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Dick Durbin

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Richard Durbin
United States Senator
from Illinois
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 7, 1997
Serving with Barack Obama
Preceded byPaul Martin Simon
29th United States Senate Majority Whip
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 4, 2007
LeaderHarry Reid
Preceded byMitch McConnell
Member of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois 20th District
In office
January 3, 1983 – January 3, 1997
Preceded byPaul Findley
Succeeded byJohn Shimkus
Personal details
Born (1944-11-21) November 21, 1944 (age 79)
East St. Louis, Illinois
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseLoretta Schaefer
ResidenceSpringfield, Illinois
Alma materGeorgetown University,
Georgetown University Law Center
ProfessionLawyer

Richard Joseph "Dick" Durbin, (born November 21 1944) is currently the senior United States Senator from Illinois and Democratic Whip, the second highest position in the party leadership in the Senate. He became Majority Whip of the US Senate when the 110th Congress convened on January 4, 2007. He currently resides in Springfield, Illinois.

Early life and family

Durbin was born in East St. Louis to an Irish-American father, William Durbin, and a Lithuanian-born mother, Ann Kutkin.[2] He graduated from Assumption High School in East St. Louis in 1962. During his high school years he worked at a meat packing plant. He earned a B.S. from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1966, where he graduated two years ahead of another famous Democratic politician, future President Bill Clinton. He served as an intern in the office of Illinois Senator Paul Douglas during his senior year in college. Durbin earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1969 and was admitted to the Illinois bar later that year.

Durbin then opened a law practice in Springfield. He served as legal counsel to Lieutenant Governor Paul Simon from 1969 to 1972, and then as legal counsel to the Illinois State Senate Judiciary Committee from 1972 to 1982. He ran for Lieutenant Governor in 1978 as the running mate of State Superintendent of Schools Michael Bakalis; they were defeated by the Republican incumbents, Jim Thompson and Dave O'Neal. He then served as an adjunct professor at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine for five years while maintaining his law practice.

In 1982, Durbin won the Democratic nomination for the 20th Congressional District, which includes most of Springfield. He scored a huge upset, defeating 22-year incumbent Paul Findley. Durbin was reelected six more times, rarely facing serious opposition. He often points out that up until the campaign against Findley, he had never won an election — even losing an election to be a ward chief for the Democratic Party. But since the Findley campaign, he has never lost a race, either before the voters or within the House or Senate Democratic caucuses.

Durbin and his wife Loretta have two daughters, Christine and Jennifer, and a son, Paul.

Service in the U.S. Senate

Durbin became the Democratic Party's candidate for the Senate to replace the retiring Democratic incumbent, Paul Simon, in 1996. The two had long been friends, and Durbin considers Simon his mentor. He faced Republican State Representative Al Salvi in November.

Although U.S. Senate election was initially expected to be competitive, Durbin won by a surprising 15-point margin, undoubtedly helped by Bill Clinton's 18-point win in Illinois that year. He was handily reelected in 2002 as the Democrats nearly swept the state, taking all but one statewide office up for election. In the 2008 Illinois Democratic Primary, he ran unopposed for the Illinois US Senate nomination. He will face Steve Sauerberg, the Republican nominee, in the general election in November 2008. Pundits consistently favor him for easily winning a third term in 2008.

Among his legislative causes are asbestos regulation and environmental protection, particularly the protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He has also been noted for his work, along with Senators Patrick Leahy and Charles Schumer, in blocking President Bush's judicial nominations, as well as his efforts to avert the closure of military bases in Illinois.

In 2000 Senator Durbin was reportedly on the short list of possible Democratic nominees for Vice President of the United States, consider by Al Gore, along with fellow Senators John Kerry of Massachusetts, John Edwards of North Carolina, Bob Graham of Florida, former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell of Maine, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt[3]. Gore, however, selected Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut to be his running-mate.

