Senator Burris
His aides are calling him Senator already.
Mr. Burris, 71 years old, brushed off the opposition in a 25-minute interview during which aides called him “senator” and he argued that he would represent his state well. “From South Beloit to Cairo, from Galena to Zion, East St. Louis to Lawrenceville, I know this state. I know its people,” he said.
He also questioned — as have several legal scholars — the Senate’s right to keep him from taking the seat, asking, “By what authority can [Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid] deny a governor carrying out his constitutional duty?”
“I am the senator, and it sounds good,” said Mr. Burris, now a lobbyist and lawyer. “I’m giving up a lot of money to go to the Senate, OK? I’m taking a pay cut,” he said, referring to a U.S. senator’s salary of about $169,000 a year.
“…and it sounds good.”
The unfortunate thing is that no one was blogging when Burris was in office and ran so many times. I forgot how much fun he is.
January 2nd, 2009 at
Among the substantive reasons I’m not happy with the Burris appointment is that, in addition to being a mediocre officeholder, he seems stuck in the past. He seems to think that everything is like it was in Springfield in the early 1980s: everyone is chummy, there’s not much outside scrutiny, and what’s important is showing up at the state fair every year with some fun schtick.
Well, not even Springfield is like that anymore — the level of scrutiny and professionalism in state politics has increased tremendously since the 1990s. And Washington was never quite that genteel even in the 1980s.
A big part of the change is the internet and the influence of bloggers, changing the level of scrutiny a public official receives. Moreover, there is a lot more irreverence in how news is covered by bloggers.
Poor Rolans wasn’t able to keep in 1994 when he ran for Governor, and he certainly can’t keep up now. It’s a big reason why Larry is right when he wrote that Burris has no idea how much his reputation is going to be hurt by playing along with this appointment.