Senator Roland Burris Admonished by the Senate Ethics Panel

I told myself I wasn't going to write about politics anymore. I'm so thoroughly disgusted by the dysfunction rampant in our political system that considering it only makes me angry and depressed. And I really wish I didn't care anymore.

But, never let it be said that I don't at least try to finish what I started. At the very end of last year and the beginning of this one, I was somewhat critical of Roland Burris for acception the appointment of allegedly corrupt Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich to President Obama's former Senate seat.

First, I criticized Burris for accepting an obviously tainted apointment.

Then, I mocked him for his planet-sized ego.

When word began to trickle out that Burris wasn't exactly honest when questioned about the history of his contact with Blagojevich about the Senate appointment, I was back on the case. Here and here.

After that (and after Genghis worried that maybe we should rename Dagblog "The Burris Chronicles" or something like that), I laid off, after commenting one last time on his lack of fundraising prowess at the end of the first quarter of 2009.

I considered writing about his grandstanding on the issue of the public option when, a few months ago, he said he wouldn't vote for a bill that didn't include it. But it didn't seem worth the effort. He has said publicly that he will not run for the seat in 2010, and even though I trust him about as much as I trust Alberto Gonzalez, Burris doesn't appear to have the fundraising ability he would need even to be an annoyance in the Democratic primary. So, I thought I was pretty much done with Roland and his DC Dreamcoat.

But today, TPM is reporting the the Senate ethics panel has admonished Burris for his "incomplete and misleading" testimony. For lying about his quid pro quo promises to Governor Blagojevich and his brother in order to further his ambition for public office after the voters in his state had repeatedly rejected him, Burris finds himself in receipt of a public letter from his Senate colleagues.

And so, this new episode in the life and times of legend (in his own mind) pretty much closes the book on his perjury with a punishment so severe it might have even hurt his feelings a little.