On September 9, 2002, Durbin was the first of four Democratic senators (the others being Sens. Bob Graham, Feinstein, and Levin) on the Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), incredulous that the Bush administration was seeking a joint Congressional resolution authorizing a preemptive war on Iraq without having prepared a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), to ask George Tenet, the Director of Central Intelligence, to prepare a NIE on the status of Iraq's WMD programs.[4] Durbin was one of the few senators who read the resulting hurriedly prepared October 1, 2002 NIE, Iraq's Continuing Programs for Weapons of Mass Destruction.[5]

On September 29, 2002, Durbin held a news conference in Chicago to announce that "absent dramatic changes" in the resolution, he would vote against the resolution authorizing war on Iraq.[6] On October 2, 2002, at the first high-profile Chicago anti-Iraq War rally in Federal Plaza, Durbin repeated his promise to oppose the resolution in a letter read during the rally.[7]

On October 10, 2002, the U.S. Senate failed to pass Durbin's amendment to the resolution to strike "the continuing threat posed by Iraq" and insert "an imminent threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction", by a vote of 30 to 70, with the majority of Democratic senators voting for the amendment, but with 21 Democratic senators joining all 49 Republican senators voting against it.[8] On October 11, 2002, Durbin was one of 23 U.S. Senators to vote against the joint Congressional resolution authorizing the Iraq War.[9]

On April 25, 2007, Durbin said that as an intelligence committee member he knew in 2002 from classified information that the American people were being misled by the Bush Administration into a war on Iraq, but he could not reveal this because, as an intelligence committee member, he was sworn to secrecy.[10] This revelation prompted an online attack ad against Durbin by the National Republican Senatorial Committee.[11]

On November 5, 2004, Durbin announced that he had enough committed votes to become the Democratic Whip in the 109th Congress. Prior to this, he had been the Assistant Democratic Floor Leader, a position to which he was appointed by former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle. He became majority whip when the Democrats gained control of the Senate after the 2006 elections.

During his time as Democratic whip, Durbin has been noted for his sharp debating skills. Durbin has also been noted for his effectiveness at framing and articulating the Democratic message, and many have said that he is an effective whip both because of his strategic skills and because he has assiduously avoided any talk of higher aspirations.

In January of 2005, Durbin changed his longstanding position on sugar tariffs and price supports. After several years of voting to keep sugar quotas and price supports, Durbin now favors abolishing the program. "The sugar program depended on congressmen like me from states that grew corn," Durbin said, referring to the fact that, though they were formerly a single entity, the sugar market and the corn syrup market are now largely separate.[12]

In April of 2006, TIME Magazine listed Senator Durbin as one of the American's 10 Best Senators[13].

In May 2006, Durbin campaigned to maintain a $0.54 per gallon tariff on imported ethanol. Durbin justified the tariff by joining Senator Barack Obama in stating that "ethanol imports are neither necessary nor a practical response to current gasoline prices," arguing instead that domestic ethanol production is sufficient and expanding.[14]

In late 2006, when fellow Illinois Senator Barack Obama stated that he was considering a 2008 Presidential bid, Durbin became a vocal supporter of such an effort.

Committee Assignments

Interest group ratings

Senator Durbin's ratings from interest groups indicate how often he votes in agreement with their priorities; his particular scores indicate a Democratic record. Given his leadership position — especially since the Whip's job is to cajole senators to toe the party line — Durbin's voting record is very similar to the Democratic caucus position.

June 2005 Controversy

Sen. Durbin became a hot media topic on June 14, 2005[15], when on the U.S. Senate floor he compared interrogation techniques used at Camp X-Ray, Guantanamo Bay, as reported by the FBI, with those utilized by such regimes as Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and the Khmer Rouge:

When you read some of the graphic descriptions of what has occurred here — I almost hesitate to put them in the record, and yet they have to be added to this debate. Let me read to you what one FBI agent saw. And I quote from his report:
On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18–24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold....On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor.
If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime — Pol Pot or others — that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners."

