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Senator Burris: Much Ado About Little »

A Proposal For Mr. Burris

Posted by PATRICK EDABURN in At TMV.
Dec 31st, 2008 | Comments

I have no idea how many people actually read our blog or my own little section of it (hopefully my efforts do not detract too much from my far more talented colleagues). But on the off chance than someone who reads this has the ability to forward it to Senator Designate Burris, I have a proposal for him to ponder.

By all accounts Mr. Burris has been a dedicated public servant to the people of Illinois and does not share any of the sleaze connected to Governor Soprano. Furthermore, he has more than just the ethics issues to consider when it comes to accepting or rejecting the nomination.

There are no African American members of the US Senate and he is slated to fill that gap. In addition I think we can forgive him for being human enough to take with a bit of awe the prospect of serving in the Senate.

Finally, even if he does reject the nomination it would simply mean that Governor Soprano could make another nomination to the body and that choice could be someone far less suited to serve than Mr. Burris, who has spent years in public office.

With that in mind I offer the following proposal.

Mr. Burris should continue to accept the nomination in order to prevent Blago from naming anyone else to the seat. When the Senate sends the issue to the Rules committee for review he should allow this to happen and simply let the process take as much time as needed.

Meanwhile the state legislature in Illinois can proceed with the impeachment process against the Blago and remove him from office as quickly as possible. When Lt. Governor Quinn becomes Governor Quinn then Mr. Burris can resign from his seat/appointment and open things up for a new candidate.

In exchange for this service to his state and country, Quinn can then name Burris back to the seat with the proviso that he does not run for election in 2010 (which is probably likely anyway given his age).

If Mr. Burris is truly the dedicated public servant he seems to be then he can take this step to preserve the dignity of the Senate seat he seeks to occupy.

Will he do it ?

Only time will tell………….

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TroyOi

Let me be the first (if I am the first) to completely endorse your remarks - I think you've hit the nail on the head. Given Blago's known erraticness (erratiction?) and vindictiveness, one couldn't be surprised if his alternative choice were to be a Republican.

The question that needs to be asked, though, is, how did things get to this point? Mr. Burris is supposedly a reasonable man, and a highly respected moderate. He KNEW the ruckus this would raise. He KNEW the president-elect might well oppose his being seated. Did it not even occur to him to at least place a call to Mr. Obama before accepting the nomination?

With his rather disingenuous comments about how he's just answering the urgent call of duty, this is beginning to have the smell of opportunism about it. One would hope that Mr. Burris would think twice before tarnishing his reputation at this late point in his life, lest history regard him as just another black opportunist a la Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.

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