Blago's race card lands softly in Senate fight

updated 7:39 p.m. ET Jan. 6, 2009

The first race card of the Obama era is now in play.

In an apparent bid to save his political life — or perhaps just irritate and confound his enemies — Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has appointed a new senator who would be the only black man in the all-white Senate. On Tuesday, Blagojevich's choice, Roland Burris, was turned away on Capitol Hill when he tried to take his seat.

So far, the episode has not produced a full-throated cry of racism, and many black political leaders are lying low instead of lining up behind Burris. The fact that America's first black president has come out against seating Burris may be preventing the dispute from turning into a major racial flare-up.

Racial politics on center stage
Still, the drama has forced racial politics, once again, to center stage. And how it ultimately plays out could affect hopes for the "post-racial" society supposedly heralded by Barack Obama's election.

The symbolism is very powerful," said Laura S. Washington, a politics professor at DePaul University and columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. "The fact that this is an overwhelmingly white Senate that's stopping Roland Burris, a qualified, distinguished, by all appearances senatorial appointment, and white men are standing in the door, I think that's very powerful, and it sends a very powerful message to African-Americans who have always distrusted the system."

Blagojevich clearly understands those sentiments, as does Rep. Bobby Rush, the former Black Panther who represents a congressional district on the South Side of Chicago.

Less than a month after calling the corruption charges against Blagojevich "so heinous that he has forfeited his right to appoint someone" to Obama's Senate seat, Rush stood next to Blagojevich and Burris last week and pleaded: "I will ask you to not hang and lynch the appointee as you try to castigate the appointer." Later, Rush called the Senate the "last bastion of plantation politics."

"If there ever was a playing of the race card, this was it," said Chris Rabb, an activist with afronetizen.com and former legislative assistant for Carol Moseley Braun, a black woman who preceded Obama in the Senate seat. "Blagojevich may be crazy, but he's not stupid."

But Rush's accusations have not caught fire among large numbers of blacks. Warren Ballentine, a syndicated black talk radio host, said that in the view of many of his listeners, "This is Blagojevich sticking it to people. It's not a black or white issue."

It's certainly a complicated one.

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