Enough About 'Roland Burris, Good Guy'

[Are_grits_groceries]

<snip>
Really? How has Roland Burris' actions in the last two weeks not proven how flexible his integrity is?

Sure, he may not have done anything illegal, but the guy is absolutely complicit in a crooked man's scheme to cling to power and embarrass President-elect Obama at the expense of attention toward the real problems facing this country. He's even stooped to having his spokesperson smear Reid as a racist for talking up Tammy Duckworth and Lisa Madigan in his conversation with Blagojevich.
<snip>
Meanwhile, Reid says, "I don't know a thing wrong with Mr. Burris." Come on.

Frankly, it doesn't matter how clean his record was when he was in office a decade ago or if he didn't pay a cent for his appointment: Roland Burris is a willing pawn in a very corrupt game. He's already made a bad deal for the people of Illinois, lending Blagojevich his credibility for a chance to be a United States Senator. How can Majority Leader Reid think he wouldn't lie to get his way?
<snip>
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-bohrer/enough-about-roland-burri_b_155436.html

What a mess.

[John Q. Citizen]

1. If Blogo is so guilty why doesn't Fitz indict him? I thought he had tapes or something on him?

Now we find out he's got nothing.

[Solomon]

2. I too am very concerned about this. I thought people were

innocent until proven guilty. I don't like this one bit. Smear the guy then say what he did is "tainted"? It stinks.

He should be able to fulfill his duties as governor until he is taken down. I don't understand why the appointment is illegal and if it's not illegal, then what is everybody moaning about?

[sui generis]

4. the thing is consistency

in both propiety and the appearance of propriety. Burris is coming across like a weasel.

[Goblinmonger]

8. How?

He was legally appointed by the uncharged, seated governor of a state. Why did Reid grow a pair for this appointment but nothing else EVER in the past 8 years?

[sui generis]

11. not condoning or criticizing

just commenting that in government work the appearance of impropriety is often indistinguishable from impropriety itself.

I still think the dude is a weasel, but that's just my finely honed sense of character, which if I were on Heroes would be my superpower.

:P


Seriously though, on the surface you are correct. Legally appointed by the uncharged seated governor of a state, and we're the dumbasses who also voted to go to war in Iraq because all the I's were dotted and T's were crossed and powerpoint presentations were presented with pretty little vials of yellowcake.

Sometimes being a little less naive serves us better than just saying it's not illegal, therefore it's right.

[John Q. Citizen]

12. I think Reid is the weasel, here. He wants another candidate and he's doing whatever it takes to get

it.

The war is and was illegal. Now you are trying to make out like it isn't and wasn't?

Some super power.

[sui generis]

19. you misconstrue sir

a more nuanced reading of my position on the war with a note of irony or sarcasm might help you appreciate my stooper power better.

:P

[WeDidIt]

13. Blago is the most crooked politican this state has ever seen

Come to Illinois and get an earful about this fuckwad who has a lower approval rating in Illinois than fucking Dickhead Cheney.

[John Q. Citizen]

16. Why was he elected, and why is he not indicted?

Not that it matters.

Polls are the law, after all. Our country is based on the rule of polls.


Right?

[WeDidIt]

17. He was re-elected in 2006 because we had a choice between teh crooked incumbent

or the crooked Republican State Treasurer who wanted Blago's job.

[bigtree]

3. bullshit

If he began serving today, he'd have absolutely no ties to Blago outside of his appointment. The only 'game' played here is by folks working to conflate the appointment with whatever Blago will be charged with.

And Reid is despicable as he works to use the influence of his office to interfere in Illinois politics. If there was something Illinois was concerned with about this appointment they'd do something in their legislature to address the power of Blago to make such an appointment. They didn't. That speaks volumes about his legitimacy. What some folks want to do is circumvent that process of legislative primacy in Illinois (the ONLY legitimate determiner) and superimpose their own bias. Not only is that anti-democratic, it's downright arrogant.

[dysfunctional press]

5. too bad roland burris isn't a corrupt scumbag repug senator from alaska...

reid would have welcomed him with open arms, and the senate would have thrown him a party.

