WASHINGTON — The Senate ethics committee on Friday admonished Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., for making “inconsistent, misleading or incomplete” statements about the circumstances surrounding his appointment to the seat once held by Barack Obama. The committee didn’t recommend any punishment.

Burris was appointed by disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was impeached and driven from office after he was accused of trying to sell the Senate seat.

The committee’s “Public Letter of Qualified Admonition” told Burris that while it found no violations of law, “Senators must meet a much higher standard of conduct.”

The committee wrote Burris that his phone conversation with the former governor’s brother was inappropriate. It says Robert Blagojevich called Burris on Nov. 13, 2008, seeking to raise funds for his brother, and Burris appeared to agree to write a check while also bringing up his desire to seek the Senate seat.

Burris is not running for a full term.

RELATED STORIES

Burris Offered To Send Blago Money In Secretly Taped Phone Call

Senate Will Seat Burris

From The Root:

When Illinois Sen. Roland Burris took office almost a year ago, he already appeared to be a lame-duck politician.

After being appointed by the shady Gov. Rod Blagojevich in late December, Burris found himself shrouded in a haze of suspicion and controversy. With such a troubled introduction to national politics, it seemed as if “Blago’s boy” was little more than a political eunuch.

But the hard-knuckle Chicago politician seized his moment a few weeks ago when he proclaimed that he wouldn’t sign a health care bill that didn’t include a public option. With that, he not only propelled himself into prime time, landing spots on C-SPAN, MSNBC and Fox, but he also made himself relevant.

The landmark bill that passed the House on Saturday likely included a government-sponsored plan because of Burris. It now has to pass the Senate, which will be a challenge for the Democrats, who have no room for error in their quest for a 60-vote majority.

But if they can pull it off, Burris could emerge as the savior of the public option.

Click here to read more.

RELATED STORIES

Senate Will Seat Burris

Burris Offered To Send Blago Money In Secretly Taped Phone Call

Hitting the national scene under the scandal of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, Sen. Roland Burris is now making new headlines by saying he will not sign a health care reform bill WITHOUT a public option.

Sen. Burris will be sitting down with Roland Martin for this week’s show and we want YOUR question.

Submit your question for Sen. Burris HERE.

Hitting the national scene under the scandal of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, Sen. Roland Burris is now making new headlines by saying he will not sign a health care reform bill WITHOUT a public option.

Sen. Burris will be sitting down with Roland Martin for this week’s show and we want YOUR question.

Submit your question for Sen. Burris HERE.

A car crash is responsible for the death of a key player in the controversy surrounding U.S. Senator Roland Burris and former governor Rod Blagojevich.

Political consultant John Ruff died on Monday afternoon when his BMW convertible smashed into a tree in Kendall County in northeast Illinois.

Police say they don’t know why Ruff drove off the road, but alcohol isn’t to blame.

Ruff was connected to both Senator Burris and Blagojevich through his work on health care issues.

He told the Sun-Times in March that there may have been some pay-to-play between Burris and Blagojevich over the Senate seat.

Before he died, Ruff said that the only way to uncover the truth was to continue investigations into how Burris got his job.

Prosecutors in Sangamon County and a Senate ethics panel are still looking into the Burris Senate appointment.

From the New York Times:

CHICAGO — A transcript of a secretly recorded telephone call released on Tuesday revealed the degree to which Roland W. Burris aggressively and openly pursued an appointment to the United States Senate with those close to Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois, who went on to appoint Mr. Burris last year before he was removed from the job.

Mr. Burris, who was appointed to succeed Barack Obama in the Senate, is now the subject of two investigations. In the call, he seemed almost in a crass negotiation with Mr. Blagojevich’s brother — also his chief fund-raiser — over how he could help the governor, win the appointment and not run into trouble over negative connotations that he might be trying to buy an appointment by fund-raising for him.

“If I do that, I guarantee you that that will get out, and people said, ‘Oh, Burris is doing a fund-raiser,’ and, and then Rod and I both going to catch hell,” Mr. Burris said in a phone call shortly after the presidential election that opened the Senate seat held by Mr. Obama. By the end of the call, Mr. Burris had promised to send a personal check within a month.

“God knows, No. 1, I want to help Rod,” he was recorded as saying. “No. 2, I also want to, you know, hope I get a consideration to get that appointment.”

At another point, Mr. Burris reminded the governor’s brother, “Tell Rod to keep me in mind for that seat, would you?”

Mr. Burris’s lawyer, Timothy Wright, said the call, captured as part of a larger federal investigation into Mr. Blagojevich, proves that Mr. Burris was not part of any “pay to play” efforts the former governor has been accused of in a federal indictment, including that he tried to sell the Senate appointment for money.

Click here for more.

From Sam Stein at The Huffington Post:

By admitting that he tried, without success, to raise money for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich prior to Blagojevich appointing him to the U.S. Senate, Sen. Roland Burris has exposed himself to whole new set of complex and potentially damaging legal hurdles, ethics lawyers say.

To read more, click here.

