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India On Media |
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| Politics
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| Senate snub as US Congress opens |
| The new US Congress has opened, amid a row as the choice to fill President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat was blocked from the chamber's floo
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| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
, 7-January-2009
0:35:45 AM |
| Senate Democrats had vowed to prevent Roland Burris taking the Illinois seat because he was picked by scandal-hit Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.
Mr Burris said officials turned him away when he arrived to be sworn in.
The Democrats are in charge of both chambers and about to welcome one of their own into the White House.
But correspondents say Democratic celebrations are likely to be muted amid the scale of the economic challenges facing the US.
Mr Obama, who takes office on 20 January, is pressing Congress to pass a stimulus package said to be worth $800bn (£550bn).
Snubbed
Unresolved wrangling over two Senate seats cast a shadow over the first day of the new Congress.
In his speech opening the session, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stated that Mr Burris was "not in possession of the necessary credentials from the state of Illinois".
Illinois's secretary of state has so far refused to co-sign the letter of appointment from Mr Blagojevich, as required by Senate rules.
Speaking to reporters outside the Capitol earlier on Tuesday, Mr Burris said: "I presented my credentials to the secretary of the Senate, and was advised that my credentials were not in order."
Mr Burris, a former attorney-general for Illinois, said he was not seeking a confrontation but was looking at options for taking the seat. He would now consult his lawyers, he said
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