They didn’t ask, so he didn’t tell

By Jennifer J. Foster

Published: May 28, 2009

U.S. Sen. Roland I-didn’t-know-the-phone-was-tapped Burris has an explanation for why he didn’t give complete testimony to either the legislative committee seeking to impeach Gov. Rod Blagojevich or the federal investigators looking into corruption charges against the former Illinois governor.

According to the Associated Press:

Sen. Roland Burris said Wednesday he did not tell an Illinois House impeachment committee that he promised to help then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s campaign while also pushing for a Senate appointment because, like any good lawyer, he did not want to volunteer information he was not asked about.

Burris, 71, told The Associated Press on Wednesday it never occurred to him he should have told lawmakers in January about his conversation with the former governor’s brother, Robert Blagojevich, about both the empty seat and raising money for the governor.

“You’re being asked questions and one thing you don’t do is to try to volunteer information that wasn’t asked,“ Burris said at a union hall in Decatur. “There was no obligation there.“

Burris said he did not consider informing members of the committee afterward. “Why would I in hindsight turn around and say, ‘I shoulda, shoulda, shoulda?“‘

See? “There was no obligation” to fill in the blanks the first time. So why would he have any instinct to tell the truth later?

Really, Sen. Burris? You’re a lawyer. You’re familiar, I assume, with the oath witnesses take when they give testimony in legal matters. I assume you took that oath on at least two occasions before you gave this incomplete testimony.

The oath doesn’t read, “I swear to tell the truth, but only the part that the lawyers ask me about, so help me God.“

The oath is, “I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God.“

Get it? “The whole truth.“

By your own admission, you told only part of the story. What a pathetic excuse, that “good lawyers,“ as a matter of practice, don’t volunteer information not asked of them.

Way to go. I’m sure Lady Justice is very proud of the way you deftly maneuvered around legal technicalities.

Democrats in the U.S. Senate have realized the millstone this guy is on their caucus and the mistake they made in seating him. Don’t expect it to be much longer before they have a strong candidate recruited to challenge him in 2010.

They know that the sooner they can get rid of the double-talking, half-truth-telling, Blagojevich-appointed junior senator from Illinois, the better.