a close Bush ally who was waiting on the former governor's decision, said he would now "seriously explore the opportunity."

"I'll be meeting with family and supporters in the weeks ahead and make a decision shortly there after."

Rubio will visit with Republican campaign officials in Washington next week ahead of a likely bid.

Roll Call's John McArdle lists several House members who are considering the race, including Connie Mack IV (R), Allen Boyd (D) and Ron Klein (D). McArdle adds, "Most insiders remain focused on whether the state's chief financial officer, Alex Sink, will run. Sink is a moderate who is the only elected statewide Democrat."

Florida Democratic state Chair Karen Thurman said in a statement that she is confident her party will win the Senate seat: "Over the past several years, Democrats have made major gains in Florida winning three of the six statewide elections. On November 2, 2010, Florida will be electing another strong Democrat to the U.S. Senate, who will work to implement President-elect Barack Obama's vision of change and join Sen. Bill Nelson in representing the Sunshine State in the tradition of Bob Graham and Lawton Chiles."

Back to Jeb: I never felt that Jeb Bush had a great desire to come to Washington, let alone serve in the Senate. But both his father, the former president, and his brother, the current president, have talked up the prospect of Jeb for Senate in recent days.

It would have been Jeb, the legend goes, rather than George W., who was elected president in 2000, had Jeb not lost to Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles in 1994. There have always been whispers that Jeb was the family favorite, as well as the smarter politician. But in '94, as Jeb was losing in Florida, George W. was unseating Ann Richards in Texas. And by 2000, he -- not Jeb, who wasn't elected gov until 1998 -- was on the fast track to the GOP presidential nomination.

The other piece of news comes from The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz, who reports that President-elect Obama has offered the post of surgeon general to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the neurosurgeon and CNN correspondent, who apparently wants the job. Kurtz offers more:

The final vetting process is under way. He has asked for a few days to figure out the financial and logistical details of moving his family from Atlanta to Washington but is expected to accept the offer. ...

The offer followed a two-hour Chicago meeting in November with Obama, who said that Gupta could be the highest-profile surgeon general in history and would have an expanded role in providing health policy advice, the sources said. Gupta later spoke with Tom Daschle, Obama's White House health czar and nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, and other advisers to the president-elect.

The Michigan-born son of Indian and Pakistani parents, Gupta has always been drawn to health policy. He was a White House fellow in the late 1990s, writing speeches and crafting policy for Hillary Clinton. His appointment would give the administration a prominent official of Southwest Asian descent and a skilled television spokesman. ...

Gupta's only hesitation in taking the post is said to involve the financial impact on his pregnant wife and two children if he gives up his lucrative medical and journalistic careers. But he is expected to accept the position within days.

The offer, if it is made, comes after CNN anchor Lou Dobbs was not offered the job as homeland security secretary.

The 111th Congress -- the new House and the new Senate -- was sworn in today.

In the Senate, it's 55 Democrats, 41 Republicans, and 2 independents. Two seats remain vacant: in Illinois, where Barack Obama (D) resigned following his election as president and the Senate has thus far refused to accept the nomination of Roland Burris (D) as his successor, chosen by Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D); and in Minnesota, where no winner has yet been declared in the race between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken. Franken currently leads by 225 votes, but Coleman is vowing a legal challenge.

For organizing purposes, assuming both seats will ultimately be filled by Democrats (that's our guess), it will be 59 Democrats and 41 Republicans.

There are still changes that will take place in the Senate, not in party but in names:

-- Colorado. Sen. Ken Salazar (D) will resign to become secretary of the interior. He will be replaced by Michael Bennet (D), who was appointed by Gov. Bill Ritter (D).

-- Delaware. Sen. Joe Biden (D) will resign to become vice president. He will be replaced by Ted Kaufman (D), who was appointed by Gov. Ruth Ann Minner (D).

-- New York. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D) will resign to become secretary of state. She will be replaced by a still-to-be-determined appointee of Gov. David Paterson (D).

In the House, it's 256 Democrats and 178 Republicans. One seat, Illinois' 5th, is vacant, following the resignation of Rahm Emanuel (D) to become White House chief of staff. The primary to fill this overwhelmingly Democratic seat will take place on March 3; the general election is April 7. Another seat, California's 32nd, will become vacant following the confirmation of Hilda Solis (D) as secretary of labor.

There are 54 new members of the House: 32 Democrats and 22 Republicans.

We keep saying over and over that Barack Obama ran as close to a flawless campaign as one can remember, and nothing changes that. But in attempting to fill his administration, the president-elect has run up against some bumps in the road.

