Could Roland Burris get any less popular?
Well, actually yes.
A new poll shows he has a 17 percent approval rating.
It could be worse!
That's roughly the same rating Rod Blagojevich had in February 2008; Blago didn't sink to 7 percent until after he was arrested.
So Burris is 10 points ahead of what we might consider the immovable base. It's a start!
And political strategist Delmarie Cobb isn't impressed with Chris Kennedy's interest in the seat.
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"He hasn't been that involved in terms of any public policy or out front on any issues, so he would have to begin from scratch," Cobb told ABC7.
Just to be clear, she was talking about Kennedy.
Of course, Burris would kill to be starting from scratch.
And speaking of scratch, Kennedy has lots of it. Burris, on the other hand, had raised just $845 through March. That's almost as much as Kennedy pays for a tie. Or, to put it another way, that's almost as much as it costs to park at the meters around the Merchandise Mart for a month.
Unfortunately, the polltakers didn't dig in and ask respondents just what part of Burris's performance so far they like. After all, he's still in the learning-the-Senate-rules stage of his newfound national career. These polls should always challenge folks to name three things that back any position they take.
It probably doesn't matter anyway, though. Soon Burris will be in his in-the-jungles-of-Costa-Rica stage of his career. And I bet his approval ratings go up while he's there.
Steve Rhodes is the proprietor of The Beachwood Reporter, a Chicago-centric news and culture review.
