This Exists: Sen. Burris Puts The Health Care Debate Into Holiday Poem

video

by Steve Krakauer | 10:01 am, December 23rd, 2009

» 2 comments

Sen. Roland Burris has had quite a 2009 – going from one time Illinois Attorney General to Rod Blagojevich-appointed U.S. Senator.

How do you cap off the whirlwind year? A little health care-themed Christmas poetry on the Senate floor.

Burris addressed his Senate colleagues yesterday. “I see no reason why we can’t share good cheer with one another right here in Washington,” he said before announcing he would “share my own version of a classic holiday story with my good friends on both sides of the aisle.”

Then he began to recite “Twas The Night Before Christmas” – with a new version based on the health care debate. Gather round, kids, Sen. Burris has a story for you: “It was the night before Christmas, and all through the Senate, the right held up our health care bill, no matter what was in it”

And so on. There was rhyming “raucous” and “caucus,” rhyming “public plan” with “Yes We Can” and then, sadly, came the big finish: “Better coverage for all – even our friends on the right.”

Out of all the health care debate viral videos that have come from the past few months – holding babies, prayers of various kinds, Stuart Smalley getting tough – this may be the most surreal. Burris was introduced to the media world (and national political world) almost exactly a year ago, and has since gone on to break away from the original Blagojevich connections. But wasn’t Blago a poetry fan himself? Maybe he was involved in the creative process.

By the way, this YouTube video was posted on the Senate Democrats’ account, which means they clearly are proud of this (or they just want the extra views for their channel).

Here’s the full poem (h/t Breitbart.TV):

—–
» Follow Steve Krakauer on Twitter

Poetry on the Senate Floor, Rod Blagojevich, Roland Burris, Sen. Roland Burris, Thanks Blago, This Exists, Twas The Night Before Christmas, What Is Wrong With Our Government?

ImNotBlue

Here, I’ve got a poem for Burris:

Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
Sugar is sweet,
And you were appointed through fraudulent means, and shouldn’t have become a Senator.

Hmm… the rhyme scheme is a bit off, but I think it still works.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

I’m going to assume that because Sen Burris delivered his poem on the Senate floor and possibly because his cadence is better, explains why news of the above video flooded the wire and it’s not evidence of a political bias from the Associated Press.

Of course, the only reason I ask is that Sen Kit Bond posted “‘Twas the Congress Before Christmas” to his YouTube channel several days ago.

Perhaps to his video’s detriment, Senator Bond filmed his in his office, while sitting on his couch and when I posted it to my blog, I pretty much focused on the dogs with my title because though I’ve seen it a couple of times, his interaction with the pets were too much of a distraction for me to have paid attention to what he says.