CBS: ‘Down and Dirty’ Republicans Call for Burris to Resign

Photo of Kyle Drennen.
  • Bookmark and Share

Nancy Cordes, CBS On Monday’s CBS Evening News, correspondent Nancy Cordes reported on perjury allegations against Illinois Senator Roland Burris and calls for his resignation: "Burris admits he did much more than just talk to one person, in fact, he says he talked to four other people with close connections and took three phone calls from the ex-governor's brother about raising money. In the down and dirty world of Illinois politics, some Republicans are calling on him to resign."

In addition to bashing Illinois Republicans, Cordes’s report featured CBS legal analyst Andrew Cohen, who argued: "From a purely legal point of view, it is not a strong perjury case. All it does is suggest that Mr. Burris was a little bit more involved in all of this than he initially claimed to be."

In contrast, in January 2007, Cohen described perjury charges against Vice President Cheney’s former chief of Staff Scooter Libby this way: "The whole thing reminds me of an experience I had in law school. I was serving as a ‘baby’ public defender and one of my ‘clients’ was a man, already incarcerated, who was being brought up on new charges that he stole a car. "I didn't steal that car," he said to me. ‘Great,’ I said. ‘That's great. Can you tell me what did happen?’ ‘You don't understand,’ he said to me, "I'm a crack dealer. I don't do that petty car (stuff).’ That is darn close to what Libby and his lawyers are saying. He was an architect and implementer of (mostly failed) foreign policies, the defense goes, and thus did not have time, inclination or criminal state of mind to be guilty of the petty offense of perjury and obstruction of justice."

Story Continues Below Ad ↓

Here is the full transcript of the Evening News segment:

6:39PM SEGMENT:

HARRY SMITH: Now the latest on Roland Burris. He replaced President Obama in the Senate one month ago today, but now, as Nancy Cordes reports, there are calls for Burris to quit.

ROLAND BURRIS: I will not take any questions.

NANCY CORDES: For the second day in a row, Illinois's new senator pushed back against accusations of perjury.

BURRIS: I hear on the T.V. news somebody says last night, 'well, if Roland Burris lied, should he resign?'

CORDES: At issue is Burris' testimony before Illinois legislators during last month's impeachment trial of then Governor Rod Blagojevich, who was accused of trying to sell President Obama's vacant Senate seat. Burris was asked if he had spoken with Governor Blagojevich's brother or any other associates about the seat.

BURRIS: I recall having a meeting with-

CORDES: But in a new affidavit, Burris admits he did much more than just talk to one person, in fact, he says he talked to four other people with close connections and took three phone calls from the ex-governor's brother about raising money. In the down and dirty world of Illinois politics, some Republicans are calling on him to resign.

TOM CROSS: It's hard for him to be an effective United States Senator given what's going on.

ANDREW COHEN: From a purely legal point of view, it is not a strong perjury case. All it does is suggest that Mr. Burris was a little bit more involved in all of this than he initially claimed to be.

CORDES: Burris insists none of the contact was inappropriate and says he raised no money for the ex-governor. Still, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office said today clearly it would have been better if he had been more forthcoming sooner. Harry.

SMITH: Nancy Cordes at the Capitol tonight. Thanks.

—Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center.


Comments Policy

All comments are owned by whoever posted them and are subject to our terms of use. They should not be assumed to represent the views of NewsBusters.

Viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Down and Dirty

and Blogovitch is  .... "clean"?

Wow...

...the MSM never ceases to amaze me. Burris got caught lying and it's the dirty 'ol mean Repubs fault somehow.

What a crock and ultimately a fraud, the MSM are.

Omigosh...you're

Omigosh...you're kidding.   Republicans always are asked to resign and usually oblige (sp?).  Republicand almost never ask Dems to resign because dems don't resign...they are never held accountable!

Proportion

Blagojevich, jailed governors, Rezko, an overwhelmingly Democratic city machine renowned for corruption, Reverend Wright, Pfleger ... and it's the Republicans who are described as playing dirty!

And what is it that they've done? They've called for the resignation of a Senator whose appointment was drenched in suspicion, and who now claims to remember all the embarrassing things about his appointment that would have derailed it, had he told the full truth at the outset. Oh, those down and dirty Republicans!

"CORDES: But in a new

"CORDES: But in a new affidavit, Burris admits he did much more than
just talk to one person, in fact, he says he talked to four other
people with close connections and took three phone calls from the
ex-governor's brother about raising money. In the down and dirty world
of Illinois politics, some Republicans are calling on him to resign.

TOM CROSS: It's hard for him to be an effective United States Senator given what's going on."

Burris admits. Hello! "... some Republicans" are just taking him at his word and acting accordingly. "...down and dirty Illinois politics" is more about keeping things undercover. A true Chicago-style politician would have blackmailed Burris into keeping his mouth shut.

Isn't this just

Isn't this just precious...

The two examples you give here of of what Cohen says when it comes to Burris and Libby say it all...this is what the left always does... Excuses, excuses, excuses...and that is all they ever need 24/7 when it comes to someone with a 'D' behind their name.

