* Sometimes, a bit of pointed meannes works. Kurt Erickson’s column from the other day…
Sure, it’s been less than three weeks since Roland Burris was sworn in as Illinois’ new senator, but shouldn’t he – or at least someone in his office – respond to questions about how he’s going about his new job?
It took an impolite e-mail to Jason Erkes, a Chicago-based political strategist who apparently works for Burris, to get a response.
I asked Erkes if Burris was a chicken, afraid to answer questions from Illinois-based reporters. Was he taking a page from the now-impeached governor who appointed him to the office amidst a great deal of controversy?
Amazingly, after weeks of silence from the Burris camp, it took less than five minutes for Erkes to respond.
Erkes was clearly concerned about how Burris’ image would be portrayed in the media. He explained that the rookie senator has been too busy to do interviews. He’s been going to senator school. He’s been doing ethics training, which, after the way he was appointed, is probably not a bad thing.
In short, Burris has been just too busy learning how to be a senator to explain himself.
* Kurt Erickson today in the Pantagraph…
Illinois’ new U.S. senator is planning to visit a troubled downstate veterans’ hospital in the coming weeks.
A top aide to Roland Burris said Monday that the senator hopes to tour the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Marion during an upcoming break in congressional action.
No date for the visit was available Monday, but Burris’ acting chief of staff, Darrel Thompson, said the tour will be part of the Democrat’s role as a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. […]
Thompson said Burris isn’t going to Marion for publicity purposes. Rather, he said, “We’re going there to learn.”
At least Erickson got through to the chief of staff. Burris’ first Illinois press conference ought to be a hoot.
In fairness to Burris, however, I should note that Sen. Dick Durbin the other day offered up some pretty good reasons for the seeming confusion at Burris’ office, including the lack of staff, no posted e-mail address, nobody answering phones for a time, etc.
Senators usually pick staffers from people who worked on their campaigns, Durbin said, pointing out that Burris had no campaign. Senators also have three months between the election and their swearing in to make sure everything is in order. Burris had pretty much no time.
As far as the phone problem was concerned, Durbin said that the complaints arose during a period when conservative talk radio hosts were ginning people up to call their Senators against the stimulus bill. Burris, like almost everybody else, was swamped.