Roland Burris is on TV giving

a speech defending himself against allegations he lied about his role in being solicited and then trying to help raise money for Rod Blagojevich to help get the senate seat. And it’s basically identical to a series of speeches Blago himself gave when he was swirling around the bowl: How dare you give me any crap for lying about that fundraising stuff when, my god, I just helped pass the Stimulus Bill, SCHIP and the Lily Ledbetter bill.

It’s almost like a homage to Blago. All he needs is a good Tennyson quote.

Sir Allen Stanford may

be on the run today facing an $8 billion fraud charge. But back in the beginning of this decade he was pouring tons of money into Washington to help block a series of bills that would have created problems for his Antigua-based off-shore banking empire, which now appears to have been a massive fraud.

At the key time, Democrats controlled the Senate, where the key actions were going to take place. And Stanford poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into Democratic coffers to help (successfully) deep six legislation he wanted killed.

As we look deeper into the Allen Stanford story and his alleged $8 billion fraud, his role spreading around money in Washington is becoming increasingly clear. A lot of it tied to his efforts to kill a bill back in 2001/2002 era bill that would have cracked down on offshore banks and money laundering. Elana Schor’s got part one of the story.

As she’ll explain in part two of the story, Stanford gave a huge amount of money to the Democrats — who then controlled the senate — to prevent the bill from ever coming to the floor.