President-elect Barack Obama is looking forward to working with Roland Burris after he becomes Illinois’s newest senator–which he is expected to later this week–an Obama spokesman said tonight.
“As the President-elect has said repeatedly, he knows Roland Burris and has high regard for him. He looks forward to working with Senator Burris and the rest of the United States Senate to rebuild our economy and meet the great challenges of our time,” transition Communications Director Dan Pfieffer said in a written statement e-mailed to reporters tonight.
Burris will be seated later this week, barring objections from Senate Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said today.
After Burris was appointed to succeed Obama in the upper chamber by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D), Obama initially sided with Reid and the Senate Democratic Caucus in rejecting Burris’s appointment, citing the pay-to-play scandal surrounding Blagojevich’s consideration of other candidates to fill Obama’s vacant seat.
Obama reversed course last week, telling Reid that “if Burris had legal standing