Richard Durbin

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Richard Durbin
Senior Senator from Illinois
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 7, 1997– Serving with Barack Obama
Preceded by	Paul Simon
Succeeded by	Incumbent (2009)
Born	November 21, 1944 (age 62) East St. Louis, Illinois
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Loretta Schaefer
Profession	Lawyer, Professor
Religion	Roman Catholic

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.

Contents 1 Early life and family 2 Service in the U.S. Senate 3 2008 election 4 Interest group ratings 5 June 2005 Controversy 6 Issues 6.1 Abortion 7 Trivia 8 Electoral history 9 Footnotes 10 External links

[edit] 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.^[1] 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.

[edit] 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 the 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.

Durbin has a reliably liberal voting record on most issues^[2]. 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 conservative judicial nominations, as well as his efforts to avert the closure of military bases in Illinois.

Durbin was one of the 23 US senators to vote against the Iraq Resolution to employ military force in 2002. ^[3]

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. During his time as the minority whip, he has been noted for his sharp debating skills. Durbin has also been noted for his effectiveness at framing and articulating the Democrats' 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.^[4]

In April of 2006, TIME Magazine listed Senator Durbin as one of the American's 10 Best Senators^[5].

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.^[6]

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.

[edit] 2008 election

Durbin will seek reelection in 2008 to the United States Senate. [1]

[edit] 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.

• AFL-CIO: 85%
• American Association of Retired Persons: 90%
• American Civil Liberties Union:60%
• American Public Health Association: 100%
• Cato Institute: 17%
• Christian Coalition: 0%
• Gun Owners of America: F-
• League of Conservation Voters: 89%
• NARAL: 100%
• National Education Association:91%
• National Rifle Association: F
• National Taxpayers Union:14%
• U.S. Chamber of Commerce: 35%
• Citizens Against Government Waste: 4%

[edit] June 2005 Controversy

Sen. Durbin became a hot media topic on June 14, 2005^[7], 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."

Several prominent conservatives expressed outrage, 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,^[8] while former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich called on the Senate to censure Durbin.^[9] The leader of the Veterans of Foreign Wars also demanded an apology.^[10] Durbin at first refused, but on June 21, 2005, went before the Senate to tearfully apologize for his statement ^[11], 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 during what had quickly become a minor skirmish in the Culture Wars. These included a fomer editor of The New Republic, Andrew Sullivan, who praised Durbin for raising serious moral issues about U.S. policy ^[12]. 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. ^{[13] [14]}

[edit] Issues

[edit] 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. ^[15]

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. ^[16]

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. ^[17]

Durbin's stance on abortion has invited criticism from some within the Roman Catholic Church, which prompted his staff to commission a study which demonstrated that the views of senators within the Democratic Caucus were more consonant with Roman Catholic doctrine, overall, than their Republican counterparts, on issues other than abortion.^[18]

[edit] Trivia

• While Congress is in session, Senator Durbin lives in a rented house with fellow Democratic politicians George Miller, Charles Schumer, and Bill Delahunt. ^[19]

[edit] Electoral history

2002 Illinois United States Senatorial Election

Dick Durbin (D) (inc.) 60%

Jim Durkin (R) 38%

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• United States Senator Dick Durbin official Senate site
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Federal Election Commission - Richard J Durbin campaign finance reports and data
• New York Times - Topics: Richard J. Durbin collection of news stories and commentary
• On the Issues - Richard Durbin issue positions and quotes
• OpenSecrets.org - Dick Durbin campaign contributions
• Project Vote Smart - Senator Richard J. 'Dick' Durbin (IL) profile
• SourceWatch Congresspedia - Dick Durbin profile
• Washington Post - Congress Votes Database: Dick Durbin voting record
• Dick Durbin U.S. Senator official campaign site

Articles

• Nichols, John Dick Durbin: Bush Fighter The Nation, January 27, 2005

Political offices
Preceded by Paul Findley	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 20th congressional district 1983–1997	Succeeded by John Shimkus
Preceded by Paul Martin Simon	United States Senator (Class 2) from Illinois 1997 – Served alongside: Carol Moseley Braun, Peter G. Fitzgerald, Barack H. Obama	Succeeded by Incumbent
Preceded by Harry Reid	Senate Minority Whip 2005–2007	Succeeded by Trent Lott
Preceded by Mitch McConnell	Senate Majority Whip 2007-	Succeeded by Incumbent

Illinois's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators: Richard Durbin (D), Barack Obama (D) Representative(s): Bobby Rush (D), Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D), Dan Lipinski (D), Luis Gutiérrez (D), Rahm Emanuel (D), Peter Roskam (R), Danny Davis (D), Melissa Bean (D), Jan Schakowsky (D), Mark Kirk (R), Jerry Weller (R), Jerry Costello (D), Judy Biggert (R), Dennis Hastert (R), Tim Johnson (R), Donald Manzullo (R), Phil Hare (D), Ray LaHood (R), John Shimkus (R) All delegations: Alabama • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut • Delaware • Florida • Georgia • Hawaii • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky • Louisiana • Maine • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Montana • Nebraska • Nevada • New Hampshire • New Jersey • New Mexico • New York • North Carolina • North Dakota • Ohio • Oklahoma • Oregon • Pennsylvania • Rhode Island • South Carolina • South Dakota • Tennessee • Texas • Utah • Vermont • Virginia • Washington • West Virginia • Wisconsin • Wyoming — American Samoa • District of Columbia • Guam • Puerto Rico • U.S. Virgin Islands