Burris: No Wrong Dealings Between Me and Blagojevich
Roland Burris, the former Illinois Attorney General has said that there were no improper dealings between him and embattled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.
Photo: SIUC
The Honorable Roland Burris, shown in the image with Associate Dean Diane Taub, earned his B.A. in Political Science from SIUC in 1959. While at SIUC, Mr. Burris documented discrimination against African-Americans by Carbondale merchants, leading to university-led reforms. In 1963 he earned his law degree from Howard University.
Upon winning the United States Presidential Elections, Democratic nominee Barack Obama would be the US President-Elect. From there, Obama would vacate his seat in the United States Senate. There would be the question: Who will end up filling Obama’s seat?
So far, this led to a scandal and major controversy. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested on December 9, 2008. Blagojevich is going through impeachment proceedings on the charge of trying to sell Obama’s vacant Senate seat. It had caused a stir in both Illinois and Washington DC.
Recently, Blagojevich had appointed former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to fill the seat. However, Burris was initially rejected by Senate Democrats. This is due for two reasons. The first reason was that Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White refused to sign the certification. Senate Democrats said that they will not seat anybody appointed by Blagojevich. They see that Blagojevich’s hands as tainted.
However, the controversy is supposed to be getting cleared up. Burris had met with Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. So far, Burris should be seated “soon.”
Burris said that there were no wrongdoings between him and Blagojevich. He swore that he was not involved with any improper dealings at all let alone with Blagojevich.
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I can before this committee state that there was nothing … legal, personal, or political exchanged for my appointment to this seat,” Burris said under oath before the Illinois House Committee.
To sum up everything, Burris has denied that he has done anything wrong. Once this controversy clears up, the heat may return towards Blagojevich in full force.
