Congress: On Burris and TARP

Posted: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 9:10 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under: Congress, Economy

Per his associates, Roland Burris will be sworn into the Senate by Vice President Dick Cheney at 2:00 pm ET tomorrow.

Said Burris: "I really never doubted that I would be seated. It was just a matter of going through the process and making sure that the Senate rules were abided by."

But Politico writes that Republicans “are ready to portray Burris as a poster child for all that’s wrong with the Democratic Party, and Democrats aren’t sure that they want to back him if he runs for the seat in 2010.”

Many Senate Democrats say Obama's TARP house call on the Hill yesterday was key to selling the plan. But Republicans remain dissatisfied with what they perceive as a lack of detail in the Obama team's guidelines for monitoring the funds.

With one Senate seat still outstanding, the partisan breakdown on the Senate's most prized committees has finally been hammered out, Roll Call says.

The Tuesday Group, a collection of moderate GOP lawmakers, has seen its ranks diminish, but it has added more conservative members in the effort to keep a variety of perspectives in the group -- and to keep it alive.

EMAIL THIS

Comments

But Politico writes that Republicans “are ready to portray Burris as a poster child for all that’s wrong with the Democratic Party......

Let them. The fact is, Burris may be a little nutty and Blago may be a lot crooked but Burris was legally appointed to the office. If anything, this episode is proof that Democrats respect the law and do not try to skew the rule of law to serve a political end.

So who is going to lead the Republican attack? Alberto and his crew? Scooter has some time on his hands, maybe he can help.

Seems to me that anyone that truly puts his country first is more interested in building a strong Senate where patriots can respectfully disagree rather than try to discredit and belittle members of the opposing party.

New Indi (Sent Wednesday, January 14, 2009 9:27 AM)

Said Burris: "I really never doubted that I would be seated. It was just a matter of going through the process and making sure that the Senate rules were abided by."

Turns out the dumbest guy in the room is the smartest guy in the room. Now we know who's really dumb.

Dumb and Dumber - Harry and Dick (Sent Wednesday, January 14, 2009 9:51 AM)

>>> But Republicans remain dissatisfied with what they perceive as a lack of detail in the Obama team's guidelines for monitoring the funds. <<<

Well, republicans ought to recognize lack of detail when they see it. Wasn't Henry Paulson's initial plan just "give me the money and trust me"? How could Obama's guidelines possibly less detailed than that? The difference being, hopefully, that Obama is more trustworthy than the fox to whom we chickens gave the other key to the henhouse.

Anna Molly (Sent Wednesday, January 14, 2009 9:57 AM)

>>>But Politico writes that Republicans “are ready to portray Burris as a poster child for all that’s wrong with the Democratic Party, and Democrats aren’t sure that they want to back him if he runs for the seat in 2010.”
==========
By 2010 some other shiny object will have captured their attention and this will be forgotten. On the other hand, a more conciliatory attitude on the part of Senate Democrats would have diffused this situation much sooner.

The Tuesday Group, a collection of moderate GOP lawmakers, has seen its ranks diminish, but it has added more conservative members in the effort to keep a variety of perspectives in the group -- and to keep it alive.
==========
Another indication that the GOP plans to move more to the Right and freeze out moderate members. Sad for them, good for us as the country is moving more and more to the center (you can argue whether is center-right or center-left).

Is anyone planing any Inauguration Day parties for the 20th?

6 Days Until Inauguration Day!
http://jawillie.blog.com

jawillie, Philadelphia, PA. (Sent Wednesday, January 14, 2009 10:07 AM)

Another few Dylan lines from his song "Political World."

"We live in a political world
Love don't have any place
We're living it times where men commit crimes
And crimes don't have a face."

I still think the Wall Street flunkies belong in jail, including Barney Frank and the other politicains involved. Too much corruption going unpunished.

Palomino (Sent Wednesday, January 14, 2009 10:19 AM)

Here's how out of touch Chicago is. The Chicago City Council approved a resolution lauding Burris for having "the intelligence, character and reason that are the attributes of a great leader."

A room full of fools toasting another fool.

For people unfamiliar with the Chicago City Council, they are a group of people making about $100K a year each for a part time job that do what Mayor Richard Daley tells them to do.

Bonnie Hutch, Chicago IL (Sent Wednesday, January 14, 2009 10:21 AM)

Democrats won't have to worry about backing Burris in 2010. THIS Democrat from Illinois will NOT be backing him. I don't care who runs against him; Burris will NOT be getting my vote. The man is power hungry and came about the seat by a Governor that will be probably be sitting in jail by 2010. Burris could have turned the seat down, like Danny Davis did, but chose to be seated even though he KNEW it would be a distraction to the Obama transition. For that reason, alone, he won't be getting my vote. If I needed any other reasons, he's already run for 5 different elections in Illinois and we've rejected him 5 times; a 6th one won't be much of a stretch for us. Burris should enjoy his 2 years as a tainted Senator. That's all he's going to get.

Diane from Illinois (Sent Wednesday, January 14, 2009 10:30 AM)

If Burris runs in 2010, then he really needs to have his head examined. He was appointed under a cloud of suspicion. Everything he runs for after that might have some level of concern because he accepted an appointment of someone who was viewed as corrupt.

S.B.Stein E.B. NJ (Sent Wednesday, January 14, 2009 11:13 AM)

[[ The Tuesday Group, a collection of moderate GOP lawmakers, has seen its ranks diminish, but it has added more conservative members in the effort to keep a variety of perspectives in the group -- and to keep it alive. ]]

Maybe the Republicans will learn a lesson from the Democrats, where the Democrats have no moderate members. See you ranks of moderate memebers shinking Republicans. There's a reason for that, the country doesn't want moderators. Again, see the Democrats for details.

The Reach (Sent Wednesday, January 14, 2009 11:19 AM)

But Republicans remain dissatisfied with what they perceive as a lack of detail in the Obama team's guidelines for monitoring the funds.
-----------------------------------------------------
You mean like giving money to banks without strings attached, regulation or accountablility? This seems a bit hypocritical for the GOPers to expect detail and accountablility now when it was they who allowed and even campaigned in Congress for the unbridled donation to the lending institutions so they could hoard the money or play at country clubs or resorts.

eagle1776 (Sent Wednesday, January 14, 2009 12:24 PM)

SEND A COMMENT

PLEASE READ: All comments must be approved before appearing in the thread; time and space constraints prevent all comments from appearing. We will only approve comments that are directly related to the blog, use appropriate language and are not attacking the comments of others.

Message (please, no HTML tags. Web addresses will be hyperlinked):

Your name, city and state (John Doe, Seattle, Wash.):

Your e-mail address (jdoe@msnbc.com):

Your website (it's okay if you don't have one):

Remember me? (We'll keep it private) Remember me?

TRACKBACKS

Trackbacks are links to weblogs that reference this post. Like comments, trackbacks do not appear until approved by us. The trackback URL for this post is: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/trackback.aspx?PostID=1744617