Senator Burris

The Democrats apparently have decided that the best way to stop the bleeding on the Blagojevich fiasco is to give in to to Blago and seat Roland Burris as the junior Senator from Illinois. Barack Obama has seen the light, and reportedly is pressuring Harry Reid et al. to surrender to Blago and Burris:

Senate Democrats beat a hasty retreat Wednesday from their rejection of Roland Burris as President-elect Barack Obama’s successor, yielding to pressure from Obama himself and from senators irked that the standoff was draining attention and putting them in a bad light. Burris said with a smile he expected to join them “very shortly.”

Though there was no agreement yet to swear Burris in, he posed for photos at the Capitol with Senate leaders, then joined them for a 45-minute meeting followed by supportive words that bordered on gushing. The events came one day after Burris had left the Capitol in the pouring rain in a scripted rejection.

It’s possible, of course, that the Democrats realized they were on shaky legal ground for the reasons we noted yesterday. One suspects, however, that their desire to put a political embarrassment behind them may have played a larger role.

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