This editorial appeared in The Tri-City Herald.
There is an old saying about editorial writers and editorial pages:
Often in error, never in doubt.
With that admitted, it's time for the Herald to talk about Roland Burris.
We were as loud as anyone back on Jan. 8 when we wrote about the stalled admission of Burris as the junior U.S. senator from Illinois. Here's the headline on our editorial:
"Democratic leadership hurting Congress, people."
Below the headline we wrote in part:
"Reid has shown a breathtaking display of stubbornness and old-fashioned political cantankerousness in the case of Sen. Burris, D.-Ill.
"In the process, he led the Democratic caucus into a kind of parody of responsible leadership."
Harry Reid doesn't get the Herald delivered to his office, but we were part of a ground-swell of indignation that Democratic stubbornness was holding up Burris' admission to the Senate.
And the leadership caved.
Burris was welcomed and sworn in.
We were not alone in our zealotry. Many citizens, senators and President Obama also thought it was a mistake to bar Burris, because there was nothing to be held against him except that he had been appointed by the now disgraced ex-governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich.
Now, Burris himself has given us reason to doubt him.
In an amended affidavit and in a speech in Chicago he has turned his self-defense on its head and left his defenders wounded in his wake.
To read the complete editorial, visit The Tri-City Herald.