Will Roland Burris Resign?
Story Number Three…
Sometime between the January 8 hearing and February 4, Roland Burris discovered that the FBI had taped at least one of his conversations with the governor’s brother, Rob Blagojevich, who was heading up fundraising for the governor’s re-election campaign. There has been some speculation that the office of U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who was using the thousands of hours of tapes that trapped the governor to build his case against Blagojevich, may have, as a courtesy, warned the Burris camp. There has been no comment from either the FBI or Fitzgerald’s office on whether they had contact with Burris or his lawyer. However, it seems certain that it was the prospect of being exposed as a liar that impelled Burris on February 4 to send a new, “corrected” affidavit to Illinois House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, chairman of the impeachment committee. In it, he admitted to five separate contacts with Governor Blagojevich’s representatives, including three with the governor’s brother.
Burris put the best face on it that he could:
“There were several facts that I was not given the opportunity to make during my testimony,” Burris said. “I voluntarily submitted an affidavit so everything was transparent.”
Finally, story Number Four:
For reasons that seem unbelievable, Rep. Currie sat on Burris’s updated affidavit, never releasing it to the press. All the while the debate over the stimulus bill was raging in the Senate. It wasn’t until the Chicago Sun Times somehow got wind of the story and confronted Burris on February 13 with his altered testimony that Burris gave the newspaper a copy of the affidavit which the Sun Times published the next day.
Burris told the Sun Times that he refused to raise any money for the governor and that he personally would not donate any cash to get Blagojevich — whose popularity stood at 13% with voters at that time — re-elected. Almost immediately he had to backtrack when at a news conference on February 15, Burris admitted that he had actually phoned around to fat cats trying to get them to contribute to Blagojevich’s campaign.
Four stories – and the ballgame.
Even for Illinois, that must be some kind of record. The Sun Times’ scrappy Mark Brown shows why no one — not even Burris’s African American base — believes him anymore:
Burris said Sunday he sees no inconsistency between the affidavits, arguing that the earlier affidavit pertained to the “appointment” and the more recent to the “Senate seat” — drawing a distinction that was frankly lost on most of us attending a particularly contentious press conference. Reporters get that way when somebody lies to them.
Chicago’s treasured columnist John Kass — who refers to Burris as “Senator Tombstone (D-Lying Weasel) — reported on a Burris appearance at the ancient and honorable City Club of Chicago, where 800 of Chicago’s elite meet to network and discuss policy and politics. Burris refused to answer any questions from a hissing press corps until one brave soul shouted out a query:
Jeff Berkowitz, host of “Public Affairs,” got one in about whether it was wrong of Burris to solicit funds for Blagojevich at the time Blago was considering Burris for the Senate.
“I was never considered for the Senate,” chattered Roland.
The crowd hissed, murmuring, “What?” “What?” to one another, clucking that whichever Roland it was up there was either bonkers or a liar.
“I was never considered by the Senate,” Roland said.
Is it any wonder that the Chicago Tribune, the Sun Times, and the Washington Post have all called on Burris to do the honorable thing and resign? And to show just how much trouble Burris has gotten himself into, AP reports that some African American pastors who strongly supported Burris in his fight to be seated will try and meet with him and ask him to step down.
Even his fellow Illinoisan, Majority Whip Dick Durbin, who is traveling in Turkey on congressional business, all but called on his colleague to resign:
“I am troubled by this and I hope he will call in some advisers he trusts and gets some advice about what to do next,” Durbin said of Burris. “At this point, his future in the Senate seat is in question.”
Durbin must feel especially betrayed considering he vouched for Burris to his fellow Democratic senators, who were balking at seating anyone — black or white — appointed by Blagojevich.
Meanwhile, the county prosecutor has opened a perjury investigation, the Senate Ethics Committee is gearing up their own inquiry, and everyone is wondering how much longer Burris can hold out. But I think It will probably take more than a few African American preachers and newspaper editorials to get Burris out of the Senate. Now it is his integrity that is at stake, not just the realization of his dreams of higher office. A proud man, a man beloved still among ordinary African American voters, Burris has apparently convinced himself he has done nothing wrong.
