The new junior US senator from Illinois, Roland Burris, just "fine-tuned" the statements he made under oath at the impeachment trial of now former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. At the trial, Burris admitted that he had talked to "some friends" about wanting the appointment to the seat vacated by now President Obama. Yesterday, Burris revealed he had in fact talked to Blagojevich's brother, who indicated interest in getting campaign contributions for the governor in return.
Burris insisted that what he revealed yesterday does not contradict what he said at the trial and asserted that the media are making an issue out of a non-issue. All I can say is that Burris learned his spinning lessons well . . . just not well enough. The Illinois state senators who questioned Burris at Blagojevich's impeachment trial asked him specifically if Burris had had any contact or conversations with Blagojevich's relatives. Burris's answer left the clear impression that the answer to that question was "no," because he again referred only to "some friends."
This is a fine kettle of three-day-old fish you've gotten us into, Sen. Burris. It stinks. It is just as wrong and just as disgusting as the GOP members who claim that the economic stimulus bill was passed without any Republican input, that Obama was nowhere to be found during the negotiation process, and that FDR caused the Great Depression. Bald-faced lies, every one.
I hope the Illinois legislature decides to call Burris on his load of crap, so that he can be removed from the US Senate and somebody clean can be appointed by new governor Pat Quinn in Burris's stead. I also hope that the good half of the economic stimulus bill works well enough to silence the liars and the nay-sayers in the GOP--though that's a fool's wish, I know.
Let's face it: the reason statesmen are so rare is because politicians are so common. And common politicians are incapable of rising to the occasion when the occasion demands. More's the pity for the fate of the country. The losers, whose policies have been discredited over and over and over throughout American history, are still trying to run the game when what we need is some true statesmanship.
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