Boomerang Burris

By Troy Nelson

There's nothing like a lover scorned, eh? Well, he's baaaack! Regarding the Senate's upcoming vote on President Obama's public health care push, Illinois Senator Roland Burris (D) is sitting in the catbird seat, knows it, and is grinning like a Cheshire Cat.

Yes, the same Senator who was entangled in the former Illinois Governor Blagojevich brouhaha. After being seated as a Senator at Blagojevich's direction Roland Burris was kept at 10-foot-pole distance by his fellow Democrats. The whole affair was ugly and the assumption was "don't ask, don't tell," let's just all get along in peace. Burris' fellow Democrats would leave him alone and he could sit quietly by, voting agreeably on the President's agenda.

Not so fast. There's news from Chicago that Senator Burris realizes his possibly pivotal position on the President's upcoming health care vote in the Senate. And Burris is wildly waving his "ornery stick" at the Democratic leadership. He's vowing to not vote for the President's government-only administered HC plan but instead is holding to supporting a plan that would let states choose to have a public option thus reducing Obama's initiative from The Only Game in Town to just another player in the market place.

As reported on MSNBC's home page:

"I would not support a bill that does not have a public option. That position will not change."

Democrats fear they will need all 60 of the Democratic Senators votes required to pull off an "it's in the bank" vote. This is sweetness - a fellow Democrat who was tossed aside as Mr. Irrelevant rising up from the grave like a specter to terrorize the President's vision of Health Care reform. How appropriate as a Halloween trick. It's certainly a treat for those who are resisting a government-only run HC agenda.

The "enemy of my enemy is my friend" angle might actually be better described as "let them devour themselves/there is no honor among thieves" view but... we'll take what we can get.