After managing to be seated as Illinois’ senator last month, Roland W. Burris may be self-destructing even before he stands for election.
Burris admitted in a newly submitted affadavit made public Saturday by the Chicago Sun-Times that he was, in fact, asked to contribute money to the ousted Illinois governor, who appointed him to fill Barack Obama’s seat.
In the latest filing, Burris said he had not donated anything to then-Gov. Rod R. Blajojevich and “made it unequivocally clear . . . that it would be inappropriate and pose a major conflict because I was interested in the Senate vacancy.” But his failure to mention the importuning when quizzed about his contacts with the governor by an impeachment committee of Illinois lawmakers has stirred a political storm.
Illinois State Rep. Jim Durkin, the highest-ranking Republican on Blagojevich’s impeachment committee, called Sunday for Burris’ resignation.
“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 anymore… I can’t believe anything that comes out of Mr. Burris at this point.”
State lawmakers are now talking about a perjury investigation, while Senate Democrats are facing pressure to launch an ethics committee probe to determine whether he should be expelled.
In Burris’ new affidavit - dated Feb. 5, three weeks after he was sworn in to replace President Obama - he admits he spoke three times between October and November to Robert Blagojevich, the former governor’s brother, who solicited funds for the governor’s campaign coffers .
In a sworn statement filed with the House panel Jan. 5, before he testified, Burris said he had no contact with Blagojevich’s camp about the Senate seat aside from his appointment in late December.
Then, when testifying before the committee a few days later, he added that he had spoken with Lon Monk, Blagojevich’s former chief of staff.
The governor, who’d already been arrested on charges that included seeking to sell the Senate seat, was subsequently removed from office by the state Legislature.
Burris called a news conference Sunday to deny that the affadavit had changed his story in any substantive way. He said that the questioning by the committee had led him in other directions, and there was never an appropriate opportunity for him to fully disclose the contacts.
“We went in the direction of the other names,” Burris said.
Burris said Sunday he had decided to submit a new affidavit after reading the full transcript of the state proceedings and realizing it was incomplete.
Some, however, suggested that he offered the new disclosures because he realized he might be on tape in the ongoing FBI probe of the former governor, and wanted to put out information himself before it comes out from other sources. In another statement Monday morning, he denied that is the case.
The newest version of events puts Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) in a difficult spot. The two men had originally refused to seat Burris on the grounds he was appointed by a governor who’d already been arrested for allegedly trying to auction off the Senate seat.
But with African-American supporters charging that the refusal to seat Burris was racist, and concerns about the party losing the seat in a special election, the leaders relented.
As one condition for seating him, Democrats said Burris needed to testify under oath to a state committee investigating whether to impeach the governor.
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1 Comments
#1. Ted 02.16.2009
Obama’s stealing the census from Congress has suddenly awakened and enraged the Republicans. Maybe this will arouse them as well to challenge Obama for stealing the Presidency itself. They surely know he is not an Article 2 “natural born citizen” (which is more than merely being a 14th Amendment “citizen”) by virtue of either Obama’s birth to a dad of Kenyan/British citizenship or birth in Kenya itself — as manifested by his unwillingness to supply his long form birth certificate now under seal.
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