Pastors rally behind Burris
SOUTH SIDE | 'He hasn't done anything that's indictable'
Sen. Roland Burris went to his base Sunday with an appearance at a black church.
He arrived at New Covenant Baptist Church in a flying wedge of supporters and avoided reporters by leaving through a side door.
(Tom Cruze/Sun-Times)
Ministers gathered at the church at 740 E. 77th St. chided journalists at a news conference in the lobby. They said reports about Burris' son winning a plum state job are an attack on his family.
The Illinois Democrat has been under fire for his contacts with the Blagojevich administration before his appointment to the Senate.
The ministers also said Burris, the only black U.S. senator, is being held to a different standard than the 99 white senators.
"He hasn't done anything that's indictable," said Rep. Bobby Rush, who added that many politicians calling for Burris to resign have "stalking horses" ready for test-runs for his seat.
Burris' backers said other senators involved in far more unseemly conduct have not been asked to resign. Rush, who also is a minister, apparently referred to Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) when he spoke of a politician who "drove off a bridge. People died."
In a reference to Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), Rush mentioned "a senator accused of misconduct in a men's room."
"You're all at his home every morning; when he goes to bed," said the Rev. Janette Wilson. "You didn't do this for priests . . . wanted for pedophilia."
From the pulpit, Burris touted to his overwhelmingly African-American audience the recent Senate approval of a voting representative for the District of Columbia, with its 600,000 residents, "the majority of them African-American ... without a full voice in their government." And he said he was proud of a bill he co-sponsored to honor the slaves who built the U.S. Capitol.
Thanking the church for its support, he said: "I will never, ever let you down. I will serve you with honesty and integrity. That's all I know, and that's what God gave me."