by Chris Robling
Following are comments from yesterday (15 February), pulled together, with times posted, and a note from this morning.
This was posted at 11:12 am:
It will be known as the political Valentine's Day Credibility Massacre.
Game ON.
The NY Times this morning makes fools of Burris and Currie.
The Sun-Times has Jim Durkin and Chris Radogno right where they should be--decrying Burris' catch-up-to-what-the-tapes-must-reveal affidavit and referring the matter to the local prosecutor.
Burris, then, on those with whom he discussed chiseling another public office on his big monument: Lon Monk.
Burris, now, on chiseling interlocutors: Monk, Robert Blagojevich, John Harris, John Wyma and Doug Scofield.
Come again?
Burris is reported to have used the following worm-like formulation: "There were several facts I was not given the opportunity to make in my testimony."
Huh?
Currie, leading light of the "we are really a lot smarter than everyone else, really" fifth ward crowd, says in the NY Times, about Burris' 5 February affidavit restating/changing/updating/revising his nationally televised testimony to her committee, "We'll look at it." [Sec. A, p. 23]
That is really smart.
Currie acknowledges the arrival of the info, but "she said she had not read the documentation and did not realize that the package contained the new information."
An alternative explanation for why we have only learned of this on 14 February (as a special Valentine to all Illinois) thanks to the Sun-Times' dogged reporting by Natasha Korecky and Dave McKinney: Currie buried it and hoped no one would ever ask.
Harry Reid's office says it will review the matter.
Dick Durbin - you have to love this -- left for a trip to Greece, Turkey and Cyprus. His spokesman said he too would review the documents.
All of this results from the Pat Quinn / Dick Durbin / Illinois Democrat betrayal of the voters in their joint bait-and-switch on a special election between 9 and 16 December. When they traduced their pledges we started the slide to Rod's 29 December nomination-appointment in his manic search for one juror to deliver him from eveil whilst he foists it back on all of us.
Thanks, guys. Great public service.
I guess this shows that those who for six years enabled Rod, until truth caught up with him, cannot be trusted with vetting a Senator or, one thinks, much of anything else.
But that is not enough for others, such as illinois Goppers, to win. We need to be worthy. We need practical solutions. We need candidates with character, experience, capability and charisma.
Yes, they have insulted Illinois and the nation, and their darling favorite son, Barack, while we are on it. But that is not enough for us to win, let alone succeed in serving this great state. Service requires more of us than their mistakes.
Posted by: Chris Robling | Sunday, February 15, 2009 at 11:12 AM
Chris, don't you think the reason he came clean was because Rob B is singing and it would come back to haunt Burris? Otherwise, he would have kept his mouth shut. But the question is, should Durkin have pushed the point more, and can Burris be justified by saying he wasn't given an opportunity to tell everything during that impeachment questioning?
They will find a way to squirm...I'm just asking if that excuse will sail.
Posted by: IR Editor | Sunday, February 15, 2009 at 11:21 AM
My opinion is Burris came clean because the tapes say what they say.
The cooperating witnesses Wyma and Harris are well aware of what their tapes say, and word may have dribbled back to Roland. Or perhaps he just wanted to protect himself, and Currie complicitly filed his sworn statement away.
Either way, he idiotically did not front this (e.g. tell the truth) when testifying. He should step down from the Senate and the people should demand a real special election -- damn the equivocations of Durbin, Quinn, etc. They have foisted on us a U.S. Senator no one can trust.
I hope this is what Tom and Jim call for in a few minutes at their presser.
It is inconceivable to me that Rod is a cooperating witness (yet) given his publicity tour, but anything is possible.
As for Jim's questioning, it is all that the people of Illinois and the country need to know that Roland was selling snake oil on national TV.
For Roland to try to shift responsibility for his not telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth on to his sister South Side Democrat liberal Currie and her committee says a lot about Roland's character, I regret to observe. Maybe some sort of flub that day could cover one detail, but not four additional names, three fundraising conversations and -- he reports -- an abject refusal on his part, especially not in view of the involvement of the brother of the arrested Governor, for goodness' sake.
Currie, for her part, covered up -- plain and simple. On the most important testimony for which she has ever been responsible, she folded under pressure and deep-sixed the affidavit, and then she actually tells the NY Times, no less, her Bible, that she is a dumb bunny who either doesn't open her official mail, or does not read affidavits from U.S. Senators who have recently testified in front of her... It beggars belief. She looks a fool.
Repeat after me: It's change we can believe in.
Posted by: Chris Robling | Sunday, February 15, 2009 at 01:23 PM
I am listening to the Burris presser now. He is obviously overtaken by the facts of his situation. He is foundering. The idea that Durkin's next question absolved him of his duty to reply truthfully to the initial question is ludicrous. The Valentine's Day Credibility Massacre has left his word in tatters.
It is a plain outrage that Senator Burris first failed to answer truthfully, then said nothing about it, then he submitted nothing about it, weeks apparently went by, he carried on private, non-disclosed talks with Barbara Flynn Currie, and then he submitted his rear-end covering affidavit to Currie essentially in the dark of night.
All Illgoppers should NOW demand both Senator Burris' immediate resignation and a vote in the G.A. on a special election the very next day the G.A. meets, whenever that is. Anything less leaves a crippled representative of our state in the upper house of our national legislature.
Currie should be investigated. I wonder if there is a legal basis on which a General Assembly chairman may not release an affidavit revising public testimony, as she apparently did for a week or more.
Posted by: Chris Robling | Sunday, February 15, 2009 at 04:05 PM
On WGN-TV this morning (16 February) I called for Burris to resign, a special election to be held and Currie to be investigated for her cover-up of the Burris affidavit.
All of us must thank Natasha Korecki and Dave McKinney of the Sun-Times. Claims to higher moral ground and better understanding of reform and transparency flowing therefrom notwithstanding, Hyde Park state rep and impeachment panel chairman Barbara Flynn Currie pulled a cover-up attempt here worthy of a machine hack. Korecki and McKinney caught her in the act.
With the further light of morning upon us, let me add this one observation. I think the Senate’s Friday spending bill vote is tainted. Burris’ participation is problematic. Without his vote the Dems would have had only 59. I will leave to Senate rules experts the significance of that, but it may not have been enough for the conference committee report (the final passage vehicle) to survive a filibuster.
The Dems demanded a vote by a deadline that forced them to break their own transparency pledges. Why?
Do we doubt that some of them – Reid and Durbin, perhaps – knew what Burris’ affidavit said, at least in substance?
Did chairman Currie bury it to help President Obama, a former fellow faculty member of her husband, U. of C. constitutional law scholar David Currie, in his first big vote?
I think the Currie investigation should determine – inter alia -- who knew about the affidavit and with whom Currie spoke after Burris’ admitted private conversations with her, particularly with whom she spoke in Washington. Once upon a time, we would have simply asked her, for her commitment to reform and open government was unimpeachable.
But that now seems like a fairy tale.
I urge all IllGoppers to contact their respective party and public officials and insist that we univocally and clearly demand Burris’ resignation, a special election to replace him and complete investigation of Currie.