Until he is disabused of this fanciful notion, or until the Senate rouses itself and kicks him out, Roland Burris will stay right where he is, right where he wants to be, and right where he thinks he deserves to be — topping off a long and distinguished career of elected public service in our nation’s capitol, serving as the junior senator of Illinois.
I doubt it!
This bozo won’t quit unless he’s pushed. And, Congress still hasn’t gotten over its refusal to seat Adam Clayton Powell. So, he’ll be around for a while. Look for a Republican in that seat next time….
Resign? Not likely.
The members with the most offensive transgressions against the public are prized possessions because are they easily led. (Pleeez let me stay, I’ll do and say anything!)Their party-line votes are a given, they may as well be on a choke-leash.
And so, as it usually goes, we can expect that instead of being forced to resign, Burris will be appointed to sit on an ethics panel grilling CEOs.
Ditto Winston. Burris has got his lips on the public teat, and he ain’t about to let go.
no they won’t. They want that vote and are quite willing to carry him for two years until he is no longer needed.
Hey, he was in the Senate to vote for Porkulus; what else matters? Keep your eyes on the prize, people.
I think the phrases “distinguished career” and “our nation’s capital” have become mutually exclusive. Let’s hope that may change someday. My other beefs concern the acceptable racism that permeates the piece.
It all depends on how how much and how long the canaries (Blagojevich and Rezko) sing. My personal opinion is that they intend to defend themselves to the end, but when the end is in sight they will start the opera and take the whole establishment with them.
Rick, I am at a bit of a loss here. Don’t get me wrong, I get it. Blago was asking folks to “do favors” and in return “get favors done”. He was open and obvious about it and not very bright in covering it all up.
Roland is a good and decent man. Always has been. He doesn’t ever try to intentionally hurt anyone, he doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. The African-American version of Al the Pal.
But you know as well as I do, you don’t get ANYTHING done in Chicago without playing the “do favor-get favor” game. In the patronage mandated system of City Hall (and the County attached building to its East), you couldn’t get a job for decades in either the building on LaSalle or its attached twin across from the Daley Center on Clark…unless you had a sponsor. You couldn’t pick up garbage in Grant Park without a sponsor. You couldn’t get a permit for a picnic, you couldn’t get 55 gallon drum for your garbage, you couldn’t win a bid to mop floors.
So, let’s not be coy or disingenuous here. (not that you are, but this sanctimonious breastbeating from some Dems who have “found religion” rings a bit hollow).
Blago may be guilty as sin, but he is not yet CONVICTED of anything. He asked someone to assist him in building a campaign war chest for another “election”. (do favor) In return, he considers that person’s background and determines whether he or she would make a good fit for some job. (garbage picker in Grant Park up to US Senator, the do favor-get favor game doesn’t change in its underlying essence, only by matters of degree)
I think Roland (absent this present fiasco) is as qualified to perform the essential duties of the position as any name on the list previously in prior campaigns or this one. Would you make him take a back seat to Carol Moseley Braun or Emil Jones? (the black community saw this as a “black” Senate seat and were pretty vocal about not giving it to Dan Hynes or Jan Schakowsky, for instance)
So, this has nothing…nothing…to do with whether Roland would perform the functions of the job as well as other names mentioned. (I don’t know Jarrett or Duckworth very well, certainly not well enough to comment).
This has to do with whether it is a “cardinal sin” to have done PRECISELY what every other politician from Chicago has done, bar none. Roland made some phone calls for a guy who was not yet convicted, but suspected of wrongdoing.
Now don’t get me wrong, Blago is going down. (not without a fight, but his career is DOA)
Name me ONE Democrat, who has not been called to do a favor…and asked for one in return? Chris Dodd? Ask Angelo Mozillo. Who is going to sit in judgment of Roland? In essence, he called some fat cats to see if they would touch a toxic Blago? In return, he is considered for the Senate seat?
Give me a staff of crack investigators and free reign to look into EVERY Dem Senator who now wishes to sit in judgment. Do you think I could find something similar or worse? What odds would you lay, for or against?
