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by Mark Silva
Sen. Roland Burris played Hardball today, and MSNBC's Chris Matthews asked the junior senator from Illinois if he had tried to "squeeze'' former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich for appointment to the Senate when he spoke with the governor's brother about helping the governor's campaign.
"I had no intention of raising money for the governor,'' Burris (D-Ill.) told Matthews. "I wanted to help the governor... But I could not raise any money, because if I did, it would look like I was trying to buy the seat... I could not do it, so I did not do it.''
Burris, appointed to the Senate seat three weeks after the ex-governor's arrest on federal corruption charges, had spoken with the governor's brother on Nov. 13 -- a conversation recorded by federal investigators. A newly released transcript shows Burris seeking to help Blagojevich while avoiding any appearance of trying to buy the Senate seat. The Senate Ethics Committee has requested it in its inquiry into the appointment.
He could not raise money for the governor, Burris told Matthews, because "if I do get appointed, that means I bought it."
Asked if all this does not smell of a "pay to play'' deal with the disgraced governor over the appointment to fill the vacated Senate seat of President Barack Obama, Burris said on the air today: "There was no deal... That's what I was seeking to avoid.''
(See the interview above, and read a transcript, courtesy of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, below. Sen. Roland Burris also faced reporters' questions about his conversation with the former governor's brother at the University of Illinois in Urbana today. Photo by Scott Olson / Getty Images )
Comments
Burris is a total snake!!
Posted by: SEO Acuity | May 27, 2009 7:01 PM
He lied under oath! The 'pay-to-play' issue is now a red herring. Clearly, he did not pay. But the media should not let him limit the scope of the controversy to just that issue. Had the transcript been released before he was seated, the senate seat would have been denied. Without the deceit in his first affidavit, the seat would have been denied. Opportunity and motive. Force him to acknowledge the lie!
Posted by: xpst | May 27, 2009 7:59 PM
I've watched IIlinois politics rather closely since at least Stratton.
Sad truth is: almost all politicians engage in pay to play to one extent or another.
Blagojevich just did it on a grand scale consistent with his DSM textbook histrionic and grandiose disorders.
Roland, on the other hand, is actually one of the cleanest politicians Illinois has produced in a long, long time.
Too bad he has to be smeared in the guilt by association style of political reporting and commentary.
If you read the transcript, Roland did nothing improper and said nothing improper.
In fact, he is rather like a technician in a snake venom lab, trying to squeeze something out of Rod without getting bitten.
Posted by: ornery | May 27, 2009 8:29 PM
Burris is a joke he always has been and always will be
he ran for office a dozen times and lost and as soon as he started to lose everyone was a racist the only way he can hold office is to be appointed he needs to be removed and stop embrassing illinois
Posted by: uncle roland | May 27, 2009 9:33 PM
Force him to acknowledge the lie!
Posted by: xpst | May 27, 2009 7:59 PM
You could NEVER get someone like Burris to admit his shame or his guilt. He is using semantics to make him look like he did nothing wrong. Now the guy is blaming the media for the tapes. Don't forget, he is a trained attorney. He will try and do anything to stay in his seat. Illinoians Unite...kick the jerk out!
Posted by: lochnessmonster | May 27, 2009 10:06 PM
Either dishonest or incompetent. Is this what "The Senator from Illinois" has come to mean? It's a long way down from Stephen Douglas, Everett Dirksen, Adlai Stevenson, Paul Simon, Peter Fitzgerald to Roland Burris.
This is what machine politics has wrought on the state of Illinois, and I hope all patronage workers are satisfied with their lot in life.
Posted by: John P Chicago | May 27, 2009 10:48 PM
His next story: I was doing my own private investigation on pay-to-play in Illinois. I was helping the Feds as a private citizen without their knowledge. I was doing it because we have no clients and I needed some way to fill my time.
I have to go now and add that to my monument to myself.
Posted by: lochnessmonster | May 28, 2009 6:54 AM
Burris is a total snake!!
Posted by: SEO Acuity | May 27, 2009 7:01 PM
And he's a Democrat!!!! Don't leave off the best part!
Posted by: Joe | May 28, 2009 8:21 AM
Roland Burris is the epitome of everything that is wrong with Illinois politics AND everything that is wrong with the Democratic party -- in Chicago, Crook County, Illinois and throughout the U.S. Democrats = the party of crooks.
Posted by: John D | May 28, 2009 12:07 PM