Should Sen. Burris of IL resign?

[WI_DEM]

Given that he has changed his story several times I hope he does.

[hlthe2b]

1. No credibility left... IMO

so, yes.

[SunsetDreams]

2. I personally think he should

This has too many implications here for Pay to Play.

[firedupdem]

3. I think he will. What a disaster! n/t

[Thrill]

4. Yes.

[SeaLyons]

5. Yes, he's a disaster...n/t

[SuperTrouper]

6. yes

[Vincardog]

7. I think he should announce he will not seek reelection.

[AngryAmish]

8. He is the best we have

It is easy sitting in Wisconsin where you have a political class that won't all die in jail. It is different in Illinois. ALL of our politicians are crooks.

Name one who is mentioned for this job and I can find a scandal that would kill a career in any other state (except maybe NJ and Louisiana).

[TTUBatfan2008]

10. I've got one that'll stump ya...

President Barack Obama. Care to explain how he got out of there unscathed?

[AngryAmish]

26. Well....he is our president and you won't hear a bad thing from me

[TTUBatfan2008]

36. So I DID stump ya...cool!

I thought you'd find a way to nail me on that. From an outsider's perspective: compared to the rest of Illinois politics, he's squeaky clean.

[WeDidIt]

12. Tammy Duckworth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammy_Duckworth

[AngryAmish]

27. You think she should be a senator. Really.

[Occam Bandage]

28. Hey, now.

She's won almost one election so far.

[WeDidIt]

29. She'd probably win re-election

To be honest. my rpeference would be Lisa MAdigan because she damned well can win a statewide election, but I doubt she'd take it.

And you said to name somebody who has been floated. Duckworth was floated as a potential.

[DrDan]

9. yes - it is taking up too much bandwidth

[WeDidIt]

11. I was one fo those who thought he should have never been seated

I hate to say, "I TOLD YOU SO!"

[MadBadger]

13. Ummmm...no

These are two different things. At the time, based on the information we had, he should have been seated. You didnt have all this information a few weeks ago, so the "I told you so" routine doesnt work me thinks.

[WeDidIt]

33. Methinks Youthinks Wrong n/t

[The Hope Mobile]

18. Me too nt

[Bleacher Creature]

14. Of course he should. The man is a disaster and is tainted by all things Blagojevich.

I figure that he has two choices: (1) resign now and let a non-scandal ridden Democrat develop a record that will strengthen his or her chance for re-election in 2010, or (2) stick it out, LOSE BIG in the primary, and put the Democratic nominee in a much weaker position than he or she would have been in had that person had the seat now.

[traxster]

15. I never thought he should have been seated in the first place.

He was way to eager to be used, to allow the race card to be played, and to hardball his way into the seat. I knew something was up.

[MadBadger]

16. So you thought he shouldnt be seated based on a gut feeling?

Dont you think some evidence at the time was needed to not seat him?

[traxster]

21. I think we needed to be sure that he was clean as a whistle.

But yes, my gut feeling was that no one that Blago appointed would be clean. I think that anyone that was on his radar had probably been approached or atleast new the deal in what he would expect in return. Burris new this before Obama was even elected.

So, it turns out that yes, Burris knew that he was expected to play ball. He was probably just one of the people who had the least amount of involvement based on the people Blago had on his radar.

[Occam Bandage]

22. We knew he was a Blagojevich appointment, and we knew that Blagojevich

was still under investigation. It was irresponsible to simply assume that the investigation over Blagojevich's attempts to exchange the seat for money would not include the actual appointment that he made, and to assume that this particular appointment was wholly clean. It was all the more irresponsible given that we did know that Blagojevich was utterly shameless (for God's sakes he was saying incriminating things over an unsecured phone line despite the fact that he knew he had been under FBI investigation for months), and that Burris was a glory-seeking careerist with no shame either (either the parachute into Washington or the monument to himself would have been evidence enough on their own).

Reid showed a spine for once in his career, and had he played hardball it would have been to the benefit of the party and the nation. It's disappointing that he had it beaten out of him by the same people who have so often complained about his weakness.

[MadBadger]

23. We had no evidence at the time that there was any wrongdoing

Sure we all thought that there probably was, but legally, Blago had the right to appoint.