One was seemingly resolved on Sunday, when New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the commerce secretary-designate, withdrew from consideration in light of an ongoing federal investigation into an alleged "pay for play" operation in the awarding of a state contract to a company that contributed to Richardson's political action committees. Still, some are wondering how the Obama team could continue with the choice of Richardson, given that the existence of the probe was well-known.

The news that Leon Panetta will be the next director of the CIA is not, at least not now, thought of as a mistake. But it does raise questions.

Panetta is one of the best-liked people in Washington, one with many friends on both sides of the political aisle, as well as with journalists. He served in Congress for 16 years, following his 1976 defeat of GOP Rep. Burt Talcott, and rose to become chairman of the House Budget Committee. He resigned in 1993 to become President Clinton's budget director and then his chief of staff.

But he has no experience in intelligence matters and has never served on the intelligence committee while in Congress. No doubt he dealt with intelligence matters as Clinton's chief of staff, but his expertise was always thought to be in budgetary matters, his skills always seen as political or managerial.

And that concerns some leading Democrats who will be dealing with intelligence matters in the 111th Congress. Incoming Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) complained she was not consulted in advance of the pick and, according to the Los Angeles Times, indicated she might oppose it. "I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA director," Feinstein said. "My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time." Feinstein is not known for grandstanding, nor is she known to have any personal problem with Panetta. It seems to be about qualifications.

A senior aide to Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), the outgoing chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is also quoted by the Times as saying Rockefeller "would have concerns" about a Panetta nomination: "He's puzzled by the selection. He has concerns because he has always believed that the director of CIA needs to be someone with significant operational intelligence experience and someone outside the political realm."

Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri, the ranking Republican on Intelligence, also expressed skepticism over the Panetta pick.

Others were more supportive. Former Rep. Tim Roemer (D-IN), who served on the 9/11 Commission in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, called it a "savvy" choice. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid described Panetta as "one of the finest public servants I have ever served with and dealt with."

Panetta, who has been a strong critic of CIA interrogation and detention methods, might receive a difficult welcome from old hands at the agency. But first he needs to win approval by the Senate.

For the record, Panetta's nomination is yet to officially be made. If confirmed, he would succeed Gen. Michael Hayden. At 70, he would become the oldest CIA director.

Other pols. Two other former members of Congress headed up the CIA. They were:

-- Porter Goss (R-FL), named by President George W. Bush in 2004; and

-- George H.W. Bush (R-TX), named by President Gerald Ford in 1976.

Postscript: Yesterday we speculated on some potential choices for commerce secretary in the wake of Richardson's withdrawal. NPR's Madeleine Brand interviewed Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, one of those on our list, who said she told Obama she was not interested in any administration position.

Roland Burris, the former Illinois state attorney general and surprise choice of embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich to fill Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat, had his credentials rejected this morning by the secretary of the Senate.

At a news conference held in the rain outside the Capitol building -- not long after Burris and his aides went to the Senate to make his case -- Burris, describing himself as the "junior senator from the state of Illinois," said his credentials were deemed not to be in order and he would thus not be seated today, when the 111th Congress is about to be sworn in. Nor would he be permitted on the Senate floor. He said he was not looking for any confrontation, and then added he would consult with his attorneys.

One of them, Timothy Wright, followed Burris to the microphones and called the Senate's action "improperly done" and "against the law of this land." Wright said he hopes the Burris team will "deliberate" with the Senate leadership about what to do next, and said he did not rule out taking the matter to court.

More to come.

Jan. 6, 1959:

A flip of the coin decided that E.L. (Bob) Bartlett would be Alaska's new senior senator and Ernest Gruening would be the junior senator. The two Democrats were elected on Nov. 25, 1958, after Alaska became the 49th state.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

I can always catch my breath later. But Roland Burris, the choice of embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) to succeed Barack Obama in the Senate, has made it into the Capitol building. The crowd of aides, journalists and cameramen accompanying Burris into the building had all the makings of the entourage that accompanies a heavyweight boxing contender as he leaves his dressing room and heads towards the ring. Clearly the most exciting event to hit Washington since the Beatles came here in 1964.

Doesn't look like George Wal, oops, I mean Harry Reid blocked the doorway.

Burris is hoping to present his credentials when the new Senate gets sworn in at noon today. A press conference is expected soon. More to come.

It was a year of political firsts and of financial lasts, one that many people are glad to see end. With just two more weeks or so before the inauguration, Barack Obama's to-do list is enormous.

 

But before we look ahead to what's in store for 2009, a look back at 2008, remembering those voices in the world of politics we lost. Among the departed are two Democratic members of the House: Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black congresswoman from Ohio, and Tom Lantos of California, the first Holocaust survivor elected to Congress. Hamilton Jordan helped elect a president, while Mark Felt helped take one down. The conservative movement lost an early voice (William F. Buckley), a no-nonsense senator (Jesse Helms), and one who left journalism for government (Tony Snow). Charlton Heston defended the gun lobby while Howard Metzenbaum fought it. Three members of Richard Nixon's "Enemies List" -- Paul Newman, Stewart Mott and Ed Guthman -- left us as well. As did President Truman's daughter and Obama's grandmother.

