Blago and Burris – Pay to Play?
Sure sounds like it to me:
A transcript of a secretly recorded phone call between the brother of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and U.S. Sen. Roland Burris was released in federal court today, a call in which Burris, then seeking the Senate seat, was recorded offering the Blagojevich campaign a campaign check.
“I know I could give him a check,” Burris said. “Myself.”
But in the same call, Burris tells Robert Blagojevich he is concerned he and Rod Blagojevich will “catch hell.”
“And if I do get appointed that means I bought it,” Burris said.
“And, and God knows number one, I, I wanna help Rod,” Burris says later in the call. “Number two, I also wanna, you know, hope I get a consideration to get that appointment.”
The culture of corruption on steroids – or as a friend says, “the ususal Chicago politics”. Of course Burris would never voluntarily give up the seat and would most likely have to be dragged from the Senate kicking and screaming.
Any chance the Democrats will clean their own house?
Yeah, that’s a joke.
~McQ
“Any chance the Democrats will clean their own house?”
I’m not sure of the priorities but I believe Nancy P. said she was first going to “drain the swamp”, THEN she would move past the delaying of the ethics investigations.
I get the feeling that Burris won’t survive this, but I thought he was done for some months ago, just before he got the seat. So my intuition on the matter is probably wrong. I still have this silly idea that someone who compromises himself so thoroughly would become so poisonous that he’d be removed by his own party, acting in its best interests.
I guess I’m not cynical enough yet. The way this is handled will probably change that.
At a bare minimum, Blago and his circle of rent seekers should do jail time. This would send a strong message to all politicians who want to engage in this sort of behaviour.
Can Burris be indicted for offering a bribe to a government official? If so, he should be charged and forced to recuse himself from all Senate votes until his innocence or guilt are determined in court.
Giving these powers to law enforcement would be a good first step to reforming the US political system.
The current system is sickening. The GOP could gain much political capital by coming up with a concise policy paper on how they would reform ethics if given majorities in both houses. And all candidates running must sign a pledge to support it if they want to run as a GOP candidate.