[traxster]

24. This is what Burris knew and why he lied.

He had to have know that if the real details of his contact with Blago or his brother had come to light or had he been fully forthright, he would have been pressured not to accept the appointment.

So, he fudged on the details and got the seat so now we are stuck with him in the Senate.

And we also know that Blago was only interested in people who were willing to entertain giving him money, and Burris was one of them.

[Occam Bandage]

25. Of course there was no legal case necessitating an obstruction at that point. However,

that does not mean that it would have certainly been illegal to obstruct. Reid didn't have to outright deny the appointment; he only had to delay it until Quinn came into office and made a different appointment, and then seat that person instead. If worse came to worse legally, he could have simply accepted Burris and then voted to expel him in the same hour. I don't think public opinion would have been against us in that fight.

Regardless, my primary complaint is not with Reid, because I can't expect that every general is a Napoleon. Rather, it's with the IL state legislature, for trying to play this both ways instead of going for a special election. They didn't want to have it on their hands in the unlikely event that we lost that special election. Idiots.

[Still Sensible]

17. Yes

eom

[Occam Bandage]

19. He is harming both the state and national Democratic parties.

He should not have accepted, he should not have been seated, and he should resign.

[Vinca]

20. Definitely. He got what he wanted: a new addition for the mausoleum.

The daily drip, drip, drip is foolish on his part. The day before yesterday he said he'd talked to Blago's brother, next day it comes out he's fund raising for Blago. Go away, Mr. Burris, go away.

[SoCalDem]

30. No matter.. he won't

and the senate will not remove him..

why?

HOW would they ever explain themselves when they did NOT remove a senator who had been CONVICTED of 7 felonies?

Had they removed Stevens when he was indicted, they might be planning Burriss' removal right now..but again, the past comes back to bite them on the ass..

Anything they do NOW, would be received as being overly vindictive, and they would be accused of going after him for other reasons.

[DonP]

31. Should he? - Yes ... Will he? - Hell No!

Burris has a huge ego (his Ramses The Great style monument to himself marble mausoleum is just one proof).

There is no amount of pressure, including from the White House, that will get him to resign any more than Blago was going to resign.

With this guy a daily front page reminder of the status of Democrat politics in this State for the next two years, and he will run in the primary, I'd just assume that there will be a GOP Senator in 2010 from Illinois. There's a good chance, I believe, that we will also wind up with another GOP governor as well.

As much as I like Pat Quinn, the primary fight for Governor is going to wind up a 5 or 6 way fight that will get really ugly, really fast and the fight will stick in people minds for the general election.

I expect to see lots of photos and videos of different state, local and national politicians, including Burris, with Blago arm in arm and making endorsements.

[ShortnFiery]

32. Damn, at this point, I feel we should let the guy serve out his time - he will promptly be defeated.

Our Party should not drag OURSELVES through this.

If we didn't have the guts to "fillibuster Alito" I fail to see where ole' Harry Reid and Dick Durbin will glean any respect for figuratively "killing their own." :shrug:

[Hellataz]

34. Yes Absolutely! He should have NEVER accepted the appointment in the first place.

[TexasObserver]

35. No! Can we stop holding him to a different standard than these other ass hats?

Good Lord, it's absurd the level of hand wringing over Roland Burris. Given that a good third of the senate are pond scum, what is the fascination with this particular loser?

The whole Patrick Fitzgerald led lynch mob scene was despicable, and well in keeping with the sleazy way Fitzgerald does things. Oh, he's such a boy scout! Except when he plays judge instead of prosecutor.

Wanna worry about a guy who should not have any authority? Worry about that putz, Patrick Fitzgerald. Whether it is his being a hack or being incompetent, he's not up to the job.

[JI7]

37. the guy is an embarrassment and has no shame

he should never have accepted but he did and there wasn't much Democrats could do to prevent his getting into the Senate.

there is no way he will resign though. we will just have to wait until the elections where hopefully he will lose in the primary.

[styersc]

38. yes he should resign.

[AtomicKitten]

39. He should resign but I fully expect him to latch on like a pitbull and not let go. n/t