Kirk Can’t Join Senate at Start of Lame Duck

[Wretched Excess]

is illinois the most corrupt, dysfunctional state in the nation?  the republicans should filibuster everything, including the pledge of allegiance, until the crooks in illinois release mark kirk from bondage.

in the senate, the difference between 41 and 42 is huge.  especially when the democrats no longer have any fear of an impending election.

Kirk Can’t Join Senate at Start of Lame Duck

Republican Rep. Mark Kirk of Illinois might not become Sen. Mark Kirk as soon as he would like.

State officials told Washington Wire that the five-term Republican, who defeated state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias in the contest for President Barack Obama’s old Senate seat, can’t fill his new post until Nov. 23, a week after the Senate convenes for the lame-duck session. The reason for the gap: Illinois election officials need time to certify the vote.

Mr. Kirk will miss a week’s worth of cloture votes, a bummer for the congressman who campaigned that he would be the “42nd Republican senator, with the opportunity to put the brakes on any lame-duck overreach.” He even created a separate website for the issue, saveusfromthelameduck.com. Mr. Kirk’s office had no immediate comment on the dates.

Most newly elected senators won’t take office until January, of course. But a federal court in Illinois decided Mr. Kirk and Mr. Giannoulias had to compete in a separate special election, also on Nov. 2, to serve during the lame-duck session, which makes up the last weeks of Mr. Obama’s uncompleted Senate term. Mr. Kirk won both contests.

The two Democrats elected to the Senate from West Virginia and Delaware should also be seated early. West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, who won last week’s Senate race, should be a voting senator by the start of next week’s session, state officials said.

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[TheSarge]

I'll take political corruption for $200 Alex.

[Allentownjake]

If there are any other GOP Senators being sworn in, they just cost their own Senator Seniority.

[DumbAss Tanker]

It appears the lame duck session is Hell-bent on screwing around with hiding the bodies and cleaning up their own loose ends, like rushing Rangel's ethics hearing in the House to the front of the line, rather than actually taking on anything important or necessary.  The delay may not advantage them nearly as much as they might have hoped.

[Ralph Wiggum]

...a bummer for the congressman...

The word "bummer" was actually used in a news story?  Nice journalism.