matter of blagojevich

Roland Burris: Not so fast on my not running for IL-SEN.

Don’t tease us like this, Senator Burris. It’s unseemly in a Senator:

“You never say never,” Burris told ABC News in a “Subway Series” interview for the ABC News program “Top Line.” The “Subway Series,” which debuts on Monday, features interviews with senators and other political leaders on board the Capitol Hill subway.

“What I’m still hearing,” Burris said, is “people from all over the country and they are saying, ‘Don’t give up that seat.'”

…yes. Yes, I suppose that this may be technically true. The question is, how many of them are Democrats registered to vote in Illinois? Continue reading Roland Burris: Not so fast on my not running for IL-SEN.

Rod Blagojevich hath a website.

This, I think, deserves Ace of Spade HQ‘s Flaming Skull:

Rod Blagojevich, the disgraced and displaced former governor of Illinois, now has a website where he continues his fight for “ordinary people,” the Associated Press reports.

He has a website, a… radio talk show (WLS-890 AM, although he’s not on the schedule yet), a book (The Governor*) – and he’s available for public speaking gigs! Universities especially: you could book him for your next commencement ceremony.

Oh. Sorry about the “book him” thing, Rod…

Moe Lane

*“We follow the governor as he is awakened early one morning –his young daughter sleeping peacefully beside him – and unceremoniously arrested by FBI agents without knowing the charges being brought against him. We see the harsh glare of the spotlight, the media whirlwind already staking out his home and family, rushing to judgment before even the governor himself knew what crimes he’d been accused of committing. We follow him through the maze of political conspiracies that threaten to unseat and impeach the governor of the fifth largest state in the U.S. –forces brought to light by the ambition of an attorney general and the greed of her Democratic State Party Chairman father –as well as the zeal of a federal prosecutor and the manipulations of a disloyal lieutenant governor.”

There probably will not be a dull word in this one. Maybe ten truthful ones, but no dull ones.

Crossposted to RedState.

Blagojevich/Burris wiretap to be released.

It’s been a while since we visited the Matter of Blagojevich, but one thing that you can always count on: there’s always going to be something new coming out from that glorious trainwreck.

Judge OKs release of wiretap of Burris

CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge said Tuesday he would allow the U.S. Senate Ethics Committee to have a federal wiretap of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s brother having a phone conversation with U.S. Sen. Roland Burris.

To summarize why the Senate might want to listen to this recording: Burris, in the course of getting the US Senate to seat him…

Signed an affidavit indicating that he never talked to Blagojevich’s aides.
Admitted in his testimony that he actually talked to one of the Governor’s unofficial aides.
Said in the same testimony that he didn’t remember talking to anybody else.
Signed another affidavit later on – after he officially became Senator – that he actually had talked to some of Blagojevich’s aides.
Admitted to reporters that he tried to do some fundraising for Blagojevich.

At this point, as the AP remarked:

Then he stopped answering questions, letting others speak on his behalf.

I’ll let Vice President Joe Biden, who is himself no amateur at this sort of spin control, provide the Democratic response:

Succinct, that.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.