Let’s be clear. I don’t condone the practice. I don’t advocate its continuation. I only point to the irony and ask who among the executioners can hurl the first stone?
Roland is a good guy and you can’t find anyone who knows him to say otherwise. He will dutifully carry water for Democrats without so much as a peep of resistance. He will vote the party line and be a loyal soldier. (not my ideal candidate on independent thought, but then who would one pick in either house to represent THAT particular ideal? Lieberman tried it and became officially an “independent”. Independent thought is not a valued trait in either house, the reason the two party system is permanently broken)
This public crucifixion of Roland is on the one hand accurate and on the other hand grand irony. The guy who currently holds the only “black” Senate seat in America is going to be crucified for the EXACT same behavior of “do favor-get favor” as virtually EVERY other guy judging him.
(I am intentionally NOT using the word “lynched”…we don’t need to play up that angle more than it appears naturally in this fact pattern)
Am I defending him? To an extent, I suppose. Am I condoning the system?…absolutely not.
But this is a good man who is taking a beating for the sins of others, especially those who now seek to judge him? (and certainly abandon him) In the final analysis, what lesson would be learned from it? Does anyone with an IQ above plant life think that after Roland is disgraced, that all the others will learn the lesson and heed its moral underpinnings?
Or do you and I believe that the very day after he is led from the hallowed halls in tar and feathers…that it will be back to “business as usual”?
The lesson will be…”don’t get caught”. Be more circumspect in your dealings. Don’t leave a trail.
And a very good guy will be replaced by someone who played the game better. A broken man, a broken system, and a broken set of rules. Nobody wins, everybody loses. I guess in the final analysis, Roland paid to play…so, he is to account for his participation in the game where America’s “public servants” pretend to represent us, while we pretend to care how they do it.
I’m keeping score and writing down all the infractions that go the democrats way. The press may be a little heated here…. but as the cliche goes …. not as much as if he was a republican.
The signs were there on his tombstone that his greatest quality was vanity. That should have been fair warning of what we were getting. But it has been even worse than advertised. He should step down immediately
Resign?
Hell, one can’t move up in the leadership of the Democratic party until ones has at least 5 ethical scandals or two convictions on your resume.
Look at Barney Frank, Charles Rangel, and Charles Schumer, all should be in Leavenworth but instead are in charge of “fixing” our economic issues? And the integrity-lacking supporters of today’s Democratic Party just loooooove them just as long as the welfare checks keep rolling in.
cfbleachers
Maybe I’m missing something, but Senators represent a whole STATE nut just a city. Gosh, I was under the impression that there is more than one city in Illinois.
Why must Chicago politics dominate a whole state? My guess is that you could find someone not tainted by Chicago trash politics if you’d just look.
What you guys tolerate up there is pretty incredible.
Expecting Burris to resign would be to imply that he has a sense of shame — which, like most Chicago politicians, he doesn’t have — and should Do The Right Thing.
Unfortunately, this “decent and honorable man” has essentially tried to enshroud his actions with doubt and uncertainty, and has ended up perjuring himself.
Burris will use every trick in the book to keep his seat, and have to be dragged kicking and screaming out of the Senate, his fingernails clawing at the furniture and cries of “Racism!” coming from his lips.
And then he’ll probably run for election to the selfsame seat in the next cycle, and win (especially if his opponent is White). Because that’s how things work in Illinois and Chicago.
Wonder how he’s going to document this on his mausoleum? haw!
Democrats NEVER resign or really apologize–”I’m sorry if what I said may have offended you”–they are narcisstic, psychopathic personalities who feel no shame, remorse or embarrassment. Power is all they know or want and they will hang on to that as long as they can.
Resign? Wherefore? He’s not Republican. Only Republicans resign in disgrace. Dems have to have the prize pried from their cold, dead fingers.
For those who don’t get it, ethics and shame are family values. Only Pubs need apply (these principles).
Sara
Illinois is a whole state. And we don’t “tolerate” anymore, I don’t suspect than what is done in Springfield.
That city collapsed, I can tell you horror stories about Carbondale and East St. Louis, Rockford and the Quad Cities. I know plenty of stories from around the state.
