Illinois Senator Roland Burris, chosen to fill Barack Obama’s Senate seat by disgraced Governor Rod Blagoyevich, has become the center of controversy due to the new revelations that he apparently was involved in trying to raise campaign funds for the now former Governor. It seems that he did not tell the whole truth about his association with the governor in his testimony before the Illinois General Assembly after being picked by Blagoyevich late last year.Â
The whole matter has become a circus and an embarrassment and adds to the bad image that Illinois has developed in the past few months. It is clear that, with a cloud of scandal and suspicion hanging heavily, Senator Burris needs to restore the dignity of his home state and the Senate and resign immediately.
We do not need any more bad images about appointed senators, and again, as stated in an earlier entry, Senator Russ Feingold’s proposal to have an amendment providing for special elections for vacant Senate seats should be pursued seriously. Even the new Illinois Governor, Pat Quinn, has proposed a special law to provide now for an election to fill the Senate seat. It is time to resolve this issue in a expeditious way!