Obama praises Burris, backs Sen. Dems

Posted: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 5:43 PM by Domenico Montanaro

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
President-elect Obama praised Blagojevich-appointee Roland Burris, but backed Senate Democrats' statements "that they cannot accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat."

"Roland Burris is a good man and a fine public servant, but the Senate Democrats made it clear weeks ago that they cannot accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat," Obama said in a statement. "I agree with their decision, and it is extremely disappointing that Governor Blagojevich has chosen to ignore it. I believe the best resolution would be for the Governor to resign his office and allow a lawful and appropriate process of succession to take place. While Governor Blagojevich is entitled to his day in court, the people of Illinois are entitled to a functioning government and major decisions free of taint and controversy."

EMAIL THIS

Comments

Would Bush have done this if a GOP Governor was accused of a crime, but had not been convicted? Of course not. Obama has integrity and class!

Obama 08 & 12 (Sent Tuesday, December 30, 2008 5:54 PM)

This was great Great!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/30/zbigniew-brzezinski-calls_n_154211.html

ThisWasGreat (Sent Tuesday, December 30, 2008 6:02 PM)

This is bago's way of getting back at PE Obama for not supporting him when he was running for governor. Bago knows that who ever he picks will have a mark against them no matter if they are innocent. Bago is very very sick.

A New America (Sent Tuesday, December 30, 2008 6:04 PM)

Thank you, Barack

Burris is just tarnishing himself

It turns out that Burris did contribute to Blago and he fund raised for him

Blago should not be allowed to fill the Senator seat he wanted to sell

MSierra, SF (Sent Tuesday, December 30, 2008 6:07 PM)

Under the Supreme Court ruling in the Powell case, senators have no such power to 'accept' or 'reject' the election or appointment of their colleagues. There must be some way for the Senate to show disapproval of Blagojevich other than flouting the Constitution by pretending to have the right to choose who shall and shall not be the senator from Illinois. Understandably they are all frightened of being associated with Blagojevich in any way -- but they should answer his lawlessness with respect for law, not with more lawlessness.

TKD (Sent Tuesday, December 30, 2008 6:12 PM)

Ahh, the party line talk has begun. The Democrats all like Burris, but not who appointed him. But, how can the Democrats think Burris is that good if he's accepted the appointment from Blagojevich? Little bit of a paradox don't you think?

Para Dox, Atlanta GA (Sent Tuesday, December 30, 2008 6:20 PM)

An expected appointment. Burris's law firm of course has given tens of thousands of dollars to Blagojevichs campaign and the firm has gotten the appropriate amount of kickbacks in the form of state contracts.

To Play You Have To Pay (Sent Tuesday, December 30, 2008 6:22 PM)

B-Rod

Resign
It's time
Your mind is in another planet
B-Rod you are not understanding
B-Rod you should know to resign
For what
Because you're all shook up

Beverly in Chicago (Sent Tuesday, December 30, 2008 6:25 PM)

I think it important that Roland Burris mot be ruled out as successor to the senatorial seat, but that it be made clear that Governor Blagojevich will not be the person making the decision to appoint anyone to that position.

No Pardons for Blagojevich (Sent Tuesday, December 30, 2008 6:37 PM)

i agree that any appointment by g-rod should not be seated. it has nothing to do with color. it has to do with political integrity. integrity of the process not just mr. burres. not to mention that mr. burress has not been able to win an election nor re-election to one seat he has held in public office. it would weaken the democrats in 2010.

ace (Sent Tuesday, December 30, 2008 6:37 PM)

In America, our Laws are that We are innocent until proven guilty, and that until this Gov. is unseated he has the responsibility to appoint a successor to
the Senate on behalf of the people of Illinois; If the selection of Roland Burris is personally above reproach why would this concern the US Senate. How can these people justify denying the Rights of the citizens of Illinos qualified representation in the mist of an already Tragic situation. These so-called
Senate Democrats are Treading some dangerous political waters. The man (Roland Burris) is a qualified competentand honorable person who happens to be available and above the scandal and Black, I see no problem and neither would any honest person without a hidden agenda.

Max Barns (Sent Tuesday, December 30, 2008 6:56 PM)

I understand the reasoning behind the attitude of the senate in not accpecting Mr. Burris as an appointee, but what I don't understand is that this same senate was given the opportunity to request a vote by the citizens of Ill. but rejected that idea for the senate seat.

Now Blagojevich sees a loophole in this whole fiasco to stick it to the senate and probably will be deemed by the Supreme Court to be a legal address for the filling of the senate seat by the Gov.

So now the senate is back to the point of trying to get the original idea of having a vote for the seat again.

I think that the senate needs to get it's act together and figure out what they need to do about this situation and do it, because this guy is not going away on his on accord.

Plus even though I don't approve of this Gov.'s actions, I think he stirred the pot with this appointment and who he appointed.... And however this turns out, alot of minority votes are going to go south....

David Broom, Ft. Smith, Ar. (Sent Tuesday, December 30, 2008 7:31 PM)

I wonder if Obama will follow his own lead? Controversy doesn't fit in government. And weren't those guys that were doing the dirty business with the Governor, also working for Obama? Shhhhhhsh

Gov Overseer, every town USA (Sent Tuesday, December 30, 2008 8:30 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=1728095