Burris In the Saddle

Why does the continuing saga of Roland Burris feel less like a Shakespearean tragedy than a second-rate Second City (double word usage not intended) repertory skit?

Burris, the newly appointed Democratic senator from Illinois, testified last month that he had no contacts with ousted Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. Now it turns out that Burris in fact talked with Robert Blagojevich, the governor's brother, about fundraising for the governor, but he said he never did anything of the sort. Then it turned out he tried to do fundraisers for Blagojevich but couldn't get any started.

Would we even be having this conversation if Blagojevich hadn't played the race card by making this appointment? Burris's enormous ego has been clashing with his utter cluelessness of late, embarrassing a state that thought it had put this latest wave of corruption behind it. I've concluded that Burris himself is innocent of wrongdoing, but his ability to get so thoroughly mixed up in the Blagojevich clan's sliminess makes him seem like a bewildered fool who doesn't know what he's doing.

The irony here is that Illinois almost seemed doomed to be deprived a senator due to scandal, then they ended up with this joker. Meanwhile, in Minnesota, where elections are run more cleanly than just about anywhere else, Al Franken - an intentionally funny guy - can't get seated because of an ongoing recount made possible by that same sense of ethics.

Al Franken wrote for "Saturday Night Live" and worked with Second City alumni. And even he couldn't have written a sketch like the one unfolding in Illinois.