U.S. Sen. Roland Burris has acknowledged trying to raise money for ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich before being appointed to the Senate.

According to a transcript posted on the Chicago Tribune’s Web site, Burris told reporters Monday night in Peoria that after the ex-governor’s brother called him, he talked to some friends about putting together a fundraiser.

Burris says he told Rob Blagojevich shortly after the November election that he couldn’t get anyone to contribute.

Burris testified to a committee that recommended impeaching the governor that he had told only one Blagojevich associate he was interested in being senator and never offered anything in return.

But he released an affidavit over the weekend indicating he had spoken to four others, and that he was asked for fundraising help.

Read The Chicago Tribune’s Report

The new Illinois senator is expected to be sworn into office later this week.

“I really never doubted that I would be seated,” Burris said in a nationally broadcast television interview Tuesday. “It was just a matter of going through the process and making sure that the Senate rules were abided by,” he said.

Asked on NBC’s “Today” show about any role that Obama might have played in softening the opposition to his seating by Senate Democratic leaders Harry Reid and Dick Durbin, Burris said, “I have no knowledge of what the president-elect did.”

Reid and Durbin made the announcement of acceptance in a joint statement Monday, saying Burris “is now the senator-designate from Illinois and, as such, will be accorded all the rights and privileges of a senator-elect.”

Burris, in turn, called himself honored and humbled to be the state’s newest senator. “I’m thankful for the opportunity to serve,” he said at a news conference in Chicago. “I recognize that my appointment triggered a challenging time for many.”

The development prevented the impasse that has plagued Democrats from dragging on into Obama’s inauguration festivities, and it capped a gradual retreat by the Senate’s top Democrats.

They had initially tried to dissuade Blagojevich, who faces criminal charges, from making an appointment and suggested that his pick would not be seated. Last week, Burris’ credentials were rejected in a circus-like atmosphere that tarnished the opening day festivities of the new Congress.

But Reid and Durbin said they now anticipate that Burris, a former Illinois attorney general, will be seated this week, barring objections from Republicans.

They made the announcement after Burris lawyers delivered to the Capitol documents certifying his appointment to Obama’s seat, and the secretary of the Senate determined that the paperwork met Senate requirements.

In an interview on MSNBC, Burris reiterated that he had made no deal with Reid not to run for a full Senate term in 2010 in exchange for being allowed to take his seat in the chamber now.

He said he would work in the Senate to win approval of Obama’s economic stimulus package in the hope that the measure would help the economy and create jobs. “I would like to see thousands of jobs created in Illinois and millions of jobs created in the country,” Burris said.

Reid, D-Nev., and Durbin, D-Ill., said they were satisfied both with the documents and with Burris’ testimony before the Illinois House impeachment panel that he did nothing wrong.

Even though Burris does not stand accused of wrongdoing, Senate Democrats rejected Burris last week, only to quickly backpedal after Obama himself privately weighed in and senators fretted that the situation was diverting their focus at a critical time.

Asked Tuesday if his service in the Senate could still carry a taint because of Blagojevich’s legal problems, Burris said he didn’t think so.

“They need to look at my record … what I have done over the years as a citizen of our state,” Burris said.

He also declined to join in calls for Blagojevich to resign, saying “my position is that you’re innocent in this legal system until you’re proven guilty.”

He said any demand that he would make for Blagojevich to step down “would have no effect.”

Blagojevich denies the accusations and has yet to be indicted. There has been no indication that Burris was involved in the alleged scheme, and he has not been accused of any wrongdoing. Democrats have repeatedly said the issue is Blagojevich, not Burris’ qualifications.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Rules Committee, told reporters Tuesday evening that Burris should be seated.

“If you don’t seat Mr. Burris, it has ramifications for gubernatorial appointments all over America,” the California Democrat said. “Mr. Burris is a senior, experienced politician. He has been attorney general, he has been controller, and he is very well-respected. I am hopeful that this will be settled.”

In a piece of political theater, Burris, 71, tried and failed Tuesday to take Obama’s seat.

He marched into the Capitol, declaring himself “the junior senator from the state of Illinois,” and asked Secretary of the Senate Nancy Erickson to accept a certification of his appointment signed by Blagojevich. Erickson refused, saying it lacked Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White’s signature and the state seal.

White has refused to sign the appointment letter that Blagojevich gave to Burris, saying he won’t sign onto any such decision by a governor under legal siege.

White said Wednesday says he’s being unfairly blamed by senators for not seating Burris, saying Burris could have been accepted there without his signature, calling that “mostly ceremonial.”

And in Chicago, Burris’ attorneys asked the Illinois Supreme Court on Tuesday to expedite a hearing on their petition for a court order directing White to certify his appointment.

Burris also was considering a federal lawsuit to force Senate Democrats to seat him.

“Our credentials were rejected by the secretary of the Senate,” said Timothy W. Wright III, an attorney for Burris. “We were not allowed to be placed in the record book. We were not allowed to proceed to the floor for purposes of taking oath. All of which we think was improperly done and is against the law of this land.”