Side-Show Burris

I was in Chicago on the day that the Blagojevic simony story broke.  I listened to the folks on XRT gleefully detail the emerging story, offering the same type of sarcastic asides that we have all been dishing up for weeks now.  It was priceless.

I got in the cab, making my way to Union Station, and immediately the cabbie exclaimed that finally, finally, they got the goods on the useless and corrupt Blago.  

As the story unfolded, and the sheer tawdriness of the entire enterprise laid bare smilin' Rod's penchant for graft, you started to get the sense that this whole story was not going to end well, and certainly not with any trace of dignity.

Congratulations, Roland Burris, you gave everyone exactly the kind of spectacle that this low-rent story deserved.  

Mr. Burris was named as to Barack Obama's Senate seat by the now disgraced, and probably to be impeached, Gov. Blagojevich.  The Senate Democrats, and a substantial number of Illinois Democrats, had stated that they would not accept Blago's pick because of the exceptionally dark cloud that lingers two inches above his head. Everyone knew that if he made a pick, that pick would always been suspect, at best.  Anyone so named would immediately be connected to the sludge and slime of Blago's corruption.  Best to steer clear of the two-bit hustler, and wait to name a Senator who would not have to live with such unwanted and unnecessary baggage.

Blago tabbed Roland Burris, a fixture in Illinois Democratic circles, although one that never really had the ability to break through in a state-wide election.  He was the definition of state and local political animals, but always seemed essentially workman-like and harmless.

So, how did Burris respond to being named the new Senator by the living embodiment of political corruption for 2008-2009?  By weirdly embracing his new role, and acting like the whole tawdry scandal didn't happen.  With his actions today, Burris is showing that he really doesn't quite care that the circumstances of his elevation to the Obama's old Senate seat were dodgy in the extreme.  He still hasn't really recognized that anyone that Blago named was going to be fatally wounded before they even began.  Add Bobby Rush's petulant yammerings on race, and the perfect storm of political foolishness has erupted to overwhelm the fact that the Senate (and the House) have a great deal of heavy lifting to do to get this country back on its feet.  We don't have time for this nonsense.

Burris, knowing what is going in this country, should have played this much differently. Ok, he was named Senator.  That is a tough thing to say no to, even if it is offered by the political equivalent of the fictional Gordon Gecko ('greed is good').  That said, if you are going to say yes, you accept the job, and then turn on the governor and bury him with your new found political clout.  Expose him.  Castigate his money-grubbing ways.  Show to all of the world that Illinois politics does not all sink into the gutter with their governor.

Above all, play it cool and low-key.  Don't go to Washington until all is settled.  Show some class.  Have some dignity.  If you are going to take a job from some accused of selling that job for cash and prizes, don't miss an opportunity to show that you are above reproach, that you recognize the wretched circumstances of your elevation, but that you can make this whole orchard of lemons into lemonade.  Whatever trite aphorism you choose, do that.  Whatever you do, don't make it worse.  Don't invite every hack blogger (yours truly included) to mock you for turning this into even more of a carnival.  Mr. Burris, you are now the joke and the punch-line.  You will never be taken serious.  Ever. 

Oh, by the way, you will be challenged from within your own party in two years.  You will lose the election in 2010 in spectacular fashion.  It won't even be close.  

Splendid work, Mr. Burris.  Quite the debut.