roland burris

“Senate’s ruling on Burris affects seating Franken,” said a Star Tribune headline today. Not so, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told The Politico.
“People have gotten the certificate thing messed up,” Reid said, referring to documents said to be essential to taking office under state laws. “State of Illinois is an appointment. State of Minnesota is [...]

“We are hoping and praying that they will not be able to deny what the Lord has ordained,” Roland Burris said before his fateful trip to Washington. Now that Democrats in the U.S. Senate appear ready to join God in backing Burris’s appointment by Illinois Gov. Rod “Nothing but Blue Sky” Blagojevich to join their ranks, [...]

What fate might Al Franken have faced today had he tried to take his seat in the U.S. Senate today? Although unlikely, he could’ve ended up where Roland Burris did: shut out and in the rain. The senator appointed by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to fill the seat vacated by the election of President-elect Barack [...]

In the first week of the 111th Congress, Democrats already have themselves in a pickle. Party leaders hoping to block the appointment of Roland Burris to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate are pointing to the same legal technicality that Republicans hope to use to keep Al Franken from taking a seat of his own.

Roland Burris, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s pick to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate, should follow the example of former U.S. Sen. Dean Barkley of Minnesota by agreeing to serve only an abbreviated tenure. That’s the suggestion of The Nation magazine’s State of Change blog, which cites nascent impeachment efforts against the governor in [...]