The United States Senate Ethics Committee and a local Illinois prosecutor began investigations on Tuesday into the recently appointed junior senator for Illinois, Roland W. Burris, over Mr. Burris's shifting, inconsistent descriptions of how he came to be named to the seat vacated by the election of President Obama.How long will it take for the "one black senator" card to played? There's something poetic in all of this. It's not that Burris is dirty--plenty of politicos are dirty. It's that he was amateurish enough to think that, with all the attention paid to this case, he was slick enough to pass. I doubt they'll throw him out. But he'll spend most of his term defending himself, and then in 2010 the Dems will bounce his ass. But hey, he'll always have the honor of being the, uhm, third black senator from Illinois.Mr. Burris, a onetime state attorney general chosen to fill Mr. Obama's Senate seat by Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich in the final weeks of Mr. Blagojevich's beleaguered administration, said he had done nothing wrong and welcomed all investigations.
"I will answer any and all questions to get that point across and restore faith with the citizens of Illinois," he said in a statement Tuesday afternoon before reporters in Peoria, Ill., where a planned question-and-answer session was canceled.
Only a night earlier, Mr. Burris, a Democrat, had provided yet another new, jolting disclosure about his ties to Mr. Blagojevich's closest allies: In the month or two before Mr. Blagojevich appointed him, Mr. Burris, 71, tried, without success, to raise money for the governor, he acknowledged, at the request of the governor's brother.
« TNC on Fresh Air Tomorrow | Main | Hook a brother (or sister) up » You have your black senator now18 Feb 2009 07:50 am
Isn't he a dandy?
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What we have in Burris is an old man passed by time, wanting to make his mark before death comes for him. When I first held forth on this, I compared him to Dick Clark. In hindsight the comparison falls in two important ways--Clark actually GOT his and wants to hold on to it as long as he can. And Clark doesn't have a political constituency.
"Amateurish" doesn't begin to capture Burris's hubris. George Jefferson game proper.
I wonder what Jesse Jackson, Jr. is up to--if he's furious and frustrated, or if he's wrapped in a warm layer of schadenfreude. Surely there are folks wishing he'd gotten past that "candidate #5" mess and made it to the Senate.
The "one black senator" card is already being played, locally. The whole situation disgusts me on so many levels, and that's just one of em.
One thing that people might be missing in this that makes it all the more funny is that Roland Burris was the ONLY one thinking he was actually a viable candidate for the seat BEFORE Blago was arrested. He keeps saying he didn't want to do anything untoward because he was a candidate for the seat but no other evidence points to Blago even considering him at all. In the grand scheme of things he didn't really do anything wrong at the time, at least based on what is known right now but by lying about it he looks every bit the part of a goon that Blago does. In the end I don't think they will kick him out either and the end result will be the same as it was going to be from the start. He will still vote with the Dems in every vote and he will still get beaten in a primary next year thus ending his shameful two year reign as Junior Senator from Illinois. But hey at least he will have that to add to his masoleum right? lol
Surely there are folks wishing he'd gotten past that "candidate #5" mess and made it to the Senate.
Burris might be the one thing that saves Jr's career.
One of the arguments made for Burris and others of his age was that an "old lion" would just keep the seat warm, that they wouldn't be too ambitious or scheming. Oops. They actually should have considered someone younger, because they would have had more to lose if they fell into Blago's dirty orbit.
You've got to wonder if adding "US Senator" to his mausoleum was worth transforming his public image from "former attorney general and civil rights pioneer" to "that clown Blago appointed." Back in, what, January?, the reaction to Burris was "Well, he's totally qualified and a fine choice, but Blago shouldn't get to pick anyhow" and that's degenerated with stunning speed into "Burris is JUST the sort of halfway-competent hack stumbling between ethics scandals you'd expect Blago to pick."
You've got to wonder if adding "US Senator" to his mausoleum was worth transforming his public image from "former attorney general and civil rights pioneer" to "that clown Blago appointed."
I think the moment to stop wondering was when he accepted the appointment.
Burris is amateur hour!
This exchange proves Burris made every effort to avoid revealing the full extent of his contacts with Blago's folks.
* * *
State Rep. Jil Tracy, pressed Burris repeatedly about which Blagojevich associates he spoke with about the appointment.
TRACY: So you don't recall that there was anybody else besides Lon Monk that you expressed that interest to at that point?
BURRIS: No, I can't recall.
As a Chicagoan all I can do is watch and be embarrassed. I mean come on, come on! But I knew this was coming. When Blago got away with his gambit and everyone was backing away from the initial outrage at his gaul and falling for the "well, this is a legal appointment" or Bobby Rush's more histrionic, "Oh Noes! There won't be a black senator if we don't take this guy right this minute," I knew nothing good could come from the whole scene. The fact is, there was a low probability that anyone who would accept the appointment from Blago could be clean as a whistle.
I agree with Persia that this is the one thing that could save Jesse Jr.'s career though. And I think that's good because the nature of his involvement with Blago seems to point to aiding law enforcement rather than trying to cosy up to the governor. I do wonder if Burris has the sense to ask himself Deborah's question. Good grief.
Burris has ALWAYS been embarrassing to IL Dems. That's why Blago appointed him. We've always known he's not ready for prime time, that's why every time he ran for national office he was shot down.
At this point, I think most of us have just thrown our hands up in defeat. Don't be surprised if we get a Republican governor next year; a social moderate and fiscal hawk. However, our senators will most likely always be true blue.
Don't hold your breath for Jesse Jackson Junior to get the seat if Burris is forced out.
He is apparently under the federal proctoscope revolving around whether associates of his tried to get the seat for him by "fundraising" for Blago.
I don't expect an indictment, but his campaign fund has spent $100,000 on hiring a criminal attorney.
I have no little idea who the next Senator from Illinois will be.
I should stop patting myself on the back so hard, but I KNEW that Burris was going to be involved in some mess before 2010, I KNEW it. While *some* Black folks were on the "we have to stick up for this qualified Black man" meme, I was saying, this mofo is probably as crazy or as dirty as Blago for accepting this appointment. I could smell it. It's not so much that he didn't do what other politicians have done, it's that he clearly LIED about it when he knew that everyone was going to be on him like white on rice because of Blago. I mean, how clueless can you be? And I swear on everything that is holy, if Rush pops up playing the race card again, and people still re-elect him in the future, the people in his district are doomed.
Hey TNC! If you move to Chicago like you talked about maybe you could be the fourth Black Senator from Illinois! If you look at the sequence, you would be bound to excel (Moseley Braun, Obama, Burris, Coates). You heard it from me first;) Enjoyed the interview today.
Ooh, I was going to propose Samuel L. Jackson, but jcj is right. TNC is 30--he can pull a Keyes and move there for the election!
Following TW's thought, one of the Plank's commenters ruminated that Burris was the first African-American politician in Illinois to be boring on a statewide level, an achievement in and of itself, and now he's gone and ruined that.
Throw the bum out.