Roland Burris, whom a lot of people said a lot of unflattering things about when he was appointed by Blagojevich to fill the Senate seat vacated by Obama. Not a few black folk who ought to have known better went to bat against Burris, some of whom were previously (and still) hangin' off of Obama's left testicle, and should have seen the political advantage to having another black person of relatively liberal leanings in the Senate. Anyway, Burris is reported to have said that he will not vote for any Health Care bill that does not have a public option. Mind you I'm a Single Payer person. Mind you I believe that this monstrosity of legislation is a give away to so called health insurance companies since it will in essence require all US citizens to become customers (talk about a captive market). The public option is the only sliver of preciousness within' that thing.*
Burris is one of two..two..Senators who have stood up for the public option. Now you know that Burris will be catered too which means his constituency is going to see some green (we know how this goes) in order to get him to go along should his statement be less than granite. So it turns out that Burris will be the champion of the black poor whom will benefit the most from the public option. Gotta give him props.
*The whole health care "reform" ought to have been the extension of medicare to every SS number holding resident and the budgetary expenditures to cover that as well as an increase in the size of the anti-fraud dept. There is no need for this huge tricky worded piece of legislation which no doubt has more holes than Swiss Cheese.
(17 years of informed commentary)
