This just in. Race factored in Roland Burris’s seating in the U. S. Senate:
Sen. Dick Durbin, who advised Sen. Roland Burris last week to step down from the Senate, acknowledged today that racial considerations were at play in the decision by majority Democrats to seat Burris.
Durbin, a fellow Democrat and Illinois’ senior senator, noted that Rep. Bobby Rush, a Chicago Democrat, appeared at Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s announcement of his appointment of Burris and used racially charged language to defend the appointment.
“My colleague from Illinois, Congressman Bobby Rush, made strong statements along those (racial) lines,” Durbin said on WGN-AM (720). “They were painful and hurtful, and it became part of this calculation.”
Durbin also said he would work with Burris despite the political isolation surrounding the state’s junior senator in Washington.
Does anybody think that Roland Burris was the best, most qualified candidate to take the seat formerly held by Barack Obama in the Senate? I doubt that even Roland Burris believes that.
I believe that Roland Burris is a reasonably decent, honest guy, at least by Illinois political standards but he’s never struck me as being the sharpest knife in the drawer. In politics you make use of every asset you’ve got and in the case of replacing the only African American in the U. S. Senate you’d better believe that being African American yourself was a valuable asset. Not one that could have been traded to Rod Blagojevich, however.
Burris is not my favorite, but he was seated because that’s the law.
There was no real reason not to seat him other than the knee-jerk reaction to his association with Blago.
If there was some reason, then nothing, “radically charged language” included, should have allowed it.
What’s with Durbin bringing this up?
Is he implying that laws were bent or broken in seating Burris?
One of two things is going to happen to Burris: either the state’s attorney is going to issue an indictment against him for perjury relating to issues of his appointment or said state’s attorney will formally pass on the referral, explaining that the voters who elected him are not interested in using county resources to resolve state problems. Burris will not be exonerated by either event.
I believe that Roland Burris is a reasonably decent, honest guy, at least by Illinois political standards ….
That’s a low bar.
I’m aware of that, Icepick. Pretty much equivalent to “unindicted”.
To be clear, it would be a low bar in Florida too, although we don’t have the same type of corruption. Actually we can expect half the corruption in Florida to dry up for a couple of years, now that the developers are broke. But we still have the trial lawyers, unfortunately….
Of course, Casimir Pulaski Day is an ironic day to contemplate the power of racial/ethnic groups in Illinois politics. Don’t forget that if a Lipinski, I mean a Pole, doesn’t hold the Third Congressional Seat then the ethnic spoils system, I mean diversity, is a sham.
I complained about the Lipinski situation back at the time, now five years ago, IIRC.