Relax, Burris says he 'don't have no money'

By Marc Sheppard

Anyone the least bit concerned of possible impropriety in Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's selection to fill the very vacant Senate seat he is accused of auctioning to the highest bidder can breathe a big sigh of relief. Yesterday, former Illinois Attorney General Roland W. Burris, the man so selected, assured reporters that "there was certainly no pay to play involved because I don't have no money."

Now that's the caliber of eloquence we expect in a Senator, particularly one chosen to replace the uniquely articulate next President of the United States.

And the statement's facts are no more solid than its grammar, unless of course the double negative was a deliberate deception. On top of his six figure Illinois annual pension and his $70,000 combined wages as director of Inland Real Estate Corp, one can only imagine his take as Senior Council for the Milwaukee law firm of Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan. Oh, and let's not forget his stake in lobbying firm Burris & Lebed Consulting, which offers its "inside baseball" media strategy geared toward "affecting opinion" in the arena of "both the general public and government leaders."

No money? Perhaps not enough to sit at the same table as Blago's other Chicago and Springfield players, but likely to benefit from Obama's promised tax cuts he is not. The simple-man persona conveyed on camera notwithstanding, he remains, after all, just another player in the slime which is Chicago politics.

Nonetheless, let's all cheer loudly for Burris. And for Caroline Kennedy. If the Democrats want to award color and pedigree over experience and merit, I say let ‘em. Affirmative Action doesn't fly in general elections, and these will be 2 seats even the Republicans would have a hard time losing in 2010.

Add the likely unamused Minnesota electorate two years later, having suffered four years of clown Al Franken's likely three-ring performance on Capitol Hill, and suddenly, rumors of Republican political demise would appear to have been greatly exaggerated.