Is Senator Dick Durbin hitting the brakes on Burris? Here's part of his remarks from a press conference courtesy of Progress Illinois:
"At this point, we've clearly reached an impasse. The Illinois Supreme Court has said, 'Our state has done all it needs to do under its statutes and constitution to fill the vacancy. We're not going to do anything, nor require any officer of the state to do more.' The Senate rules say, 'More needs to be done.'
"I think there is one obvious answer to this. In the matter of a few weeks, the Illinois State Senate will have reached its conclusion about the impeachment of our governor. It's unfortunate that during that time there may remain a vacancy in the Senate for our state of Illinois. But I think it's best to suspend activities in the filling of that vacancy until this impeachment trial in the Illinois State Senate is concluded.
If it results in the impeachment of Gov. Blagojevich, it will mean the succession of office of Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn. He will then have the authority to make this appointment in a clean, legal, respectable way and make his recommendation and his appointment known to the United State Senate under the ordinary course of procedure." [Transcript from Progress Illinois]
This one's a bit hard to decipher. Is the Senate playing chicken with Jesse White or are they really going to sit on the senate nomination till Quinn is Gov?
UPDATE (1/11/2009): CNN reports:
The fate of Senate-appointee Roland Burris could be decided as soon as Monday, Democratic sources said, as the Senate's Parliamentarian and legal counsel worked over the weekend deciphering Senate rules to determine if Burris has met the requirements for admittance.
