Roland Burris has made an ass out himself and us, in no particular order.

The junior U.S. senator from Illinois, a Democrat let it be noted, now admits that he was deeper into conversations with representatives of the disgraced former governor, Rod Blagojevich, about his possible appointment to seat than he first said, under oath.

The admission was made in an affidavit that he had quietly filed with an Illinois House committee on Feb. 5, the same committee that he swore to that no Blagojevich emissary solicited him, at least not more than once, for cash (a $10,000 figure was mentioned) in exchange for his seat. His honest testimony to the committee was a condition demanded by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and others for their approval of his appointment.

Now, the question becomes: Did Burris commit perjury when he said in an affidavit: “there was not any contact between myself or any of my representatives with Gov. Blagojevich or any of his representatives” about the appointment prior to Dec. 26, when he met with a Blagojevich attorney. In his new affidavit, he said he actually had spoken with three of the former governor’s close associates.

Here’s another question for Reid, second-in-command Sen. Dick Durbin and other Democratic big shots: Are you going to sit there and take this? Will you expel Burris for darkening your door? Will you investigate it, or slip it under the rug?

Just how wrong was the story that Burris told these guys? During Burris’ Jan. 8 testimony before the Illinois House impeachment committee, Burris admitted that he had expressed an interest in the Senate seat to Blagojevich’s former chief of staff Lon Monk. Asked pointedly at the hearing if he had met with Blagojevich’s brother, Robert, about the seat, Burris denied it.

Now comes Burris with the admission that, oh yeah, Robert Blagojevich had phoned him three times, as early as October before Barack Obama was even elected president, about fund-raising. Burris said in his latest version that he couldn’t contribute to the governor’s campaign “because it could be viewed as an attempt to curry favor with him regarding his decision to appoint a successor to President Obama.”

Let’s be clear: Burris is not confessing that he bought the seat, or that he contributed to or raised money for the campaign. But why wasn’t he fully forthcoming that he had also talked with three other Blagojevich insiders—former chief of staff and arrested John Harris, as well as Doug Scofield and John Wyma—about the matter? Burris explained in a statement Saturday he didn’t mention those conversations because he “was not given the opportunity to” during his House committee hearings.

My foot.
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Dennis Byrne is a regular contributor to the Chicago Daily Observer and a member of the editorial board.