Senator Burris, Your Time Is Up

Senator Roland Burris, your fifteen minutes are up. Appointed by the scandal-plagued Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, Burris at first seemed a not-serious choice.

But, once he assured everyone who would listen that his appointment had not been tainted by requests to raise cash or favors by the Governor or anyone who worked for him, Burris the first African American elected to state wide office in Illinois looked to be not so bad, except that Burris had not exactly been telling the truth.

Everyday this week his story has changed and the only thing that's clear is his ambition over rode his moral compass. That first instinct of many senators, to want to discard anyone appointed by Blagojevich, turned out to be the right one.

Senate democrats though were bullied by the right and the left, each ironically enough playing the race card. The lesson? No matter who Blagojevich appointed, they were sure to be suspect.