[asjr]

6. Guilt by association seems to be

the soup de jour. Is anyone anyhwhere doing anything correctly in the political arena? Sometimes I feel I am 12 years old on the playground at recess observing a game of oneupmanship. They are at the "triple dog dare you" phase right now. I am waiting patiently for one of them to stick his tongue on the icy flagpole.

[Goblinmonger]

7. Fuck Reid

You seriously don't have a problem with him welcoming back Lieberman with open loving arms yet telling Illinois that they don't have the power to appoint their own person. Read the statute in Illinois; it says the governor "shall" appoint the replacement. The use of the word "shall" legally means there is no other option. Like it or not, Blago is still the governor of Illinois and there are no charges filed against him. He can make the appointment and it is up to Illinois legislature to call bullshit on it if they want NOT Reid's decision.

[Goblinmonger]

9. So you have no problem

with the balance of federalism shifting way toward the national government in this one. Illinois doesn't have the right to name their own Senator? You don't trust the Illinois legislature to call bullshit on the appointment, we need a senator from Utah to do that for them?

[stopbush]

10. I'm sure that Reid would be OK with a spanking clean Gov appointing

an absolute scumbag. He'd accept that scumbag in a second, no questions asked.

The facts are that Blago is not indicted. He is still governor and it's his duty to appoint someone to the Senate seat.

The law means nothing it it's not applied to every situation. Blago is innocent until proven guilty, just as Clinton was during impeachment. I didn't see Reid and the rest of them demanding that Clinton stop performing his elected duties until the "taint" of impeachment was resolved, let alone the Rs demanding the same. Did Reid demand that Sen Stevens stop performing his Senate duties while his trial progressed? Did Reid remove Larry Craig from his Senate seat for pleading guilty to and standing convicted of a misdemeanor? Yet here we have a Governor who stands accused (you can accuse anyone of anything) and arrested (you can arrest a ham sandwich, as the saying goes) but not indicted, not impeached and not convicted of anything, and he's supposed to refrain from performing his constitutional duties because ????

And what, pray tell, happens when and if Fitz fails to indict Blago, or when Blago stands trial and is found innocent? What if he's removed by the impeachment process and then found innocent? Does he get his governorship back? Is Burris appointed upon Blago being found innocent?

As far as Burris being ambitious - are you kidding me? He's a fucking politician. That's what they all are - ambitious.

It's all BS.

[SoCalDem]

14. Put yourself in HIS place for a minute..

What if you had been "retired" before you wanted to, and then a plum of a job drops into your lap.. This job was supposed to go to someone else, but the person supposed to do the hiring, was under a cloud of suspicion, and decided to offer YOU the job, instead of giving it to any of the other applicants who supposedly had the inside track..

The person hiring you, may or may not get fired soon, but YOUR job has nothing to do with him..you won't even be in the same location.. You are qualified for the job, and you want the job..

Do you say "Give the job to one of the other people who applied, because the boss has legal troubles & may get fired"?

[Fire1]

20. Totally agree. This has been my point all along. I'd also like

to know where the citizens of Illinois get off implying that non-residents have no right to voice their opinion on what they think should be done by their Sec. of state, Burris or their governor. Yes, Burris would represent the interests of his state but over all and more importantly, he would represent the interests of the party. That means, ALL DEMOCRATS.

[Bucky]

15. The only way to prove he is worthy to be a senator is to deny the offer to be a senator

Have I got that about right?

> he may not have done anything illegal, but the guy is absolutely
> complicit in a crooked man's scheme to cling to power....

So all that he's done wrong in trying to become a senator is trying to become a senator?



> He's even stooped to having his spokesperson smear Reid as a racist for
> talking up Tammy Duckworth and Lisa Madigan in his conversation with Blagojevich.


Burris has explicitly denied any of the knee jerk racism accusations coming out of Bobby Rush and practically no one takes them seriously.

[WeDidIt]

18. Anybody who would accept a Blagojevich appointment

is not qualified to be Senator in my book.

I'm so serious about this that if Burris is finally seated, my one and only goal for 2010 is seeing to it he does not return.

And I guarantee, if he's seated, that seat will go Republican in 2010 because there is no way in hell this egomaniacal idiot won't run for the office in 2010, as well as there being no way in hell he'd survive an election.

[Fire1]

21. Maybe Oprah's not busy.