Blogo's appointee to the United States Senate has been hailed as an honest man, but he has served as a charcter witness for a couple of guys with Mob ties. Steve Gilbert has unearthed a report from over 5 years ago from the National Legal and Policy Center that includes some interesting information:

Roland Burris having been a character witness for a Teamster expelled from office for associating with organized crime....

Last January, the "in-house judge" of the Laborers' Intl. Union of N. Amer. permanently barred three relatives from holding office in Local 1001. Based on the testimony of law enforcement officials, frmr. mob associates, and informants under witness protection, Peter F. Vaira concluded that Bruno Caruso, his brother, Frank "Toots", and their first cousin, Leo, had been associates of the mafia, known in Chicago as the "Outfit," for more than 40 years. ....

...on Jan. 17, Local bosses met with an unnamed "national union official" and "agreed to enter into a voluntary supervision agreement  if Burris is appointed to that role."

This is not Burris's first involvement with allegedly corrupt unions. While serving as attny. gen. in 1994, Burris was a character witness for Robert T. Simpson Jr., frmr. pres. of Intl. Bhd. of Teamsters (IBT) Local 743. In spite of that testimony, the fed. Independent Rev. Bd. (IRB) ruled that Simpson had allowed Donald Peters to continue his influence of the Chicago local after Peters had agreed to have nothing to do with the union. Peters was named as a defendant in the 1988 fed. racketeering lawsuit against the IBT. (Emphasis by Steve Gilbert)