It’s not very often that I get riled up by the news I hear on the radio, but when I caught the latest revelation of what Illinois Sen. Roland Burris did prior to his appointment, I pounded on my car’s dashboard and yelled, “Are you friggin’ KIDDING me?!?!?!”
Here’s a clip of what the wiretap picked up of the November 2008 conversation between Roland Burris and Robert Blagojevich, the brother of disgraced and former governor Rod Blagojevich and hard-working extortionist. (The Blagojevich family must be so proud of this pair; betcha they’re wishing their last name was “Smith” or “Jones” right about now.)
Listen to the audio! Listen to it and tell me how on earth Sen. Burris can still maintain that he never participated in a “pay-to-play” scheme. Hear the conversation without the spin of the media, pundits or public officials with self-serving agendas and then make up your own mind. (Although I recommend avoiding the step of pounding a hard surface in frustration; it doesn’t change anything and only makes your hand hurt.)
Why am I so outraged? Maybe it’s because I gave Burris the benefit of the doubt, despite his changing accounts of the type of contact he did and did not have with Blagojevich aides once it was clear the Senate seat was to be vacated by the newly-elected president, Barack Obama. Maybe it’s because every time a Democrat engages in such slimy behavior, I can no longer draw a clear line dividing the “good” guys from the “bad.” Hmmmm …. maybe what I find most enraging is Burris’s arrogant (delusional?) belief that he could talk his way out of this one and the mind-boggling disconnect between Burris’s public portrayal of himself as an older statesman when the reality was, in private, he was a self-serving skunk engaged in back-room wheeling and dealing.
Clearly, this disclosure has pushed my buttons. What are others’ reaction?
5-28-2009 08:37:45
I have been on a news “vacation” so I had not heard about this tape. It is infuriating for all the reasons you mention. Most of us go about our lives trying to do the right thing, not for any reward but because it’s the right way to live. Meanwhile people are wheeling and dealing and appearing to get all the goodies. Burris should lose the senate seat and face the consequences of his decisions.
5-29-2009 07:19:43
You said something about the telling the “difference” between the good guys and the bad guys — and that resonated with me. For me, the trust factor is everything, and I am so tired of being disappointed and hurt by politicians. I want to believe in them. It’s so hard.
6-3-2009 11:33:04
It amazes me how Burris can say with a straight face that he didn’t try to pay-for-play! In an unusual way, Burris reminds me of Bill Kristol on Fox News Sunday — the truth is exactly opposite of anything he says.