The Washington Post is reporting this afternoon that Senate Democrats will probably seat Roland Burris later this week, after meeting with his lawyers today and deciding that his paperwork is sufficient. In hindsight, Democratic leaders probably handled this situation about as well as they could have. No one can blame Harry Reid (and Barack Obama) for expressing strong reservations about seating a Senate appointee of an indicted (and now, impeached) governor, who didn’t even have the signature of the Illinois secretary of state to verify his selection. Although I think Burris should not have accepted the nomination (although his reported mausoleum decorated with his accomplishments makes one think that this guy might occassionally let his ambition get the better of him), he handled the situation with grace, acknowledging that neither he nor his race were an issue, but the governor who appointed him. This gave Harry Reid wiggle room to change his objection to the lack of a verification signature, which now appears to be in order, all the while making sure that Burris was in no way tainted by the Blagojevich scandal. The people of Illinois win the day.
This entry was posted on 12 January 2009 at 17:45:36 PM and is filed under Commentary, National . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed
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Senate Dems Reverse on Burris
The Washington Post is reporting this afternoon that Senate Democrats will probably seat Roland Burris later this week, after meeting with his lawyers today and deciding that his paperwork is sufficient. In hindsight, Democratic leaders probably handled this situation about as well as they could have. No one can blame Harry Reid (and Barack Obama) for expressing strong reservations about seating a Senate appointee of an indicted (and now, impeached) governor, who didn’t even have the signature of the Illinois secretary of state to verify his selection. Although I think Burris should not have accepted the nomination (although his reported mausoleum decorated with his accomplishments makes one think that this guy might occassionally let his ambition get the better of him), he handled the situation with grace, acknowledging that neither he nor his race were an issue, but the governor who appointed him. This gave Harry Reid wiggle room to change his objection to the lack of a verification signature, which now appears to be in order, all the while making sure that Burris was in no way tainted by the Blagojevich scandal. The people of Illinois win the day.
This entry was posted on 12 January 2009 at 17:45:36 PM and is filed under Commentary, National . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.