Sen. Burris repeats he didn't pay for appointment
By MIKE ROBINSON
The Associated Press
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 9:42 AM
CHICAGO -- Roland Burris isn't hiding after a judge allowed the release of a transcript in which the senator offers to "personally do something" for then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich's campaign fund.
He reiterated Wednesday that he never participated in a pay-to-play scheme for his appointment to the Senate seat previously held by Barack Obama.
"Did I try to buy the seat? Never," Burris told reporters Wednesday outside his Chicago home before he set out on a two-day tour of central Illinois. The Democrat said he has been truthful at every step since Blagojevich appointed him to the Senate seat.
"Did I try to buy the seat? Never," Burris said. "Did I commit perjury? No."
His swing through Illinois comes a day after the release of the contents of a Nov. 13 wiretapped conversation between Burris and the former governor's brother. In it, Burris offered to give the governor's campaign committee a check but worried doing anything more might make it seem like he was "trying to buy an appointment" to the U.S Senate, according to transcripts of their wiretapped conversation.
"I mean, so Rob, I'm in a dilemma right now wanting to help the governor," Burris tells Robert Blagojevich, who headed his brother's campaign fund, in the phone conversation secretly taped by the FBI.
"I know I could give him a check," Burris says. "Myself. ... I will personally do something, okay."
The senator said Wednesday the check would have been for $1,000, an amount he had donated to the Blagojevich campaign before.
"If you look at the transcript you can see what I was saying," Burris told reporters. "I did not know anything about a pay-to-play. I knew if I raised money, it would be a problem."
On the transcript, Burris had cautioned that "if I put on a fundraiser now ... it has so many negative connotations that Burris is trying to buy an appointment from the governor for the senate seat."
"God knows No. 1, I wanna help Rod," Burris says in the recording. "No. 2, I also wanna, you know, hope I get a consideration to get that appointment."
The transcript of the wiretapped conversation was released Tuesday after U.S. District Chief Judge James F. Holderman approved making it available to the U.S. Senate ethics committee for its preliminary investigation of Burris's appointment.
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Heh... it's Illinois politics
I never say never with this kind of thing. If Burris manages to bring home ANY bacon to the locals he doesn't need to give up. If he doesn't provide any benefit to the home team over the next year, that's different.
Remember Marion Barry (DC). Remember Buddy Cianci (Providence).
The Bacon
Burris would have to bring home so much bacon that he would need to have a monopoly share on every pig ranch in the country. The cities of Washington, D.C. and Providence are vastly different than the entire state of Illinois. Call the Coast Guard because he is dead in the water.
Took me a minute to remember
Took me a minute to remember BUddy.
Marion Barry was different because he DID deliver...before he was busted. I get the sense his re-election was a statement.
I get the sense his
I get the sense his re-election was a statement.
I was living in D.C. at the time. I still can't decide if the statement was you can't tell us who our mayor should be or we'll cut off our nose to spite our face and there's not a damn thing you can do about it.
The first.
The first.
As I said to a friend after
As I said to a friend after a few of moving here (in Chicago) in '07, this is THE most corrupt place that I have lived in my life. Take a good look because Chicago politics is on full display. I have a feeling that more is to come from this trainwreck. And it won't surprise me at all [and you can mark what I say here] if he gets RE-elected if he isn't removed from office first. From the Stroger's to the Daley's, the people of Chicago have been re-electing corrupt officials for decates.
From the Maryland side
I was on the Maryland side when Barry got re-elected after his "troubles." From the sidelines it seemed to be about DC residents exercising control where they could (no vote in Congress but you can't tell us who our mayor should be).