[All emphasis is added.]

Should Roland Burris show up for duty in the Senate on Tuesday, armed police officers stand ready to bar him from the floor.

This cinematic showdown is among an elaborate set of contingencies that Democratic leaders are planning if, as expected, the former Illinois attorney general appointed by Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich shows up with newly elected senators to press his claim that he is the legitimate replacement for President-elect Barack Obama…

…With Democratic leaders vowing to bar anyone appointed by Blagojevich because of federal charges that he attempted to sell Obama’s seat, leaders hope to stall Burris with paperwork. Senate rules require that an incoming senator’s selection be certified by the secretary of state for his home state, and Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White has declined to sign a certification of Burris’ appointment.

This article gives no reason for the SOS refusal to sign - I’ll be looking into that. However, given that Blago is innocent until proven guilty (or impeached) and therefore has the legal right to appoint Obama’s successor to the Senate, any attempt to prevent Burris from taking his seat is illegal.
Even the Democrat Senators realize that, if Burris presents a certificate signed by the SOS, they can’t just refuse to let him in. They can, however, entangle him in paperwork thereby thwarting his ability to represent his state:

…[L]eaders could refuse to swear him in.

Upon presentation of a valid certificate of election or appointment, past practice for senators whose credentials are disputed has been to grant office space and payroll for a staff, as well as floor privileges — but not a Senate seat — while the dispute is pending.

But wait! There’s more!

But Senate Democrats also have a follow-up plan: refusing to seat Burris until the Senate Rules Committee completes an investigation into whether the appointment process was tainted by corruption.

The plan is for the Senate investigation to extend longer than the Illinois Legislature’s impeachment process underway against Blagojevich, leaving open the possibility that a new governor will make a rival Senate appointment that the Democratic leaders could seat…

…There is also the possibility that while the rules committee conducts its investigation, Burris could file suit in U.S. District Court in Washington, asking a judge to order the Senate to seat him.

That’s what former Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. did in 1967, when the House attempted to bar the New York Democrat from taking his seat. Powell won two years later in the Supreme Court, which ruled that Congress did not have the power to fashion its own standards for admittance…

But wait! We’re not done yet!

…[T]he Senate could choose yet another route.

It appears clearer that the Senate would have the power to expel Burris after it seated him, according to Richard L. Hasen, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles…

…[T]he safest route may be for the Senate to wait to see whether Blagojevich is impeached and then replaced by Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn — who could then make his own appointment to Obama’s seat.

The Senate then would simply choose between two people with competing claims for the post, something it has done in the distant past.

Because, you see, it’s not about respect for the law, it’s not about due process of law - it’s about the result:

“As a practical matter, it could probably be done in a way that would work,” Walker agreed. “It certainly would be subject to challenge. But if they could provide a reasonable and articulate explanation for making that choice, it would probably survive a challenge.”

Gaming the system to get the result they want, the law be damned!

These are the people running our country now.

Dear Hussein Obama,
As you know from your studies of America and American history, the Democratic Party and American Democrats during the Civil War were calling for ‘peace at any price’, and were acting generally discourteously and often treasonously.

The American Civil War may have begun over ‘States’ Rights’ (a state’s right to continue ENSLAVING humans, mostly black humans), but it developed into a war ON slavery, institutional, theoretical and practical. Democrats demanding ‘peace’ at any price were pressing for debasement, defeat and continued slavery.

You are in a position today to take a principled stand FOR freedom, FOR responsible enlightenment and FOR personal rights here in America and for men and women enslaved by religious zealots in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

You can lead great numbers of American Democrats to support continued victories and continued positive developments in Iraq. You can build on the sacrifices and achievements that have come from America’s efforts in the Middle East.

You can lead Democrats to change from self-victimizing, negative racists to America-loving, freedom-supporting rationalists, intent on securing for others the freedoms which we in America enjoy daily.

Surely THIS would be worthy of you, and worthy of the Americans who hope for such change? Don’t repeat the scurrilous, treasonous efforts of Democrats in that earlier conflict… help Americans change to courageous, socialism-rejecting and cooperative individuals, confident in our ability to meet the challenges facing us, with strength, wisdom and courtesy.

You can change, hopefully, Mr Obama.