Analysis: Burris the perjurer or a smooth talker?

[May 29, 2009]  CHICAGO (AP) -- Roland Burris said he went from the political doldrums to the U.S. Senate with integrity intact, never offering campaign money to coax then-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich into appointing him.

At least that was what he told a state legislative committee after Blagojevich named him to the seat on Capitol Hill that was vacated by President Barack Obama's election.

But a newly released tape of an FBI wiretap suggested the 71-year-old junior senator from Illinois left out vital facts in sworn statements to the lawmakers, including talking about campaign money with Blagojevich's brother and flirting with the notion of raising funds under a law partner's name to hide Burris' role.

That was a slip of the tongue, Burris said as he tried to explain the apparent discrepancies. He claimed he meant to say he would urge law partner Timothy Wright to make a campaign contribution.

And he said the talk about campaign funds with Blagojevich's brother Robert in the Nov. 13 wiretapped conversation wasn't really serious.

"This is a way I was placating the governor," Burris said Wednesday.

A prosecutor in Springfield was looking into charging Burris with perjury. His own words show that he left out key facts he should have mentioned and engaged in a bit of old-fashioned weasel-wording, too.

"He showed that he knew what pay-to-play was all about, but he knew that people were watching and he chose his words very carefully," Chicago political consultant Don Rose said after reading the wiretap transcript.

Burris was guaranteed to touch off a political firestorm the day he accepted appointment to Obama's former Senate seat from a governor who had been already charged with extortion and fraud and was on the brink of impeachment. Blagojevich was later indicted and ousted from office.

Suspicious state lawmakers, who called Burris before the same House committee that heard evidence in Blagojevich's impeachment, were told that he hadn't had any contact with the governor's camp until Dec. 26 when he was offered the Senate job. He later testified that he had mentioned his interest in the Senate to former Blagojevich chief of staff Alonzo Monk.

On Feb. 4, he submitted a revised affidavit saying he also spoke with Robert Blagojevich, who was managing the governor's campaign fund.

He said Robert Blagojevich asked him to raise funds but he refused, saying it wouldn't be proper to do so since he was interested in the Senate appointment. But the wiretap showed Robert Blagojevich asked for a campaign check, a request that Burris promised to "personally do something, OK."

But Burris told reporters Thursday that "when I hung up the phone, I said, 'I can't even do that.'"

Critics say they're not buying it.

"I believe that he committed perjury before the committee and should be investigated aggressively," said state Rep. Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs. The Sangamon County state's attorney has started a preliminary investigation to determine if perjury charges may be warranted.

The federal court also was forwarding the tape to the Senate ethics committee, which is conducting its own preliminary investigation. It could start the process of having Burris thrown out of the Senate, although that prospect seems unlikely.

Even before the tape was released Tuesday, Burris was hard put to explain the contradictions in his multiple versions of what took place. He told reporters that if he had been asked at the hearing about the phone call with the governor's brother, he "would have dealt with those things."

Perjury cases are notoriously hard to prove, and the U.S. Senate is notoriously slow in dealing with corruption charges against fellow lawmakers. But it may be enough to kill off any lingering hopes on Burris' part that he might get elected to the Senate seat.

"It's a very heavy rock to put on an already wobbly canoe," said Paul Green, director of Roosevelt University's School of Policy Studies.

[Associated Press; By MIKE ROBINSON]

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