“An army of asses led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by an ass” George Washington
Here in Illinois the public imagination is too often overwhelmed by the number and quality of asses in public service. Mindless trimmers and fatuous dummies flock to elected office and seek out the news media.
Most public servants are solid women and men. The best of them appear in crises and get things done.
Republican James Durkin is one such Illinois Representative. When he picked apart Roland Burris and his three attorneys during the Impeachment hearings of Rod Blagojevich, Roe Conn and his posse laughed at Durkin on WLS. 'I can not believe this guy is lawyer!'
However Durkin was the only serious challenge to Burris by any political Party's official.
Today, it appears that Jim Durkin is a the lion among the asses.
"I can't believe anything that's coming from Mr. Burris, at this point," said State Rep. Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs). "... I think it would be in the best interest of the state if he resigned."
"If you have that much of a memory problem, maybe you shouldn't be in the United States Senate, on a capacity basis," added state Republican leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego.)
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.)
In the new affidavit, Burris said that former governor Rod Blagojevich's brother, Robert Blagojevich, called him three times seeking fundraising assistance.
In addition, Burris said he spoke with three other close associates of the governor and a labor leader with ties to the Blagojevich administration about being appointed to the Senate. Burris previously acknowledged only having spoken to one such friend.
"We talked about transparency, we talked about ethics," Durkin said at the downtown Chicago news conference Sunday afternoon. "The fact is, we're getting a continuously changing story from Mr. Burris."
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.
1 comment:
Mark Brown has a good column on Durkin too. He notes Burris wasn't the guy on trial and there was a push not to ask him any tough questions to begin with... Durkin was the only one.
There is plenty we don't know about what's gone on... Springfield rushed to dump Blagojevich instead of doing a real investigation.
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