Sen. Roland W. Burris (D-Ill.) says Wednesday on the Senate floor that a public option plan would spur innovation in the health insurance industry. (0:51)

 

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) defended the decision to deny seating Illinois Senate appointee Roland Burris on the basis of a 1884 piece of legislature that requires the signatures of both a governor and secretary of state on a senator’s credentials before allowing them in the Senate.

Burris, who was recently tapped to fill President Elect Barack Obama’s Senate seat by embattled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (D-Ill.), did not have the signature of the secretary of state.

“If you don’t know anything about this, it doesn’t look very good,” said Reid during a press conference with Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on the Democratic agenda.

“We’ve seen time and time again in print, and electronic media, the crude language of Blagojevich saying ‘this is a effing gold mine, I have to get everything I can out of it’, how were we supposed to react?”

Reid went on to say that the Senate would not move forward until it is entirely clear that Blagojevich acted properly by appointing Burris.

“Until we remove the cloud from this Blagojevich nomination we cannot move forward, and I think it’s a pretty easy hurdle to get over,” stated Reid.

On Tuesday Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that there was legal precedent for seating Burris, a notion that Reid dismissed.

“I think Dianne…didn’t get all the facts.”