Senate not likely to oust Roland Burris anytime soon

[depakid]

Though Roland Burris had some trouble being admitted to the U.S. Senate, he will not be easily expelled now that he has arrived. It takes a vote of two-thirds of the senators to oust a member, and the last senators to be formally expelled were charged with supporting the rebels during the Civil War.

"It's a collegial body that doesn't like to police its members," said Donald A. Ritchie, the Senate's associate historian. "It prefers to leave that to the voters and to the courts."

But a veteran Washington campaign lawyer said that Burris (D-Ill.) may not benefit from the Senate's usual protectiveness toward its members, and that he could face strong pressure from within the Senate to resign.

"He doesn't have a reservoir of goodwill. He is new to the institution, and he arrived under questionable circumstances," attorney Jan W. Baron said.

"He has a lot of explaining to do now," Baron said. "If he had testified to all those contacts with people close to Gov. Blagojevich, I don't think he would have been seated. "They have got to feel snookered, at the very least,"

The Senate Ethics Committee has wide powers to investigate members for actions "unbecoming" of a senator. It has been busy over the last two years, and its probes can put political pressure on a senator. Rarely, however, does the committee go much further and impose a public punishment.

More: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/scotus/la-na-ethics19-2009feb19,0,1439579.story

IMHO: The guy should never have been seated in the first place. His attempt to execute an innocent person told me all that I needed to known about the man.

[elleng]

1. Not until Franken is in,

I hope!

[acmavm]

2. Figures. We lie on a job app and get caught, we get fired. If someone

gets in the House or Senate (or Presidency) and they are later to be proved to be lying fucks, oh well, too bad. Too much trouble to hold them to the same standards that we have to live by.

[saltpoint]

3. Pretty good piece. Thanks for putting it up for us. Burris is hurt by

his having any truck at all with Blagojevich, by his having no residual good will in the Senate, and not least because back home he's never been real popular on statewide ballots.

If somebody's going to make a last stand he needs some ground to stand on.

[mucifer]

4. burris is huge in the IL press. He will revive the dying state repub party.