Nothing like the hypocrisy and total bias when it comes to the msm and who they carefully pick to be their guests to carry forth their agenda...

 Those big, bad, meanie republicans! How dare they! 

Like a 'little bit' pregnant

"Mr. Burris was a little bit more involved..."

A 'little bit' more? Why didn't this shyster use the correct legal term, 'teensy weensy'?

Burris may want to hold off on revising the legacy on his tomb. 

SOL

The tomb of the unknown senator?? LOL.  Seriously though, there are market testing "teensy weensy" and "itsy bitsy" right now in focus  groups. I am sure you will see if they win out, just watch MSNBC.

 

All a Democrat needs is the upper-story window of public attention and the chamber pot of rhetoric. How else to explain the rise of Joe Biden?  P.J. O' Rourke

har dee har!

Burris to engraver: "No, I said leave the 'Trailblazer' part. Just add 'For Almost Two Months' after Senator."

Some Republicans? (Burris)

I just sensed this would unfold like this.

Here's the lead from UPI - United Press International - 5 hours ago:
In Illinois, state Attorney General Lisa Madigan and other Democratic officials Monday called for an investigation of Burris' explanation of events leading ...


"..other Democratic officials.." mind you.. that is the story here.Yesterday, just as soon as that young Democratic gal (Ill Attorney's office?) was all over the news laying out the case against Burris, I thought the MSM is going to come out quoting Republicans - not Democrats. Then, even on MSNBC (believe it or not) we see the Maddow and Olbiedog types laughing at the guy's situation and all but calling for the end of this charade - and what do we get? Out comes CBS, which never finds it challenging for themselves to call out Republicans for whatever grievance, but when it's about a Democrat - they've got to use the ole "some Republicans are calling on him to resign" line.

Down and dirty?

Check this out. Ex Chicago Alderman sentenced to four years.

President Obama had this to say: "This isn't the  Arenda Troutman I knew." (Made this up. But it could happen!)

Edited to add: And here goes Burris under the bus.

 

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of the tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. - Ayn Rand

Glad to see this news...to

Glad to see this news...to bad I didn't hear this on the msm, this happens in Chicago where a whole heck of a lot of trouble is going on with the politicians, of course this is where O is from politically speaking...we have the Blago trial coming up that has ties to Rahm, Jackson Jr. and most likely O, although that will be covered up one way or the other...and the msm remains quiet...

If this was the Bush administration and the same circumstance, just a different city, the msm would be all over this and the other filth going on.

One of her quotes saying "most alderman, most politicians are hos" says a lot.

Hey b.t. Remember this

Hey b.t. Remember this one?

"The people on the bus go up and down
Up and down, up and down
The people on the bus go up and down
All through the town
The money on the bus goes ching-a-ling-a-ling
Ching-a-ling-a-ling, Ching-a-ling-a-ling
The money on the bus goes ching-a-ling-aling.

All through the town." - Courtesy of C.T.A.

 

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of the tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. - Ayn Rand

Uh, yeah, but it's still perjury, right?

ANDREW COHEN: From a purely legal point of view, it is not a strong
perjury case. All it does is suggest that Mr. Burris was a little bit
more involved in all of this than he initially claimed to be.

 Hmmm.  I see.  Great legal analysis there, jackass.

 

"Liberate tutume ex inferis, liberal puppets."  Me.

A great legal mind

Yeah, how'd you like this shyster defending you?

Perjury is the "willful and corrupt taking of a false oath in regard to a material matter in a judicial proceeding."

So perjury really involves the false oath, but the actual lie is A-OK! 

I hear impeachment calling!

I hear impeachment calling!  Senator Burris, himself a product of Chicago's corrupt politics, is about to run out of luck.

I heard Burris on a Chicago

I heard Burris on a Chicago radio program a couple of weeks ago. The host was asking him about specific, useless items in porkulus.  Burris immediately jumped into the "We have to fix the economic mess 8 years of Bush has left us with" mantra. I wanted to jump through the radio and scream at him about the democrats contribution to the housing crisis.  So needless to say I will enjoy watching him squirm.

Anyway, apologies to the rest of the country for the mess my home state has dumped on D.C.

It strikes me as funny that

It strikes me as funny that the " down and dirty republicans " are simply telling the truth. We bash when we tell the truth if it hurts democrat/liberals, they enlighten when they tell the truth about republicans. Unbelievable.

What really happened here.

Gov. Rod's brother tipped Roland that a couple of the calls he (Robert Blago, campaign funder-raiser In-Chief) had with Roland may have been taped by the FBI.  That's why the affidavit was issued.

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."  - Sir Winston Churchill

Who the hell is Nancy

Who the hell is Nancy Cordes?

Looks like the type Slick Willy would hit up on.

One of the 24% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 89% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory.

Attack Media

Let's recap:

1. Democrats DO NOT tell the truth.

2. Democrats DO NOT pay their taxes.

3. CBS will blame the Republicans for every single misdeed of the lying, cheating Democrats.