Monday, February 16, 2009

New Senator In Trouble

It seems the Chicago crowd just can't stay out of hot water.
Now Illinois' new U. S. Senator Roland Burris is in trouble.
Here's the story from Sean Lengell at The Washington Times:
Amid Republican calls for his resignation, Sen. Roland W. Burris of Illinois denied perjuring himself to a state House panel considering the impeachment of then-Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich, saying Sunday afternoon that he never misled anyone.
The freshman Democratic senator was peppered with questions in a frenzied and combative Chicago news conference about a quietly filed affidavit that appears to contradict his testimony in January about the Blagojevich associates with whom he had spoken about Barack Obama's Senate seat.
Mr. Burris admitted in the Feb. 4 affidavit to the Illinois state House, which was only made public Saturday, that Mr. Blagojevich's brother, Robert, asked him for campaign fund-raising help before the former governor appointed Mr. Burris to the Senate in December.
The disclosure reflects a major omission from Mr. Burris' testimony in January, when he was specifically asked whether he had ever spoken to Robert Blagojevich or several other associates of the now-deposed governor about the Senate seat. . . .

But the skepticism of Chicago journalists was manifest at Sunday's press conference, where Mr. Burris frequently got emotional and berated the press. The senator, his lawyer and the reporters also often talked over one another.
"If you all report this story correctly, there's no story," Mr. Burris said, also warning that "Republicans are gonna try to make political hay out of this."
He also accused reporters of "using hindsight and second-guessing" when asked why, if his initial testimony was accurate, he bothered to file the affidavit at all. . . .
Mr. Burris' explanation was also not good enough for Republicans, who called over the weekend for Mr. Burris to resign and for a criminal investigation into whether he committed perjury.
"I can't believe anything that comes out of Mr. Burris at this point," Mr. Durkin, the impeachment committee's ranking Republican, said at a separate news conference Sunday. "I think it would be in the best interest of the state if he resigned, because I don't think the state can stand this any more."

1 comment:

Sean Schafer said...

Does it ever end? Doesn't Elliot Ness have some descendants working in Chicago? Someone needs to clean house.