Senator Burris, the controversial senator who replaced Barack Obama in the Senate, is back in the news. For a long time, he was ignored by his Democratic colleagues. Some even asked him to resign for lying to investigators regarding Rod Bragojevich’s attempts to sell Obama’s Senate seat.

Now Burris is in a position to let his colleagues know that his vote on health care reform is not to be taken for granted. Burris can no longer be ignored. He added a condition that, without a public insurance option, he will not vote for the health care reforms dear to Democrats.

The Democrats need 60 votes to pass the bill. Any failure to pass this bill is a great victory for the GOP and the insurance lobbyists. As the Bayaka of Congo say, “If you ignore your own relatives you will serve the outsiders.”