Presented here is a chronological list of those who died last year. It doesn't claim to be complete, but it includes many of those who made our lives more interesting and the world a better place.

Continue reading "Remembering Those Who Left Us In 2008" >

Jan. 5, 1967:

Rep. Adam Clayton Powell (D-NY), who chaired the Education and Labor Committee, said that the attempt by the House to strip him of his seniority or chairmanship or remove him from office altogether was "motivated by the desire to politically castrate one of America's most powerful Negroes of his power." Powell was accused of financial improprieties.

Today in Campaign History becomes a daily feature, starting, um, today.

The obvious question: Where was the vetting of Bill Richardson, since there have long been reports about a "pay to play" scheme in New Mexico, questions about how a financial investment firm won a state contract shortly after making contributions to Richardson's political action committees. A grand jury has been on this for months. Richardson's former chief of staff, David Harris, was interviewed by the FBI last summer.

Trip Jennings writes in The New Mexico Independent that Richardson informed the Obama transition team about the federal investigation prior to his being named by Obama last month. But it's not that simple:

There is no indication that the probe will end soon. In fact, the federal grand jury asked to review evidence in the case during 2008 has been released from its duty, meaning a new grand jury empaneled this year must take up the case all over again, including witness testimony. And that could mean a drawn-out inquiry.

The surprising but shouldn't-have-been-surprising action: Richardson withdrew yesterday as President-elect Obama's choice for secretary of commerce. The New Mexico governor said he feared the investigation could prove to be a distraction to Obama and his new team. He denied any wrongdoing and said he would stay on as governor. (He is term-limited and cannot run again in 2010.) With "pay to play" coming under major scrutiny in Illinois -- albeit a bit late -- there was no way the new administration was going to allow a potential scandal to explode in its infancy. (For the record, no one is suggesting Richardson is a target of the investigation. But the investigation will no doubt look to what, if anything, the governor's office knew or did regarding the contributions and subsequent contract.)

The details: CDR Financial Products, based in California, made at least $110,000 in political contributions to Richardson's PACs. Not long after, it received a $1.48 million contract to work with the state. Coincidence? Absolutely.

Did he jump, or was he pushed? No one knows for sure. According to the New York Times' Sheryl Gay Stolberg:

Mr. Obama did not ask Mr. Richardson to step aside, associates close to both men said. But when Mr. Richardson offered to withdraw, the officials said, Mr. Obama simply accepted, without trying to persuade Mr. Richardson otherwise.

Now what: Richardson has to deal with the $450 million budget shortfall. It's one thing to travel the world's hot spots, meeting with world leaders. It's another banging heads with state legislators in Santa Fe.

Not so fast: Lt. Gov. Diane Denish (D) was measuring the drapes in the governor's office, having already named a transition team. She was long planning to run in 2010, but now it's unlikely she'll do so as an incumbent governor. Unless the investigation clears Richardson and he gets another administration post. Or unless there's more to the Richardson investigation than we know.

The next secretary of commerce? Some of the names suggested are those who were thought to be finalists for other Cabinet positions, such as Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius or Rep. Xavier Becerra of California. But the betting is that Obama could pick someone completely new out of the hat. (With Richardson gone, Latino groups may renew their lobbying efforts on behalf of Becerra.)

Gone but not forgotten: Other administration would-have-beens-but-never-were include Linda Chavez, President Bush's choice for labor secretary; Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood, President Clinton's choices for attorney general; and Theodore Sorensen, President Carter's choice to head up the CIA.

Back from a week's absence, today's Political Junkie brings you:

-- Bill Richardson withdraws: Obama gets his first embarrassment. It may be more than just embarrassing for Bill.

-- Illinois Senate: Did Blagojevich really name a Senate successor to Obama while we were on vacation? What was he thinking?? The latest on Roland Burris' chances to get confirmed.

-- Colorado Senate: Gov. Ritter has his say, and it's Bennet for the Senate. Not every Colorado Democrat is thrilled.

-- Minnesota Senate: Schumer says it's time for Franken to be sworn in. Not so fast, says GOP. So much for the era of post-partisanship in Washington.

-- This Day In Campaign History: A new daily feature starts today.

-- Fan mail from those who missed the Junkie blog: I'm kidding. Nobody wrote.

-- 2008 Obits: Our special feature on those in the political world who left us last year.

Welcome to 2009. I hope everyone had a healthy, safe and wonderful New Year's!