Resign, Sen. Burris

CHICAGO (AP) — Just as Illinois was moving past the agony and embarrassment of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's ousting, the fellow Democrat whom Blagojevich appointed to the U.S. Senate was hearing calls for his own resignation Sunday amid allegations he lied to legislators.

Freshman Sen. Roland Burris released an affidavit on Saturday that contradicts his statements last month to a House committee investigating Blagojevich's impeachment.

"I can't believe anything that comes out of Mr. Burris at this point," Rep. Jim Durkin, the impeachment committee's ranking Republican, said at a news conference Sunday. "I think it would be in the best interest of the state if he resigned because I don't think the state can stand this anymore."

Old Dem standard-bearer Dawn Clark Netsch flabbergasted:

It's not clear what action state legislators could now take against Burris, said Northwestern University law professor and former Illinois Comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch.

"I'm not aware that anything quite like this has happened in any state before," she said.

If he doesn't resign we need a special election. I am so sick of these crooks. And Northwestern--he'd better not end up there as a professor please. What is it--a graveyard for old Dem politicos? We already have unrepentant domestic terrorist Bernardine Dohrn fouling the neighborhood.

UPDATE: Tribune:

The comments come in the wake of the Feb. 5 amended affidavit that Burris, a Democrat, quietly sent to Impeachment Investigative Committee Chair Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago.) [snip]

Durkin said he would ask the now-dormant impeachment committee to refer the matter to Sangamon County State's Atty. John Schmidt, a Republican. Durkin and Cross said that if the committee does not seek the criminal investigation, they might ask for one themselves.

Cross, meanwhile, was angered that Currie did not circulate the new affidavit.

"I think the fact that this affidavit gets buried, or hidden, is very problematic," Cross said.

The lawyer who led the impeachment of ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich said today it's unclear why U.S. Sen. Roland Burris left out details in sworn testimony about how he got the Senate seat but that doesn't mean Burris committed perjury.

One question is whether Burris intended to leave out information when he testified under oath to the House committee investigating Blagojevich, said David Ellis, the Democratic lawyer who oversaw the impeachment hearings in the House and prosecuted the Senate trial that removed the governor.

House Republicans are calling for a perjury investigation into Burris because he failed to disclose he talked with multiple Blagojevich allies about the Senate seat and was hit up by Blagojevich's brother, Robert, to hold a fundraiser for the governor.

If Burris misspoke or had a lapse of memory, that would not necessarily constitute perjury, Ellis told WGN-AM today.

"I think that Sen. Burris would be the first one to say that he did not give a complete answer in hindsight, and that's why he's giving an amended affidavit," Ellis said.

In another curious twist, Ellis said Burris' new affidavit--dated Feb. 5 -- didn't reach the office of House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie until last Wednesday. Currie (D-Chicago) chaired the impeachment committee. Both Burris and Blagojevich are Democrats.

Rep. Jim Durkin, the ranking Republican who questioned Burris during the hearing, reiterated today that the GOP was kept in the dark about Burris' latest change in his evolving story until Friday.