By Dan Kennedy • The press, politics, technology, culture and other passions

Soon to be ex-senator Burris

I can’t imagine Sen. Roland Burris will (or should) survive his latest admission — that he actually tried to raise money for then-Illinois govenor Rod Blagojevich at the same time that he was asking him for the Senate appointment. (Via TPMMuckraker.)

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7 Comments

  1. Peter Porcupine

    DK – ‘The devil takes a hand in what is done in haste’.Heaven forefend that the Democrats fail to get 60 seats!He’s a Democrat. The only way he can be removed now that he’s been confirmed is for him to voluntarily resign – or have the Senate formally expel him.Wanna bet?

  2. Dan Kennedy

    Burris had to be shoved down Harry Reid’s throat. I think the Senate is going to expel Burris.

  3. NewsHound

    I think formally expelling Burris is the next order of business in the Senate.

  4. Bill Baar

    I wouldn’t bet on it.

  5. james

    he’s in good company they all have a past but ask him if he paid his taxes, if it makes harry mad i hope he stays

  6. mike_b1

    While Burris was Illinois Secretary of State, he was notorious for speeding around the suburban interstates. He’s never been one to acknowledge the laws apply to him, too. Even in little ways.

  7. Aaron Read

    Ever see that movie “Airheads”? Great line from the slimy record exec:”Rock stars don’t go to jail! (scoffs) Christ, Vince Neal only did 30 days and he killed somebody!”The Senate is little different. I’m sure Reid would love to get rid of Burris, but I put the odds at 25%, at best, that he gets expelled. Unless he actually directly committed a crime himself, if the Senate expels him, it sets too broad a precedent for expelling other members.There’s no such thing as a “clean” US Senator…all of them have blood on their hands (in some cases literally) because you don’t get to that level of power without knowing how to slip a few knives into backs. It’s a very safe bet that if the Democrats expel Burris, the Republicans will immediately try to expel some other Democrat who’s even dirtier than Burris is…probably a southern Democrat in a state that has a Republican governor. And they’ll manage to find something so heinous that inevitably a few Dems in shaky districts (so to speak) will cross party lines.Realistically, the only way Burris stops being a senator is if he’s done something much, much worse than what’s been revealed so far…and he steps down to avoid it becoming public.OR, maybe…MAYBE…the Illinois legislature passes a law that calls for a special election in the next two weeks or something equally soon that effectively forces Burris out before the media cycle spins away his current taint. But if they couldn’t act quickly enough to block Blago from appointing Burris in the first place, I doubt they’ll do it now.

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