Durbin’s comments drew bipartisan criticism, claiming that comparing U.S. actions to such regimes was insulting to both the U.S. and to victims of genocide. Radio host Rush Limbaugh and White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove accused Durbin of treason,[16] while former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich called on the Senate to censure Durbin.[17] Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, whose son Patrick is serving in US Army, also called on Durbin to apologize for his remarks saying that “I think it's a disgrace to say that any man or woman in the military would act like that”.[18] New Mexico Democratic state party chairman, John Wertheim, and Arizona party chairman Jim Pederson were also critical of Durbin’s remarks.[19] The leader of the Veterans of Foreign Wars also demanded an apology[20], as did the Anti-Defamation League[21] Durbin at first refused, but on June 21, 2005, went before the Senate to tearfully apologize for his statement[22], saying, "More than most people, a senator lives by his words ... occasionally words fail us, occasionally we will fail words."

Several notable commentators supported Durbin. These included the British conservative former editor of The New Republic, Andrew Sullivan, who praised Durbin for raising serious moral issues about U.S. policy[23]. Other commentators (including popular liberal commentator Markos Moulitsas Zúniga of Daily Kos) actively condemned Durbin issuing any form of apology to his critics, believing Durbin to have made a mistake in making himself (rather than detainment and torture concerns at Guantanamo Bay) the focus of media coverage.[24][25]

Issues

Abortion

As a congressman Richard Durbin voted consistently to uphold pre-existing restrictions on abortion or impose new limitations — including supporting a Constitutional amendment that would have nullifed Roe v. Wade.[26]

Congressman Durbin reversed this stance in 1989, and has since voted to maintain access to abortion, including support for Medicaid funding of the procedure, and opposition to any limitation that he considers a practical or potential encroachment upon Roe.[27]

Senator Durbin has maintained that this reversal came about as a result of personal reflection and his growing awareness of potentially harmful implications of his previous policy with respect to women facing dangerous pregnancies.[28] After visiting a home for abused children in Quincy, Illinois, he began to think about reasons women get abortions after seeing one rape victim and an incest victim. He says, "I still oppose abortion and would try my best to convince any woman in my family to carry the baby to term. But I believe that ultimately the decision must be made by the woman, her doctor, her family, and her conscience."[29]

Electoral history

Illinois's 20th congressional district: Results 1982–1994[30]
Year Democrat Votes Pct Republican Votes Pct
1992 Richard J. Durbin 154,869 57% John M. Shimkus 119,219 43%
1994 Richard J. Durbin 108,034 55% Bill Owens 88,964 45%
Illinois Senator (Class II): Results 1996–2002[30]
Year Democrat Votes Pct Republican Votes Pct 3rd Party Party Votes Pct 3rd Party Party Votes Pct 3rd Party Party Votes Pct 3rd Party Party Votes Pct
1996 Richard J. Durbin 2,384,028 56% Al Salvi 1,728,824 41% Steven H. Perry Reform 61,023 1% Robin J. Miller Libertarian 41,218 1% Chad Koppie U.S. Taxpayers 17,563 <1% James E. Davis Natural Law 13,838 <1%
2002 Richard J. Durbin 2,103,766 60% Jim Durkin 1,325,703 38% Steven Burgauer Libertarian 57,382 2%
*Write-in and minor candidate notes: In 1996, write-ins received 4,228 votes.

