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January 13, 2009

Democrats groveling is complete: Burris is officially in

By Rick Moran

This is not about Mr. Burris; it is about the integrity of a governor accused of attempting to sell this United States Senate seat,” the statement read. “Anyone appointed by Gov. Blagojevich cannot be an effective representative of the people of Illinois and, as we have said, will not be seated by the Democratic Caucus.

(Harry Reid in a letter signed by every Democratic senator on December 31, 2008 - the day Roland Burris was appointed by Rod Blagojevich)

That almost Shermanesque statement has now totally melted away - the result of the most shameless pandering to an interest group we've seen in quite a while; the Democratic party's total capitulation to the politics of race in the face of threats from the African American community.

And what of Barack Obama? Here's is the president-elect's statement that same day:

Roland Burris is a good man and a fine public servant, but the Senate Democrats made it clear weeks ago that they cannot accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat. I agree with their decision, and it is extremely disappointing that Governor Blagojevich has chosen to ignore it. I believe the best resolution would be for the Governor to resign his office and allow a lawful and appropriate process of succession to take place. While Governor Blagojevich is entitled to his day in court, the people of Illinois are entitled to a functioning government and major decisions free of taint and controversy.”

Our new president also demonstrated that he had feet of clay on this issue. One can only imagine the difficulties that would have arisen if the appointment had been a white male or even a white female. While it is true that the senate had very little in the way of a legal leg to stand on (which begs the question why Reid didn't know that before he put out that strong statement), Reid and the Democrats would probably have thrown up as many roadblocks as the law allowed, taking the case all the way to the Supreme Court perhaps to bar the appointment.

I wish some honest reporter would ask Mr. Reid why he is allowing someone who "cannot be an effective representative of the people of Illinois" into the senate? Does he not care about us out here in flyover country? My bet is that he cares more about not offending his most loyal voting bloc - African Americans who voted more than 93% for Obama and in record numbers.


And what kind of man did Reid and the Democrats allow into the senate? The DC Examiner dug into the campaign records from 2002 when Burris was running for governor in the Democratic primary and found this little gem:

In his 2002 attempt to win the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, Burris depended heavily upon Joseph Stroud, an Illinois political heavyweight contributor, thanks to his ownership of Jovon Broadcasting and Telephone U.S.A. In the 2002 race, Stroud provided Burris with the following loans and contributions:

* Jovon Broadcasting individual contribution to Burris:  $200,000
* Jovon Broadcasting in-kind contributions to Burris:    $179,895
* Telephone U.S.A. (and USA) loans to Burris:               $1,200,000

Burris repaid $6,000 of the Telephone U.S.A. loans in November 2003, but no other payments appear in the records. This puts the total support from Stroud to Burris at $1,573,895.

Presumably, these contributions were all legal, but the outstanding loans could create a potential conflict of interest should Stroud have issues with federal regulators once Burris is sworn-in as Illinois senator.

Those "loans" - like the Clinton "loans" from Susan McDougal to pay taxes on the Whitewater property - were never meant to be paid back. Burris isn't the only pol who does this sort of thing but seating the guy without asking him about this only shows how far the Democrats are in the tank for their African American constituency.



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