Durbin: I Won't Support Burris Again (VIDEO)

Illinois' senior Senator Dick Durbin said Wednesday he would not support his embattled colleague Roland Burris for a second term in 2010.

On Tuesday a transcript of a telephone call between Burris and Robert Blagojevich, the brother of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and head of his campaign fund, revealed that Burris offered to "personally do something" for Blagojevich's campaign fund while pursuing the Senate seat.

Burris flatly denied Wednesday that he participated in a pay-to-play scheme in exchange for the seat. But Burris' claims of innocence aren't enough for Durbin, who said that he is "disappointed" by Burris and would not back him again.

"I met with him after the information came out about his conversations and told him how disappointed I was because, you know, we stuck our neck out for him," Durbin said after an appearance in Des Plaines. "And I just don't think his testimony in Springfield was complete and accurate."

Comments

[greenie 61]

Burris' first mistake was accepting the appointment from a disgraced, soon to be impeached governor. That alone should have disqualified him from the job. Everyone else who had a lick of common sense, preferred to wait until Blago was sent down the road. His selfish ambitions are coming back to bite him in the a.r.s.e. I don't feel sorry for him & will welcome his replacement.

[tttom]

Burris wanted to be Senator and got his wish. But the fact is if anyone here were to sneak into the Senate chambers at night, pull up a chair and claim to the night watchman to be a U.S. Senator from the State of Confusion, except for one single technicality and probably a small fine, we'd be a more legitimate Senator than Burris and certainly a more honorable one.

[ebroadcast]

He's a lying sack of doo-doo.

[illinoisan]

Sen. Durbin & the rest of the Senate leadership relented on seating Burris only after the Obama administration, namely Rahm & Axelrod, made it clear to the senators that they wanted control of their news cycle back.

[Charmed]

I always thought Burris was dirty and couldn't understand why people were against people saying that he shouldn't be seated....­..they turned it into "but there will be no blacks in the senate"...­..well where is bobby rush now!

[listentome]

Unless there is more to be released I haven't seen or heard anything that absolutely incriminates Burris. He statements really could be interpreted in two ways depending on what you want them to mean.

[stell]

You weren't going to support him anyway Durbin. You only did after you were pressured into doing so. We know that you and Harry Reid didn't want him or JJ Jr., to occupy that Senate seat in the first place.

[mjb5406]

So what's your point? Burris has no business being a senator. Period.

[naschkatze]

I agree with you about Burris, but that said, Durbin is a wishy-washy fink who always backtracks when he gets a little heat.