The spectacle of Roland Burris marched out of the Capitol by police guards is embarrassing – but not for Senate Democrats who turned him away. It is Burris himself who is to blame for the situation. When the nefarious Illinois governor asked Burris to accept the appointment, Burris had a choice, and he made the wrong one. In spite of his protestations that he has arrived untainted, the truth is the sordid situation surrounding the appointment has rubbed the dirt all over him.

Burris comes to Washington bearing a history of many tries and failures to be elected to high office in Illinois. It’s plain that, with the Blagojevic offer of a seat in the U.S. Senate without having to face voters, Burris’s overweaning ambition became too much for him. Here was a governor caught on FBI tapes discussing ways to sell the Senate seat, but Burris was willing to ignore that and say yes. If the appointee is now in an embarrassing situation, that is his own doing, and it’s hard to find sympathy for his plight.

Nor do I have sympathy for those like Rep. Bobby Rush, who claim that what’s at stake is the right of a black man to sit in the Senate as Barack Obama did. To speak of such a right is racist malarkey. What is especially galling about this kind of talk is that it goes against the very essence of what Obama stands for, the idea that a man or woman should be judged by as Martin Luther King put it “the content of his character” instead of the color of his skin.

Roland Burris has no such right because he happens to be a black man. Nor does he have the right to be seated in the Senate because as he claims Blagojevic may have acted legally – something that may yet be tested in the courts. Burris has allowed himself to be used in the worst possible way, and he now has to suffer the consequences. Even if he is finally seated, he will arrive as damaged goods, a notable and notorious patsy for a discredited governor.