Roland Burris Slept With a Dog Named Blago

The old saying goes something like this: "When you sleep with a dog, you'll likely get fleas."

No adage could better sum up the short, sad, Washington D.C. legacy of Roland Wallace Burris, currently the only black in the U.S. Senate and just the third in his state's history.

A veteran politician, Burris made his name in Illinois for being a solid, straightforward public servant with a sturdy, if unspectacular, record of accomplishments.

So as Burris announces that he won't be seeking another Senate term, it leads us to ask "So What?" During his seven months in office, Burris didn't distinguish himself on the legislative front. He laid low. All that comes to mind with his name since then is one word - scandal. ...

Burris destroyed his reputation, built over more than 30 years in public service, when he took the Senate job by the nomination of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, one of the sleaziest politicians to ever crawl onto a public ballot and win.

Maybe Burris thought his record of service would somehow protect him from the bad smell of the Blagojevich scandal. Maybe he was just looking for the generous U.S. Senate pension to make his retirement a little more comfortable.

Either way, he should have known it was going to turn out badly.

Once exposed on the national political stage, Burris looked like a little man overwhelmed by the circumstances around him. His answers to questions on whether he played Blagojevic's dirty little game to get the Senate seat raised even more questions. Even his political allies like Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) ran for cover.

The Burris Senate legacy isn't much different from that of Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, the first and only black woman elected to the U.S. Senate. Hopes were high that Braun could be a game-changing new face on the American political scene when she was elected in 1993. Unfortunately, her days were marked by scandal and ineffectiveness and she was swept from office after just one term.

But at least, Moseley Braun's failure came as somewhat of a surprise.

The failure of Burris on the national political stage was far easier to predict. When he laid down with a flea-ridden governor named Blagojevic, Burris sealed his fate.

_________________

Paul Shepard blogs the Democrat side of politics for Black Voices. He has been a journalist for 16 years on the national urban/minority affairs beat for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and for AP in Washington, D.C. He now runs his own public affairs firm, Shepard Strategic Communications.