Thought Docket

Wikipedia has this to say about Simon Cameron

Simon Cameron (March 8, 1799 - June 26, 1889)  was an American politician who served as United States Secretary of War for Abraham Lincoln at the start of the American Civil War. After making his fortune in railways and banking, he turned to a life of politics. He became a U.S. senator in 1845 for the state of Pennsylvania, succeeding James Buchanan. Originally a Democrat, he failed to secure a nomination for senator from the Know-Nothing party, and joined the People’s Party, the Pennsylvania branch of what became the Republican Party. He won the Senate seat in 1857, and became one of the candidates for the Republican nomination in the election of 1860.

Cameron gave his support to Abraham Lincoln, and became his Secretary of War. He only served a year before resigning amidst corruption…

Corruption? Hmm. That is ironic, because Cameron is credited with one of my favorite quotations

An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought.

By that definition, we don’t know, now, whether that &%@* head Blagojevich is honest or not. He may or may not be honest, but as of today, he has been impeached by the Illinois House. In his news conference today, that &%@* head Blago was directly addressing the jury pool as he characterized the impeachment as retaliation by the House for Blago’s crimes of trying to help people

From the very moment of my re-election, I’ve been engaged in a struggle with the House to get things done for the people.

The House has stood in the way of letting that happen.

The House has failed to act, so the House’s actions and the cause of the impeachment are because I’ve done things to fight for families who are with me today.

You have to admit, that &%@* head Blago is playing Illinois and Washington for fools. He’s just one ring short of a three-ring circus. Currently, we have one ring in Illinois and one in Washington, DC.

The ring in Washington is led by the ringmaster, Roland Burris. By all accounts, Burris is a nice enough man with a very nice resume of both private and public service. The Democrats in Washington, so smug a week ago or so, now appear to be resigned to the fact that Burris will be the junior Senator of Illinois. Burris met their paltry demands, which included an appearance before the Blago impeachment committee of legislators in Springfield, Illinois. The purpose was to explain that there was no quid pro quo for his appointment to the Senate. This statement by Burris fully satisfied Harry Reid

There is certainly no pay-to-play involved, because I don’t have no money.

Well, that settles it, doesn’t it. Uhhh, no! Lest us forget, we are talking about Chicago politics here. There is not no such thing as no pay-to-play!

We are supposed to take Burris’ double negative as a single negative and accept that he just does not have the financial resources to run with the big dogs. But what if Burris really was an honest politician, so honest, in fact, that the double negative is correct. Maybe Burris is rolling in the dough? Let’s see, according to this article in the Chicago Sun Times, Burris has all sorts of current and future income sources

• $169,300 salary as US senator.
• $70,000 for serving on the board of directors of Inland Real Estate Corp. He will need to give this up upon joining the Senate.
• $118,000 annual pension from the State of Illinois.
• Six-figure retainer as a lawyer with the Milwaukee law firm of Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan, which has enjoyed a big bump in its Illinois bond counsel work since Burris came aboard in 2007 as a rainmaker for government business. He will need to give this up upon joining the Senate.
• And let’s not forget his lobbying firm, Burris & Lebed Consulting.

According to this CNN article

Illinois state records show that Burris, who once ran against Blagojevich for the Democratic nomination for governor, and his lobbying firm have contributed more than $20,000 to the governor’s political campaigns.

Two years ago, Burris hosted a $1,000-per-plate fundraiser for Blagojevich.

What’s more, Burris’ consulting firm, Burris & Lebed Consulting, has won nearly $300,000 in state contracts over the past four years.

Finally, the governor’s wife, Patti, was hired in September to an $80,000-a-year job with the Chicago Christian Industrial League, where Burris’ lobbying partner is a board member.

I don’t see no evidence of pay-to-play, do you?

Here is the Illinois State Board of Elections Contributions Search page. Just plug in Burris in the Last or Only Name field and click on Search. Here are some examples of the more than 80 entries that come up for Roland Burris

Burris, Roland
8358 S. Indiana Ave.
Chicago, IL 60619
Occupation: Corporate Officer
Employer: Burris & Lebed

Burris, Roland
8358 South Indiana
Chicago, IL 60619

BURRIS, ROLAND
8358 S INDIANA AVE
CHICAGO, IL 60619

Burris & Lebed Consullting LLC
35 East Wacker Dr
Chicago, IL 60601

Burris & Lebed Consulting
1130 S Wabash
Chicago, IL 60605

Burris and Reed Consulting
35 W. Wacker
Chicago, IL 60601

Burris, Roland
8358 S. Indiana Ave
Occupation: Corp. Officer
Employer: Burris and Lebed

It’s obvious. Burris didn’t not pay-to-play. ’nuff said?

B&B No P2P

This entry was posted on Friday, January 9th, 2009 at 9:09 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.