RUSH: Yesterday morning in Washington, Obama held a press conference. An unidentified reporter said, ‘What about Roland Burris? Would you like to see him seated in your seat?’
OBAMA: That is a Senate matter, uh, but I know Roland Burris, obviously, uh, uh, I — he’s from my home state. I think, uh, he’s a fine public servant. If he gets seated, then I’m going to work with Roland Burris just like I work with all the other senators to make sure that the people of Illinois, uh, and the people of the country are served.
RUSH: Well, there’s a big problem with this, though. It has now been reported, and yeah, here it is. Obama pressured Harry Reid to seat Burris. The troublesome… Well, that’s the next story, but, yeah. It appeared that Obama pressured Reid to seat Burris. Obama, in all likelihood, did not tell the truth about leaving Burris up to the Senate. Now Burris may have committed a little perjury in his testimony. It’s not a big deal, but he had said he had never spoken with anybody about the seat, but he did, back in July. It was before pay-or-play came up. He did let it be known to somebody on Blago’s staff that he wanted the seat, back last summer, when he said he hadn’t done that. So Obama said, ‘Hey, it’s a Senate matter,’ but he might have said that because he wanted this ended.
‘Seat Burris. Get this over with. My Immaculate Inauguration is just around the corner! I can’t stand all these distractions. You get it done.’ Well, ladies and gentlemen, we have a huge problem that has developed. I myself predicted this on Monday or Tuesday when all of this folderol, fallout fell out, of Burris and Dingy Harry changing his mind on the dime and saying, ‘We’ll seat him.’ Remember, it was ‘Senate rules’ first, then was it ‘up to the Secretary of State in Illinois.’ Jesse White had to authorize it and sign off on it, then the court had to do this and do that, and I listened to Dingy Harry and everybody say, ‘Okay, this is solved! Burris will be seated,’ and I said, ‘Not so fast.’
This sounds like everybody has left themselves a couple or three outs here to get rid of this guy; ’cause the bottom line is, you know it and I know it, there is nobody in the power reaches of Illinois or Washington that want Roland Burris anywhere near the United States Senate or the drinking fountains or the bathrooms. Dingy Harry doesn’t want him there; Obama doesn’t want him there, except to get rid of the distraction. They punted this down the road until Illinois had to come up with the right procedures. Now, before we give you the latest news on this, a couple sound bites from Burris himself yesterday in Springfield. He testified before the Illinois House impeachment committee hearing. Jim Durkin, Republican, statehouse, and Roland Burris had this exchange.
DURKIN: At any time were you directly or indirectly aware of a quid pro quo with the governor for the appointment of this vacant Senate seat?
BURRIS: No, sir.
DURKIN: Prior to his arrest, did you have any conversations with the governor about your desire to be appointed to the seat?
BURRIS: No.
RUSH: See, this is under oath and it’s been learned that he did send out a feeler last summer. However, Blago’s Senate appointee Roland Burris testifying again had this exchange with Democrat Mary Flowers in the Illinois Statehouse.
BURRIS: He came to my home, and we exchanged pleasantries and then he said, ‘The governor would be interested — or would like to appoint you to the vacant Senate seat.’
FLOWERS: No quid pro quo, none of that?
BURRIS: Absolutely, positively not. I would not participate in anybody’s quid pro quo. I’ve been in government for 20 years and never participated in anybody’s quid pro quo.
RUSH: But he did let it be known that he wanted the seat. So this provides a little bit of problem. The big problem, ladies and gentlemen — it’s so sad. ‘In a dramatic display of anger and solidarity over a political scandal that has made Illinois a national laughingstock, lawmakers on Friday voted 114-1 to impeach [Blago]. It’s the first time in the state’s history that’ this has happened. What’s not being mentioned, at least I haven’t seen it anywhere, is now that the impeachment vote has been taken; the secretary of state, Jesse White, doesn’t have to sign any authorization sending Burris to the Senate. Now that Blago’s vote has taken place, they can wait and get who they want there or go to the Senate or whatever. So, last Tuesday I told you it wasn’t quite up all the way to the top of the mountain here, and it appears that the process for Roland Burris has really slowed down.
(playing slow version of Movin’ On Up)
The climb is looking tougher. You slow down the higher you go. Oxygen gets thinner. Nowhere else to go.
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BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, there has been movement in the case of Roland Burris. Earlier today, it was looking bleak for Burris. Dingy Harry had left himself an out on Monday, saying that they had to certify this guy’s nomination and his appointment in the state of Illinois. They had to get that done because the Senate… Then Dingy Harry punted because they want to get this thing off the radar. They want to punt it down the road because they don’t like being called racists, and it’s an interruption into the Immaculate Inauguration of Obama. So today when the Illinois House voted to impeach Blagojevich, it appeared to many that Burris’ road to the top had slowed considerably.
(playing of slow version of Movin’ On Up)
RUSH: That was earlier today where it was looking bleak for Roland Burris. However, ladies and gentlemen, the Illinois Supreme Court — in throwing a screwball back at Dingy Harry and the United States Senate — says there is nothing in state law that requires Jesse White, the Secretary of State, to sign the appointment. The Supreme Court said that nothing else needs to be done to make Burris’ appointment valid.
(song continues)
RUSH: I really hope Burris is using Zicam. He’s moving on up real fast. He’s changing environments real fast.
(song continues)
RUSH: Can you just see Henry Waxman using Zicam? Oh, would I love a picture of Henry Waxman using Zicam! Extra large swab, yeah. You’d need a lot of Zicam.
(song continues)
RUSH: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Henry Waxman using Zicam Cold Remedy! That stuff, you wonder if it would work on Waxman, ’cause those are huge nostrils. See, what you do is you take the cotton swab, and you swab just the inside of your nostril for five seconds, and then you reload and do it in the other nostril. You hold your nose five seconds like that or so. But I wonder if the average Zicam cotton swab has enough medication to treat Henry Waxman. Regardless, I’d love to see him try.