Burris returns to Washington, won't quit

Embattled Sen. Roland Burris (D-Blagojevich) returned to Capitol Hill today. There are a lot of speculative reports out there, but the common thread among them is that the Chicago Democrat won't resign. Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times claims that a Burris spokesperson, probably the only one he has left, told her paper that Burris won't run for a full Senate term next year.

Meanwhile, Illinois' other senator, Springfield Democrat Dick Durbin, who once called for a special election to fill the Senate seat Burris now occupies, then said that his party--Durbin is the Senate's second-ranking Democrat--would refuse to seat anyone disgraced former Governor Rod Blagojevich appointed, today all but called for Burris to quit.

There's a lot the Senate Democrats can do--if they have the stomach for it--to force Burris out. They kick him off every committee he serves on, for starters. Most of the real work, or what passes for it in the Senate, is done at the committee level.

The Burris fiasco is a Democratic Party created mess. They should clean up after themselves.

Technorati tags: Blagojevich Illinois Politics corruption Illinois Democrats Durbin senate special election Roland Burris