From the Trib: Dick Durbin: Burris should resign
Posted by admin on 24 Feb 2009 at 05:42 pm | Tagged as: Politics
Posted February 24, 2009 3:50 PM
by Mike Dorning and updated
Sen. Dick Durbin said today that he told Sen. Roland Burris that, if Durbin were in Burris’ shoes, he would resign.
But Burris, the junior and appointed senator from Illinois, told the senior senator from Illinois and No. 2 Democratic leader in the Senate that he would not resign, Durbin said.
“I told him that under the circumstances, I would resign,” Durbin told reporters after an hour-long meeting with Burris. “He said, ‘I’m not going to resign.’
“I can’t force him,” Durbin added.
Durbin said Burris refused to tell him whether or not he would run for election in 2010 Durbin said was “disappointed” in Burris’ conduct — in his failure to fully disclose dealings with the former governor who appointed him — and said he would not support Burris in any election bid. He said he would work with Burris as long as he remains in the Senate.
Durbin joins Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and others in suggesting the resignation of the senator appointed by the former and impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich after Burris acknowledged that he had tried to raise campaign money for the governor.
Burris (D-Ill.) left a 55-minute meeting with Durbin (D-Ill.), through a back door of Durbin’s office this afternoon.
Surrounded by reporters as he waited for an elevator and asked if he would resign or run for re-election in 2010, Burris said: “I’m under orders not to say anything.”
Asked whose orders, Burris responded that he was following his attorney’s instructions.
Burris had received a polite but not warm response as he returned to the Capitol today, with a phalanx of television cameras waiting for him outside his office.
Burris Returns
He spent most of the 15-minute vote standing by himself at a desk, apart from the throng of senators milling about in the well of the chamber catching up after the Senate’s one-week President’s Day break.
(It’s largely reporters who are paying the most attention to Sen. Roland Burris, above, returning to the Capitol. Tribune photo by Zbigniew Bzdak)
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Durbin each shook Burris’ hand, and Reid had a conversation with Burris lasting several minutes on the Senate floor. The majority leader could be seen gesturing with his hands as if enumerating points with his fingers, but a Reid spokesman said the two only exchanged courtesies and did not have a “substantive” conversation.
A spokesman for Burris denied a report that Burris is ready to give up on seeking election in 2010 for the seat he holds by appointment.
“Sen. Burris has made no decision about whether he will run in 2010,” said James O’Connor, a spokesman for Burris. Durbin and Reid spokesmen said they had not heard anything from Burris’ office about running in 2010. Durbin and Burris scheduled a meeting for 2:30 pm EST with a press availability planned afterward.