I can’t believe he had the gall to say he had NO contact.

Skywise on January 9, 2009 at 10:19 AM

Evidently anything less than an hour long full lip lock is considered to be “No contact”.

Earlier, Roland Burris had denied ever speaking to any representatives of Rod Blagojevich before December 26th.

Liar, liar, pants on fire!

apparently lobbyists often meet n chat and talk about possible conflicts of interest they may have and swap clients to avoid them…

what a sleazefest lobbying and politics is…

Under no circumstance should Harry Ried be allowed to pick who can be in the senate. Doesn’t he realize if Illinois has a special election there is a good chance that a republican (a conservative one – not a RINO) will be elected.

Tommy_G on January 9, 2009 at 10:32 AM

In Illinois, all the Republicans are rounded up and put in the deep freeze on voting day.

Sounds like Washington DC is controlling the Illinois state government.

His hair will be missed.In a dramatic display of anger and solidarity over a political scandal that has made Illinois a national laughingstock, lawmakers on Friday voted 114-1 to impeach disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich. It’s the first time in……

Monk-ey wrench.

Ed! That’s racist!

A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often….

I don’t like Burris, the way he’s pushing himself into that seat, and, he reminds me of a bloated weasel I once knew…

July or September

This is an odd timeline. I understand from a couple of postsers more familiar with Burris that there may be more to the story, but I think more needs to surface before conclusions can be drawn. Burris could have made the statements about the Governor not appointing the seat based upon the assumption that one of the Pay to Play folks would get the nod.

This could be something other than a cover up. Memory is associative, and he could have genuinely made a simple, apropriate statement to pass his interest along to Blago, and forgotten about it because he heard nothing back from the Gov.

This could be the very reason he was selected by Blago. If Blago remembered being informed of Burris’ interest, and Burris never participated in the Pay to Play, he would have been the obvious choice to try to defang the looming indictment.

That wouldn’t surprise me in the least, which is why I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the situation….for the time being..

Would you pick me up some milk duds while you’re there, please!

Laura in Maryland on January 9, 2009 at 10:28 AM

Make mine Crows… opps, candy that looks like black … opps, African-American Dots.

Such parsing will probably pass any legal tests.
It sure doesn’t pass the smell test though.

I find nothing suspicious in someone letting the governor know you are interested in an open seat.

As long as there was no offers of payment, there is nothing to hide here.

There were hints that Burris was in the race only to draw votes away from Vallas to the benefit of Blago, who was also running and was not well known outside Chicago (or should I say well liked since his father-in-law’s reputation preceded him). Daley hated Vallas and preferred to have a Chicagoan as governor, especially someone like Blago, who he thought was pliable.

What’s interesting is that Burris received a $1.2 million loan from a telecom company, which was forgiven when Burris dropped out of the race. That company has only donated money one other time to a politician — to Blago in his 2006 race.

Burris is not very bright but is extremely vain and ambitious (see his tombstone, which has been already printed with his “accomplishments”). It’s well known that he’s been a tool for politicans and lobbyists for years.

In yesterday’s interview before the impeachment committee he couldn’t remember his clients or the amount of money he’s donated to Blago in the last few years. He’s the front man, the name on the door, and nothing else because there’s not a lot of brain activity up there.

After Balgo was arrested, Burris stated that he thought Blago was incapacitated and shouldn’t make the senate appointment, until, of course, Blago appointed him. Now it’s all fine.

This is Chicago politics where the politicians are either ruthless or, like Burris, dumb and crazy.

One commenter stated that the people of Illinois got what they deserved. There are a lot of people in Illinois that have voted against these people for years. Unfortunately, there are more numbnuts that vote according to race and party and nothing else and we continue to be saddled with crooks as a result, just read about the Strogers, Daleys, Jacksons, to name a few. Ugh.

I mean common sense tells you that anyone blago puts forward especially under the circumstances MAY be less than clean. Now the clintonian word parsing begins but no one is calling for a timeout JUST TO MAKE SURE nothing untoward took place.

Burris sounds like someone hiding something. His complete failure to acknowledge that anything MIGHT be questionable makes him looks obtuse AND dirty.

Exactly. And the more Reid complains about Burris being tainted, the harder it gets to justify the tainted Charlie Rangel still heading Ways & Means, not to mention demanding he resign.

Buy Danish on January 9, 2009 at 11:03 AM

While I’ve always thought Pelosi was the biggest joke in Washington, Harry Reid just keeps throwing up three-pointers to stay in the “game” of dumb & dumber. Harry’s “out-of-his-element” argument makes for great comedy.

Sorry if this has been said, but, maybe the “Jr. Senator (wannabe) from IL” should just have his staff investigate this whole assumption, then they too could release a report claiming that they’ve investigated themselves and found no evidence of wrongdoing.

Goose, meet Gander.

dish on January 9, 2009 at 10:40 AM

I think we have a winner here!