...this statement is nonsense:

From Joan Walsh

Bitter Scribe, I would love to disagree with you, but...I remember Roland Burris as being singularly unhelpful (for a black Democrat) to Harold Washington during the Council Wars. There really is no one like Washington (except, sometimes, Obama) since Washington...

I'm surprised that Joan has gotten caught up in the Chicago mentality which refuses to understand that "just outside Chicago there's a state called Illinois" and politicians from outside Chicago had nothing to do with Chicago City Council battles--with or without Harold Washington at the helm--except to sit back and observe. Roland Burris is from Centralia--which is in southern Illinois--and didn't move to Chicago until well after Washington's death. Plus, he served in a state office, not a city one. Moreover, what influence would Burris have had with power-hungry racists opposed to Mayor Washington - both democrat and republican - anyhow????

Furthermore, President-elect Obama also has been outside the realm of Chicago City Council politics, having chosen to run for state and then for national offices.

Finally, to say there was/is no other African-American like Washington serving in Illinois negates others like current Secretary of State Jesse White and, of course, former Attorney General Roland Burris.

I dislike Blagojevich. I hope he gets the book thrown at him several times over. But I have to admit that he's making this situation more interesting by the day.

And I hate to see good people like Senator Dick Durbin, IL SoS Jesse White, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn and others get caught up in what appears now to be a behind-the-scenes power struggle rather than an ethical and/or legal issue. An acceptable and well-qualified person has been appointed. Let him!

Roland W. Burris (born August 3, 1937 in Centralia, Illinois) is the first African-American elected to any statewide office in Illinois. Burris served as IL Comptroller from 1979 to 1991 and as IL Attorney General from 1991 to 1995. Prior to becoming an elected official, he worked for the U.S. Treasury Dept. and as head of the Illinois state agency responsible for day-to-day operations of the government, the Dept. of Central Management Services. He also served in a staff leadership role in Operation Push, and maintained a private law practice. Roland Burris now has a political consulting firm called Burris & Lebed Consulting, LLC. and probably does attend ballet performances because he's very much a part of the Chicago social scene (most recently having served as a board member of the Auditorium Theater of Chicago from 2001 to 2006), as well as the Chicago business scene.

Burris has a long record of professional affiliations, serving in many local, state and national leadership positions over the years.

He's a senior statesman within the Illinois Democrat party and within the African-American community statewide. He's not a cutthroat type person, he's well-education, has a good record of public service, and has stayed in touch with government issues.

He's as well qualified as....say....Valerie Jarrett (who has held NO public office)....to serve out the remaining term of President-elect Barack Obama.

I think he will serve the people of IL well as a caretaker of the IL junior senator position in the U.S. Senate for the remaining two years of that term.

...who was recently elected to the highest office in the land. Yes. Barack Obama. Although he hasn't yet (I think) installed a headstone in a Chicago cemetery, Obama has certainly created permanent monuments to himself in the form of autobiographies. Obama, if one follows his career, clearly forged a path toward where he is today. Not unlike Roland Burris who, unfortunately, was unable to achieve the position of IL Governor because it wasn't the right time for him, an African-American, to be elected to that post.

For those prone to take things out of context, here's the full quote from that "I am the greatest" comment: Grossman concluded her article with a swell anecdote about Burris once performing as Muhammad Ali in a skit before journalists, lobbyists and politicians. "Wearing shorts and boxing gloves, he wasn't shy about repeating one of Ali's famous lines: 'I am the greatest.'"

Roland Burris IS NOT A JERK. He's a decent man and a skilled politician. What's more, criticism by the likes of David Axelrod only enhances his esteem in my eyes. I'd much rather see SENATOR Roland Burris in the U.S. Capitol than behind-the-scenes manipulator Axelrod who, undoubted, will be there fulfilling some as-yet-undisclosed (and definitely unaccountable) role in the Obama administration.

...here's what I posted on Roland Burris' background and experience today:

Roland W. Burris (born August 3, 1937 in Centralia, Illinois) is the first African-American elected to any statewide office in Illinois. Burris served as IL Comptroller from 1979 to 1991 and as IL Attorney General from 1991 to 1995. Prior to becoming an elected official, he worked for the U.S. Treasury Dept. and as head of the Illinois state agency responsible for day-to-day operations of the government, the Dept. of Central Management Services. He also served in a staff leadership role in Operation Push, and maintained a private law practice. Roland Burris now has a political consulting firm called Burris & Lebed Consulting, LLC. and...he's very much a part of the Chicago social scene...as well as the Chicago business scene.

Burris has a long record of professional affiliations, serving in many local, state and national leadership positions over the years.

He's a senior statesman within the Illinois Democrat party and within the African-American community statewide. He's not a cutthroat type person, he's well-educated, has a good record of public service, and has stayed in touch with government issues...

I believe he's only a few years older than the Senior Senator from IL, close in age to Senate President Harry Reid, just a few school grades ahead of Vice President-elect Joe Biden-----none of whom are balancing on the edge of dementia (as some have alluded to here).