Two Views on the Burris Controversy

The conflict over Barack Obama’s former Senate seat heated up this week when Roland Burris was turned away by Capitol Hill leaders. The drama, sparked by embattled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s unexpected appointment of Burris last week, has raised a variety of questions–about race and identity politics, about voter disenfranchisement, and about the pervasive corruption that permeates our state and national politics.
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Lord, Have Mercy

It’s not a great time to be from Illinois. Yesterday a friend of mine, a native Chicagoan who now lives in New Jersey, IM’d me with this: “Geez, what’s wrong with your politicians out there?” She seemed to happily forget that she, too, is from the Land of Lincoln (and Blagojevich).
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