Republican Shadenfreude

Republicans don't have much to give them joy on Capitol Hill these days, but Byron York has a piece on the pleasure the Roland Burris fiasco is giving the minority party:

The sight of the Senate slamming the door in the face of a qualified man who would also be its only black member was apparently too much for some Democrats to stand. Some began to consider ways to accommodate Burris. Perhaps he could be seated if he promised not to run for the seat on his own in 2010. Or perhaps he could just be seated with no restrictions. By the end of the day, Feinstein, who just happens to be chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, which would likely consider Burris’s plight, made a statement that was quite different from that December 10 letter.

"Does [Blagojevich] have the power, under law, to make the appointment?” Feinstein wondered aloud. “The answer is yes. 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 controller, and he is very well-respected. I am hopeful that this will be settled.”

As Democrats cracked on the Burris question, Republicans mostly watched. And smiled — to themselves. “More drama,” one wrote to me as the Feinstein news broke. Burris’s appearance was “brilliant stagecraft, if it was all on purpose,” the Republican continued. “He looked sad and cold, wrapped his coat around himself at one point. It was evocative of the 1960s, just in color — a black man being turned away.”

For much of the day, Republicans, who haven’t had much to enjoy lately, felt the satisfaction of watching a mess that was completely someone else’s. "It's not our problem,” the Republican told me. “We would like a special election, but we have zero ability to make it happen.”

At this point I'm not sure the GOP cares much about the immediate future of the Senate seat in Illinois. The damage being done by this circus is almost worth skipping the special election that a Republican just might win.

Republicans will still get a chance at that seat the next time around. I don't think Burris will prove to be that great a candidate back home and there could be a backlash against corrupt Dems similar to the statewide bloodbath the Republicans took in Ohio after all the problems in the GOP in that state.