roland burris – Moe Lane

Roland Burris (D) tried to cash in* while still a US Senator.

Ah, Roland Burris lived up** to the finest traditions of his beloved Chicago Democrats:

[Roland Burris’s] name came up during a pre-trial hearing on Sept. 26 in a bizarre case against a businessman accused of illegally lobbying to overturn U.S. sanctions on the regime of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. Defense attorneys questioned Burris’ credibility as a witness because of allegations he was involved in a shakedown scheme during his time in the Senate.

Then-Sen. Burris offered to promote a business to the U.S. military in exchange for a $250,000 a year job when he left office, court documents allege. An FBI informant made the claim in 2012 during grand jury testimony, according to a transcript of the sidebar conversation between the judge and attorneys that was shared by the Chicago Sun-Times.

Continue reading Roland Burris (D) tried to cash in* while still a US Senator.

Fire your speechwriter, Senator Burris.

(Via Hot Air Headlines) It doesn’t bloody scan. At all. I was wincing by line 2.

In fact: watch and learn, Sparky.

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the Senate
Dems schemed over health care. Who cares what was in it?
The majority planned, in guise of reform,
To pass their agenda in one perfect storm.

“We own the whole Senate!” cried they with a grin.
“Not to mention the House! It’ll get voted in.”
(Though there was no need, at least right this second;
But the vision of partisan triumphing beckoned.)

The Republican Senators of course could not win
Because their minority was simply too thin.
– But across every state there rose such a clatter
From people the Democrats thought didn’t matter.

So Dems sprang to their desks and they ran to the floor
To pass something quick, lest the mob at the door
Would then make it clear, in terms fairly raucous
That the country was mad at their pork-ridden caucus.

“Hey, POTUS! Hey, Speaker! Hey, YOU! Harry Reid!
What games are you playing in our hour of need?”
The jobs are all going, we know who to blame:
And don’t think to worry: we’ll remember your name.”

Burris could care less, because he’s retiring;
He knows that he can’t be subject to firing.
And so, Blago’s Revenge can push for a fight
That won’t ever cost him a single lost night.

They bribed their three-fifths, there under the dome
And bleary-eyed Senators rose to go home.
A party-line vote – and wasn’t it fun?
Because I assure you, it’s only begun.

The people out there did vote for Obama
They didn’t vote, though, for this kind of drama.
Poll numbers on this have dropped out of sight!
So Merry Christmas to all! Hugs and kisses, the Right.

Moe Lane

PS:

One last little quibble with that first edition:
‘Option’ is not a good rhyme for ‘condition.’

Crossposted to RedState.

Sen Roland Burris (D-IL) advocates death penalty for non-insured!

…alternatively, he’s just dumber than soap. From a CNS interview (H/T: Instapundit):

CNSNews.com: “So, in general, if a person doesn’t want health insurance, do you think they should be required by the government to actually have to get it?”

Senator Burris: “Under state law, we have every one required to have automobile insurance. Now, think about that.

Sure, let’s. You see, ‘under state law’ people are not actually required to have automobile insurance: people are required to have automobile insurance if they want to own a car. So, either this is not a good analogy – which means that Senator Roland Burris is dumber than soap – or it is a good analogy; which would mean that he thinks that people should be required to have insurance if they want to stay alive. Heaven forbid that I suggest that any sitting Senator could possibly be about as sharp as a sack of wet mice, so I am forced to assume that he’s ready to have the willfully non-insured executed for their crimes.

Also: the Preamble to the Constitution contains the enumerated right for Congress to mandate that people buy health insurance! Except that it’s only visible to people using those special glasses that Ben Franklin made…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

‘Rod Blagojevich, THOU ART AVENGED!’

Have I used that one before?

Doesn’t matter if I had: it’s worth repeating. Via @MelissaTweets comes the wonderful news that Roland Burris is giving this ‘run for election’ thing serious consideration. Yes, I know that the conventional wisdom is that he won’t, but Roland Burris is neither conventional, nor particularly wise – and he’s not actually ruling out a run. Admittedly, right now his major problem is that he’d need to find some surefire and very public way to appeal to the liberal faction of the Democratic party. But how to do that?

…Sen. Roland Burris just put out a statement saying he won’t vote for a bill that doesn’t include a public option, which is not supported by many of his moderate Democratic Senate colleagues.

Yeah. Yeah, that’ll do it.

Moe Lane

PS: Just remember: if he does run, and you’re a Democrat who votes against him in the primary, it’s because you’re a racist. Just ask Jimmy Carter.

Crossposted to RedState.

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.

Burris off the perjury hook…

…and the Illinois Democratic party is kept firmly on the Burris one.

