Sen. Burris should resign, Illinois governor says

Senator Roland Burris gestures as he speaks at a luncheon hosted by the City Club of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois February 18, 2009.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois Governor Pat Quinn called on Friday for Roland Burris to resign the U.S. Senate seat formerly occupied by President Barack Obama because of the cloud of controversy hanging over his appointment.

Burris also came under pressure from the White House, with Obama's spokesman Robert Gibbs saying, "I think it might be important for Senator Burris to take some time this weekend to either correct what has been said and certainly think of what lays in his future."

If Burris resigns, Quinn said he would make a temporary appointment until a special election could be held to fill the seat.

Such an election would require a new state law -- and it would give Republicans a shot at picking up a seat in the Senate where Democrats now control 58 of the 100 seats, with one seat vacant due to a contested election in Minnesota.

Quinn's predecessor, Rod Blagojevich, was impeached and ousted by the state's legislature in part because of charges he tried to sell the seat Obama once occupied.

"It was a gigantic mistake for him (Burris) to take the appointment in the first place," Quinn told a news conference.

Meanwhile, Burris' chief of staff, Darrel Thompson, who previously worked in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office, resigned to rejoin the Nevada Democrat's staff.

Quinn, Blagojevich and Burris are all Democrats.

Since Blagojevich defied members of his own party to appoint Burris on December 30, inconsistencies have emerged in Burris' testimony, affidavits and public comments about his contacts with the then-governor's staff.

A local prosecutor is exploring perjury charges and the Senate's ethics committee has begun an investigation.

Dick Durbin, the senior senator from Illinois, told the Chicago Sun-Times he had grown weary of the controversy.

Durbin and other Democratic Senate leaders initially refused to seat Burris, saying his appointment was tainted, but bowed to pressure from black colleagues in the House of Representatives and to Obama's urging that they end the stand-off.

"I'm tired of this Blagojevich burlesque that's been going on for so long. The people of our state should be spared this," Durbin told the newspaper.

(Reporting by Andrew Stern and Michael Conlon, editing by Vicki Allen)