Is This Any Way to Choose Senators?

Over the long New Year’s weekend, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter stunned his state’s political establishment by choosing Denver school superintendent Michael Bennet to replace outgoing Senator Ken Salazar. In so doing, Ritter rekindled questions about the entire process of appointing men and women to unfilled terms of outgoing Senators. Taken cumulatively, the process seems to have taken on a circus atmosphere since Barack Obama won the presidency, one that could come back to haunt Democrats, precisely because it’s so (small ‘d’) un-democratic.

At least there was nothing untoward about the Colorado appointment, although I’m still waiting for someone to explain why Ken Salazar was wearing a cowboy hat while Obama introduced him as the choice for Secretary of the Interior. Did the nominee not notice he was indoors? As for the new senator, Loose Cannon met Bennet at this summer’s Democratic convention in Denver, and I have been impressed with his reform efforts in the city’s troubled school system. Moreover, it speaks well of the 2009 version of the Democratic Party that education reformers such as Bennet and new Education Secretary-designate Arne Duncan have prominent seats at Barack Obama’s policy table. (Perhaps I should say by way of disclosure that I’m also well-acquainted with Bennet’s brother James, one of America’s very best journalists). And yet…

Remember Swing Vote, the 2008 summer movie with Kevin Costner that was in theaters for about an hour? The film’s conceit is that by a series of improbable events, one man—“lovable loser” Bud Johnson, in the studio’s promo materials—will cast the deciding vote for president of the United States. A simplistic plot device, perhaps, but guess what? Since the Obama election, four Democratic governors—Ritter, Rod Blagojevich, David A. Paterson and Ruth Ann Minner—have been their own states’ versions of Bud Johnson. Collectively, they have come across as more losers than lovable.

Gov. Blagojevich, you may recall, was hauled off in handcuffs after FBI agents tapping his phone overheard what they took to be attempts to sell Obama’s Illinois senate seat. Blago filled the seat anyway, while awaiting federal indictment. Minner, apparently at the bequest of Vice President-elect Joe Biden, handed Biden’s newly vacant seat to a longtime Biden aide named Ted Kaufman. Apparently, Kaufman is to be a human seat warmer until Delaware Attorney General Joseph R. Biden III, the incoming vice president’s son, returns from Iraq to claim it. Yes, in Delaware, there is one Senate seat for the Biden family, one for everyone else. But hey, it’s a small state.

Speaking of dynasties, New York politics was roiled by Caroline Kennedy’s announcement that she would like to be appointed to the seat being vacated by Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton. I blogged on this before Christmas, and caught considerable flack for speaking wistfully of Caroline’s legacy. Paterson has evidently been taking a million times as much heat as I did. Governor, I feel ya. But why is he prolonging his own agony. Perhaps it’s because Paterson is intrinsically uncomfortable with this role as kingmaker. He should be.

Once upon a time senators were appointed. Now we know why we abandoned that system. It doesn’t work very well.