But Chicago politics dominates the state (Cook County), because…like it or not, that’s where the vast majority of the population, the business, the money and the power come from.
Eliminate Chicago and its suburbs…and Illinois would shrink in all those areas, while admittedly growing in common sense and responsibility, I suspect.
My point was, relating to Roland…you can’t even get in the game on a local level…much less a national level, if you don’t play by their rules. So, those who are willing to “play”, are a certain type of individual in the first place. Someone who was of the makeup holding fast onto their principles…couldn’t be elected rag picker or ditch digger.
Roland didn’t create the broken system, he only chose to play. He has been one of the least bad for his whole career, in a broken system. We can’t seem to elect a governor for the state who can pull himself out of the cesspool. It’s a disgrace, and none of us is “tolerating” it statewide, are we? But we can’t seem to fix it, either.
Burrus likely won’t resign – it was hard enough to get himself in; if he goes out, it’ll be kicking & screaming. There’s more than just Burrus’ political hide on the line though; with the Coleman-Franken seat still undecided, a few more Republicans in the Senate gives them filibuster power, and thus deadlock, which is not necessarily a bad thing, in my view. The Dems have had their shot at the seat, and blew it. Maybe the voters of Illinois will finally wake up, perhaps have an epiphany & figure out the Dems don’t have their best interest(s) in mind.
I don’t think he’s going to resign. His ego is too big. That being said, the appointment itself was tarnished to begin with. Now this new information is going to compromise what little credibility he may have left.
Let’s just hope we (Illinoisans) can elect a good candidate in 2010. We certainly have a decent track record.
cfbleachers:
The point isn’t what he did it was that he lied about it – not once but at least 4 times. It raises the question of what else he might be hiding.
Besides, as I point out, Burris left Reid and Durbin to hang in the wind, twisting slowly. They vouched for him with the caucus and now the entire Democratic senate has mud on its face.
But as I also say, he won’t resign unless he is confronted by a solid phalanx of black leaders and his personal friends. And that will probably not happen. A few preachers and even if Durbin calls on him to step down, it won’t matter. They will probably have to drag him kicking and screaming from his senate chair.
Minor correction: Mr. Burris served three terms as Comptroller, and only one as Attorney General.
Why should he? He hasn’t done anything that his high and mighty colleagues are not doing, albeit they are doing that under cover.
Roland Burris respected? Roland Burris is just another in the long line of sleazy demon rats who seem to believe they are entitled to power just by being demonrats. Seems to me there is no difference between Blago, Obamaskank and Roland Burr ass. Also seems to have the same affliction as everyone who has ever been associated with the Daley pukes. Buy the seat, no problem, Im entitled merely because I love Karl Marx. Break the law-the law doest apply to me, you are a racist if you dare criticize me for being a crook. Blago-Blago was no crook says Burrass, Blago was my role model. After all, Bubba,Obamaskank, and Nasty the Piglosi are all liars ad get away with it, what makes me differfent? Im a demonrat, i cant be a crook. William the Refrigerator Jefferrson, Charlie the RangHo and Alcee(all I can see is bribes) Hastings all say im black, so Im exempt from the laws because all you racist whites made me lie. Well Mr BurrAss, since when did “race card” mean anything other than admission to a NASCAR event?
He was “allowed” in to vote for the Porkulus package. All this catterwalling is just window dressing to make it “appear” that the rest of them are righteous, indignant, high and mighty. They know that if they let him go, there will be an uprising over last week’s vote and cries of fraud that will haunt them for years to come. No, they’re going to play the resignation game for a little while longer until it blows over. Then, in 2010, he’ll be voted out of office and it will all be as if it never happened. Very shrewd!
Will Barack Obama resign?
That little turd should resign. He flat out lied to the committee. No credibility left.
Why should he? He is the perfect example of a democrat sharing all the values and the character one has come to accept and besides he is black. If he is forced to resign we will all know it will be because of racism.
JackT
That is a pretty high standard about honesty and integrity. If you applied it to all the democrats there would not be enough members of the Senate to hold a quorum.
David Vitter . . . “Mommy”
Those who mock Vitter are cowards.