By Rev. Dr. Barbara A. Reynolds

Roll on Roland Burris. Don’t back down, you would make an excellent U.S. Senator and in the process add some color to the body Barack Obama has vacated as he ascends to the presidency of the United States.

That’s my advise to Burris. Don’t let the haters roll over you. You roll over them.

Burris, a former state attorney general and the first black politician to be elected statewide in Illinois, has a 40-year history of excellence as a public servant in Illinois.

Nevertheless because of the taint engulfing Rod Blagojevich U.S. Senate Democrats are vowing not to seat Burris because the Illinois Governor appointed him to the vacancy.

There is no argument that in Blagojevich’s hands the Senate Seat has become so toxic it appears to have been pulled from a toxic waste dump. The seat, itself, became tainted after secret federal wiretaps showed the governor wanting to sell the coveted position to the highest bidder.

First, the hope of Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. was decimated after he was identified in wiretaps as someone the governor reasoned would pay top dollar for the seat. Jackson, who also has a good record as a public servant, was smeared although it was never established that he had entered into any deal with the Governor.

Now comes Burris. No credible source has even suggested he had ever been accused of trying to buy or do anything illegal to obtain the seat. Illinois Democrats are refusing to certify the appointment and U.S. Senators are vowing not to seat him.

Instead of trying to drag Burris into the slime, critics ought to be shining off his halo for his ability to serve so long in a slimy cesspool without even an ounce of it splashing on him.

For a decade in the 70’s I was a reporter on the Chicago Tribune and editor of Dollars & Sense, an African-American magazine where scandal was normal. Under Mayor Richard Daley, politics were a merry-go-round spinning around with colorful party hacks, wheeler-dealers and thieves. Chicago is where at least 79 elected officials have been convicted of wrongdoing since 1972 and three governors have been jailed for corruption in 35 years.

Roland Burris, however, did not swim in the slime pool. Wherever he landed in his career, he used his influence to better the city’s impoverished communities. For example, he worked as a bank examiner and was state comptroller from 1979 to 1991, but he also used his political influence to aid the growth of Chicago’s black banks and businesses.

As a reporter it was not much fun to cover Burris, when there were so many public scoundrels with checkered pasts, private marital infidelities and hanky-panky going on. Burris was Mr. Clean, who could bore a reporter with budget numbers and big plans, but at the same time keep pushing a vision for wider political participation for Chicago’s blacks.

While his accomplishments seem easy now, in the 1970s when Burris announced his plan to run for comptroller no black had won a statewide office.

His credentials are impressive. He received his bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University and later earned a law degree from Howard University. He has served as the states’ attorney general from 1991 to 1995. In fact, he showed his independence when earlier this month he criticized Blagojevich for his apparent involvement in scandal.

Blagojevich’s scandal belongs to Blagojevich. He has been indicted but not convicted. The governor may be one of America’s greatest scoundrels, but that has nothing to do with Burris Right now, there are too many unanswered questions for the U.S. Senators to block Burris. If this were as a business transaction you have to have a seller and a buyer. If the governor was trying to sell the seat, there has to be proof that Burris was trying to buy it for Burris to be guilty of anything.

In addition, if the Governor’s dealings are so tarred, then why stop at the U.S. Senate seat. Illinois courts should reverse any bills, funds and programs that have come from Blagojevich reportedly "tainted hands."

Moreover the U.S. Senate leaders trying to tar and feather Burris, an honorable man, is a reminder of the nasty way Democrat Rep. Adam Clayton Powell was treated, despite his being one of the most effective legislators in the House history. In this matter the Supreme Court intervened and ruled that the House could not block Mr. Powell, because he was duly elected and met all of the other constitutional requirements for office. Burris also meets all the qualifications for office, but since he would be appointed and not elected, the case could still end up in a messy court challenge.

Since Burris would be the only black in the Senate, is there a plot afoot somewhere to keep the seat lily-white?

Until a court of law ties the Illinois Governor to wrongdoing and that wrongdoing to Burris than Burris should keep rolling his way right on up steps of the U.S. Senate.