Sen. Dick Durbin has told Roland Burris to resign from the U.S.
Senate. Durbin thus completes a 360-degree migration around the
question of Illinois’ hapless junior senator’s official
viability.
Durbin began in December — after the arrest of then-Illinois
Governor Rod Blagojevich, on charges including attempts to sell
the U.S. Senate seat — by saying “no one” appointed by
Blagojevich would be seated. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
agreed. And then both Durbin and Reid changed their minds.
Blagojevich, in announcing Roland Burris, found a weak underbelly
of Democratic politics to exploit. Congressman Bobby Rush
appeared at the Burris announcement press conference. Rush and
Burris engaged in a colloquy on race, to the effect that
regardless of Blagojevich, Burris should be seated because
without Barack Obama, there are no African Americans in the U.S.
Senate. Blagojevich stood nearby.
Oddly, Burris said that but for exchanges with the governor’s
lawyer, his contact clock started when Blagojevich called to
offer him the job. As Illinois’ trail-blazing first black
constitutional statewide official, and a former attorney general
at that, Burris elicited support and relief from many Illinois
Democrats who thought Blagojevich could have picked worse.
In a matter of weeks, they would repudiate their own judgment.
Republicans groused that Roland was the fruit of the poisoned
Blagojevich tree — and that he should have been prevented by a
special election.
Democrats supported a special election as well, from the day of
the arrest. That support melted several days later when, in
Springfield for a legislative veto session, they perceived voter
anger — and thus a potentially unwinnable special Senate
election race.
With Minnesota’s second senator still unnamed, the Illinois seat
helps move the Democrats ever close to that 60th vote
required to enact cloture. Longtime observers agree it is safe to
presume that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel pointed this
out to Springfield’s Democrat leadership. So at the veto session
the Democrats refused to block Blagojevich’s appointment
authority, leaving him the power to select as he would. And thus
was born Burris, a notable Blagojevich legacy.
To overcome racial tensions within the Democratic Party
exacerbated by Congressman Bobby Rush, Durbin and Reid collapsed.
If Burris could straighten out his paperwork and testify to
Illinois’ House impeachment panel that he had not bought his
Senate seat as part of Blagojevich’s alleged “crime spree,” then
Burris would be welcome. Again, the hand of the White House was
seen in instructions to Reid to end the matter before “Change We
Can Believe In” was to get under way at the Presidential
Inaugural. Quietly, Burris took the oath from Vice President
Richard B. Cheney, in one of his final acts as Senate president.
By Valentine’s Day the Chicago Sun-Times had learned
that Burris had corrected his testimony to the House impeachment
committee by submitting an affidavit with new information that
significantly ratcheted up his contacts with the Blagojevich
crew. Burris was unprepared to comment publicly — but he did.
In what will be studied for years as a most bizarre example of
political over-speaking, Burris sealed his fate — as Illinois’
first appointed Senator by a removed Governor to be urged to
resign by his senior senator — in a rambling series of press
conferences, impromptu question-and-answer sessions, and a speech
in which he declared he would no longer speak of the matter.
It is possible he did not talk himself out of the Senate seat;
that the mere need to revise and extend his remarks with a new
sworn affidavit was already enough. But his gabbing — including
notably the admission that he had been involved in fundraising
efforts — sped his slide down the razor’s edge to political
emasculation.
Virtually the whole of Illinois officialdom is now univocal in
advising resignation. Yesterday, Durbin completed that tableau.
The replacement for Rod Blagojevich, Pat Quinn, a Democrat, has
even reverted to his original call on Gubernatorial Arrest Day
for a special election. Illinois Republicans may soon have their
shot to disprove reports of their demise.
Burris, who has earned a pension for his state service and a
modest income as a lobbyist, clings to his Senate post. But
perhaps it will be pried from his hands. The state’s attorney in
Springfield has opened a perjury probe. The Senate ethics
committee has a “pre-investigation” underway.
If Burris falls, there is little doubt that Rahm Emanuel is
taking steps to keep Blagojevich’s legacy as far from Barack
Obama as possible.
