[Updated, comments open and bumped up for visibility.]
* The CBS2 story about Sen. Roland Burris preparing to announce his campaign yesterday has disappeared from the station’s website and has been replaced by a different story. Sen. Burris’ PR flak says Burris is still deciding….
Delmarie Cobb, Burris’ political director, said Burris was still deciding whether to run in the 2010 Senate Democratic primary.
“We always said he was going to take it one step at a time . . . and one of the things he had to weigh were the perjury charges hanging over his head. Now that the perjury charges have gone away, that does not make the decision for him, that was certainly one of the steps in the process.”
But about a dozen people forwarded me a Burris fundraising e-mail yesterday which was originally sent by Cobb’s company and included this header logo…
Notice what’s in the upper right corner?
The same logo is used at Burris’ campaign website…
Welcome to the “Support Burris 2010” Web site.
*** UPDATE *** Burris spoke at an honors luncheon for African-American students and pretty much showed what his campaign will be based on should he run…
…Burris also spoke to the students, telling the audience it was “outrageous” that the Senate has only two Hispanic senators and one black.
“And that’s me,” he said. “And friends, we might not have any black in the Senate if I’m not there. But that’s another story.”
* And Mark Brown has some good insights…
[Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Schmidt] appears to have been thorough and fair, just as Burris says, but the Chicago Democrat overclaims when he says Schmidt’s decision confirms he got his Senate seat “in an honest and legal way.” Legal, maybe. Honest, no way.
It’s still plain as day Burris intentionally misled everyone about his dalliances with disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich in pursuit of the Senate seat until the job was safely his. It’s just not nearly so clear that he committed the very specific act of knowingly making a false statement while being questioned under oath.
Schmidt, a Republican, said Burris’ incomplete answers to the broad questions asked of him by legislators didn’t amount to perjury, explaining that the burden was on them to pin him down. They’ll know better next time.
It’s better this way anyhow.
The last thing the people of this state needed right now was a sensational but marginal prosecution of a public official who has already shown his willingness to turn his tribulations into a racial cause.
* Related…
* No proof for perjury
* Roland Burris: ‘I never perjured myself’
* Burris feels vindicated by probe’s end
* SJ-R opinion: Burris will be judged in court of public opinion
* Former Blagojevich Fundraiser Faces Sentencing
* Former Blagojevich fundraiser to be sentenced today
* Patty B. tugging heart strings, mine included