Far be it from me to suggest that the Illinois GOP has decided to not do the Illinois Democratic party a favor:

No perjury charge against US Sen. Burris-prosecutor

CHICAGO, June 19 (Reuters) – An Illinois prosecutor investigating the appointment of Roland Burris to President Barack Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat said on Friday there was insufficient evidence to charge Burris with perjury.

Some of Burris’ answers to questions posed by an Illinois legislative committee in January were vague, but he did not lie about his discussions with then-Governor Rod Blagojevich’s aides concerning his appointment, Sangamon County Prosecutor John Schmidt said in a statement.

[snip]

“Some of (Burris’) statements were vague, but vague statements cannot support a perjury charge,” Schmidt said.

Continue reading Burris off the perjury hook…

I cannot believe that this is part of Blago’s Revenge.

I mean, how could he have known that Burris would end up on Armed Services?

MR. LEMNIOS: Sir, in the — as director of Defense Research and Engineering, my critical role would be to work technology strategy across the Department of Defense; to identify those key areas where the Department needs to strengthen and drive its technology strategies, technology efforts; to work with the services in their laboratories to foster a broad set of –

SEN. BURRIS: Excuse me. You’re saying that there is — services have their own research laboratories going, with research military personnel, or outside contracting personnel?

MR. LEMNIOS: Sir, I’ve seen combinations of both. Some examples include the Naval Research Laboratory, not too far from here, which includes certainly government employees as well as some contractors on site; include the Air Force Wright-Patterson Laboratory which, again, include many government researchers and outside contractors.

(Via Mere Rhetoric, via Hot Air)

Wired is appalled, although as usual I’m not sure why; it’s hardly a news flash that the Democratic Party would consider Armed Services to be the perfect backwater in which to put a Senator like Burris. I just refuse to believe that Blagojevich is that prescient. If he was, he’d still be in office.

Nonetheless, I cannot wait for the Democratic Illinois primary. Particularly the part where the national Democratic party bends itself into amusing rhetorical pretzel shapes to avoid talking about why they’re supporting/not supporting Burris in it. Trust me, they’re not going to want to talk about it, either way.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Dick Durbin knew all along that Blagojevich was selling off the seat.

[UPDATE]: Welcome, Hot Air readers. I agree with Allahpundit that this was probably legal of Durbin, but I still think that he really should have mentioned it to somebody when the indictments started piling up.

This would only be a bombshell if it had been unexpected.

AP Exclusive: Blago talked to Durbin about Senate

CHICAGO (AP) – Just two weeks before his arrest on corruption charges, then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich floated a plan to nominate to the U.S. Senate the daughter of his biggest political rival in return for concessions on his pet projects, people familiar with the plan told The Associated Press.

Blagojevich told fellow Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin he was thinking of naming Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to the seat vacated when Barack Obama won the presidential election, according to two Durbin aides who spoke on condition of anonymity.

[snip]

The aides said the concessions Blagojevich wanted in return were progress on capital spending projects and a health care bill that were stalled in the Legislature.

Continue reading Dick Durbin knew all along that Blagojevich was selling off the seat.

Burris did in fact make an offer for the Senate seat.

Harry, you ignorant slut.

I am perilously close to being gobsmacked by this transcript of the Burris/Blagojevich conversation (via Hot Air). I’m not a lawyer, but it seems to me that there’s enough there to indicate that Roland Burris flat-out lied about not trading favors and money for the Senate seat. I am not, however, so stunned as to be unable to remind people about this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this…

Hold on: let’s see that video again.

Ha!

…this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and, finally, this. In short – and may you have as an enjoyable time reviewing those posts as I did – Rod Blagojevich’s pick of Roland Burris for the Illinois Senate was a transparent trap – and Harry Reid and the rest of the Democratic Senate caucus sprung it anyway. In fact, not being content with springing the trap, Reid and his caucus insisted on making every possible mistake that they could, too. All because they were afraid. People will be writing about this act of political revenge fifty years from now, and mocking the Senator from Nevada on every page, too.

Deservedly.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Burris promised a campaign contribution to Blagojevich.

Ace of Spades (H/T, by the way) has kindly given me permission to use the Flaming Blagojevich Skull for this, so I shall:

Sun-Times exclusive: Burris promised Blago campaign a check by mid-December

In a November conversation caught on an FBI wiretap, Roland Burris promised Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s brother that he’d write the governor a campaign check by mid-December, Burris’ lawyer said today.

That was about a month before Rod Blagojevich appointed Burris to the U.S. Senate.

But lawyer Timothy Wright told the Chicago Sun-Times today that his client never sent the check because he believed it wasn’t a good idea given Burris’ interest in the U.S. Senate seat appointment. Wright said Burris’ decision not to send the check had nothing to do with Blagojevich’s Dec. 9 arrest.

Continue reading Burris promised a campaign contribution to Blagojevich.