Footnotes

  1. ^ http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/pfd2005/N00004981_2005.pdf
  2. ^ durbin
  3. ^ http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/07/13/gore.veep/index.html
  4. ^ Select Committee on Intelligence (July 9, 2004). "Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq" (PDF).
    Durbin, Richard (September 10, 2002). "Assessing Iraq's military capabilities". Congressional Record--Senate. pp. pp. S8427-S8429. {{cite web}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
    Sweet, Lynn (September 11, 2002). "U.S. lacks Iraq analysis: Durbin" (paid archive). Chicago Sun-Times. p. 5.
  5. ^ Windrem, Bob; Murray, Mark (May 25, 2007). "Hillary and the 2002 NIE". msnbc.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
    CNN (May 29, 2007). "Records: Senators who OK'd war didn't read key report". cnn.com. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
    Raju, Manu; Schor, Elana; Wurman, Ilan (June 19, 2007). "Few senators read Iraq NIE report". The Hill.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ Dorning, Mike; Chase, John (September 30, 2002). "Durbin opposes Bush war resolution" (paid archive). Chicago Tribune. p. 1 (Metro).{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Glauber, Bill (October 3, 2002). "War protesters gentler, but passion still burns" (paid archive). Chicago Tribune. p. 1.
    Strausberg, Chinta (October 3, 2002). "War with Iraq undermines U.N." (paid archive). Chicago Defender. p. 1.
    Bryant, Greg (October 2, 2002). "300 protesters rally to oppose war with Iraq". Medill News Service.
    Katz, Marilyn (October 2, 2007). "Five Years Since Our First Action". Chicagoans Against War & Injustice.
  8. ^ U.S. Senate (October 10, 2002). "Roll call vote No. 236 on the Durbin Amendment No. 4865".
    Sweet, Lynn (October 11, 2002). "Durbin loses bid to limit authority" (paid archive). Chicago Sun-Times. p. 7.
  9. ^ U.S. Senate (October 11, 2002). "Roll call vote No. 237 on H.J.Res. 114".
    Goldberg, Michelle (November 11, 2002). "Wellstone was right". Salon.com.
  10. ^ Durbin, Richard (April 25, 2007). "Iraq Supplemental Appropriations Bill". Congressional Record--Senate. pp. pp. S5026-S5028. {{cite web}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
    Lengell, Sean (April 27, 2007). "Durbin kept silent on prewar knowledge" (paid archive). The Washington Times. p. A1.
    Oberman, Keith (April 27, 2007). "5. Changing Tenets". Countdown with Keith Olbermann. msnbc.com.
    SilentPatriot (April 28, 2007). "Sen. Durbin drops bombshells on the Senate floor". Crooks and Liars.
  11. ^ Krol, Eric (May 3, 2007). "GOP goes after Durbin with online ad" (paid archive). Daily Herald. p. 10.
    Byrne, Dennis (May 7, 2007). "Oath upheld, but at what cost?" (paid archive). Chicago Tribune. p. 21.
  12. ^ http://www.house.gov/apps/list/hearing/il10_kirk/sugarbloomberg.html
  13. ^ Dick Durbin: The Debater - TIME
  14. ^ http://harkin.senate.gov/news.cfm?id=255348
  15. ^ http://durbin.senate.gov/gitmo.cfm
  16. ^ http://harpers.org/StabbedInTheBack.html Harper's Magazine, Stabbed in the Back!: The past and future of a right-wing myth]
  17. ^ http://www.newt.org/backpage.asp?art=1843
  18. ^ Durbin Apologizes for Remarks on Abuse
  19. ^ Durbin's Gitmo remarks draw fire back in Illinois
  20. ^ Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) :: News
  21. ^ Durbin Apologizes for Remarks on Abuse
  22. ^ DURBIN STATEMENT OF REGRET (6-21-2005)
  23. ^ The Daily Dish
  24. ^ CT article ]
  25. ^ Daily Kos: Durbin fucked up
  26. ^ The Durbin Abortion Papers
  27. ^ Richard Durbin on Abortion
  28. ^ Excerpt from NBC News' Meet the Press
  29. ^ Parsons, Christi (2007-12-02), "Dick Durbin's Challenge", Chicago Tribune, pp. 15–19, 26–27{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  30. ^ a b "Election Statistics". Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
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Articles

U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Illinois's 20th congressional district
1983 – 1997 		Succeeded by
U.S. Senate
Preceded by U.S. senator (Class 2) from Illinois
1997–present
Served alongside: Carol Moseley Braun, Peter Fitzgerald, Barack Obama 		Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by Senate Democratic Whip
2005 – present 		Incumbent

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