At the center of the Rod Blagojevich scandal is an allegation that he was putting a U.S. Senate seat up for sale. Here are some of the key quotes:
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich told aides he had something "f-ing golden" - sole power to pick Barack Obama's Senate successor - to trade for a White House post or lucrative outside job for himself, and he sought to sell the seat to the highest bidder, federal prosecutors allege in a sweeping complaint against the Democratic governor.
The Senate seat "is a f--ing valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing," Blagojevich said, according to the complaint. He even threatened to name himself "unless I get something real good."
This is pretty bad, and Blagojevich needs to step down and face trial. Still, it needs to be remembered that the only reason Blagojevich seems to be in trouble is because he was selling the seat for money. If he was selling the seat for votes, personal power, or a committee chairmanship, he would probably have been fine. After all, over the past month, there are at least two high-profile instances of conservative Democrats selling their membership in the party for committee chairmanships. First, Lieberman managed to acquire a Senate chairmanship by threatening to vote with another party (emphasis mine, more in the extended entry):
The tide turned in Lieberman's favor, sources say, after two events in recent weeks. First, President-elect Obama told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that he wanted Lieberman to stay in the Democratic caucus. Later, in a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Lieberman told him it would be "unacceptable" for him to give up his gavel. That was considered by some as a veiled threat that Lieberman would jump to caucus with Republicans if he was forced to give up the gavel.
Beyond Lieberman, three "Democratic" members of the New York State Senate are currently doing the same thing: demanding committee chairmanships and more power over legislative priorities in exchange for voting for a Democrat for Senate majority leader. Fortunately, in this case, a revolt by members of the Democratic Senate caucus is nixing the deal:
The expected Democratic control of the state Senate is now in jeopardy after a power-sharing deal blew up Wednesday.
Senate Democratic leader Malcolm Smith called off negotiations with three dissident Democrats who have threatened to side with a Republican for majority leader.
"We are suspending negotiations effective immediately," he said. "Otherwise, we would reduce our moral standing and longtime Senate Democratic commitment to reform and change."
Despite cutting a deal last week with the three that included reforms and leadership posts for them, Smith said he and his members would rather wait to take control of the Senate than cave to their further demands.
While it is not illegal to threaten to switch voting habits if certain demands are not met, it is just as unprincipled as selling a Senate seat for money. In both cases, power is for sale for its own sake, prior beliefs and values be damned. Lieberman was threatening to start voting with Republicans on a number of issues that he previously did not if he was not granted more power. The same appears to be the case for these three Senate Democrats in New York. Power trumps values. Like Blagojevich, they are all demanding certain amounts of power before they will support your ideas.
I'm not saying these sorts of threats should become illegal. Instead, I am arguing how these threats from conservative Democrats to flip parties are entirely unprincipled to nearly the same degree as Blagojevich. It is too bad Senate Democrats caved to Lieberman's threat to start caucusing with Republicans, because his threat was entirely power based. If Lieberman had switched parties and also started switching his voting habits because he wasn't granted more personal power, he is the one who would have looked like a completely unprincipled, power-hungry, valueless asshole, not Senate Democrats. After all, who looks better now: Blagojevich for demanding a payout, or Obama for refusing to play ball?
Obviously, don't sell elected offices, legislation, or appointments for money. However, don't sell them on threats to bolt to the other party, either. If you refuse to sell, and the person making those threats follows through, in the end you will look better, and the person making the threats will be out of a job before long.
