Note to Roland Burris: Shhhh.

By GottaLaff

When you're in a hole, stop digging:

Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL) "trying to save his sinking Senate career, delivered a brief statement Monday morning where he argued he answered questions about the contacts he had with former Gov. Blagojevich team leading up to his appointment," Lynn Sweet reports.

Unlike the fiasco yesterday, Burris did not take any questions.

First Read says the new Burris revelations may be enough to: "(1) Seriously hurt Burris' chances of surviving primary challenges from strong Democratic challengers like Lisa Madigan, Jan Schakowsky, Jesse Jackson Jr. or others, and (2) Embolden those Democrats and give them prime oppo ammo."

Republicans hope the controversy allows them to win the Senate seat in 2010.

Yesterday, Jeff Toobin said that Burris hurt himself politically, but not legally. Whatever his problems, I still appreciated his smackdown of the press.

VIDEO: Roland Burris' warning to press was prophetic

By GottaLaff


An unedited video of the entire presser can be found here. My original post is here, which describes Senator Burris laying into the press, warning them that their sloppy reporting would result in a field day for Republicans out for blood (see video above). Guess what:

Politico notes Illinois Republicans "are calling on Burris to resign; he's facing a possible perjury investigation in his home state; and his Senate colleagues may face new pressure to launch an Ethics Committee probe to determine whether he should be expelled from the body."

Burris called it.

Roland Burris rips into the press

By GottaLaff

Following up this post:

Roland Burris was very combative at his press conference, and just swatted the reporters hard. He told them this is a non-story, and if they'd done their job correctly they'd see that. He then said that because of their reporting, the GOP could run with it, go to "some grand jury", when in fact, this is the end of the story, not the beginning.

Jeffrey Toobin: Burris has a political problem, not a legal one. His statement wasn't false, but voters may think he was downplaying his connections to Rod Blagojevich come election day. He was smart to come out and answer questions, and he meandered some, but he had to answer the accusations. His political viability may be in question. However, prosecution is a very, very remote possibility.

Senator Roland Burris facing perjury probe

By GottaLaff

Burris is going to do a Q and A at 3:30 pm CST:

U.S. Senator Roland W. Burris will make a statement and answer questions today regarding his supplemental affidavit to the Illinois House Impeachment Committee.

Why? Because of this:

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's brother solicited Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL) "for up to $10,000 in campaign cash before Blagojevich named Burris to the coveted post -- something Burris initially failed to disclose under oath before an Illinois House impeachment panel," the Chicago Sun Times reports.

Burris "acknowledges being hit up for the money in a new affidavit he has sent to the head of the House committee that recommended Blagojevich be removed from office."

However, in the affidavit, Burris said he refused to contribute to Blagojevich or to assist in fundraising for him.

What, this just came to him? This story will never go away, will it? We're all stuck in Blago-Burris Hell.