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 Martin Simon
29th United States Senate Majority Whip
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 4, 2007
Leader	Harry Reid
Preceded by	Mitch McConnell
Member of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois 20th District
In office January 3, 1983 – January 3, 1997
Preceded by	Paul Findley
Succeeded by	John Shimkus
Born	November 21, 1944 (1944-11-21) (age 63) East St. Louis, Illinois
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Loretta Schaefer
Residence	Springfield, Illinois
Alma mater	Georgetown University, Georgetown University Law Center
Profession	Lawyer
Net Worth	$ .6-1.8 million (USD) [1]
Religion	Roman Catholic

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

[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.^[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. He was 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.

After graduating from law school, Durbin started a law practice in Springfield. He was legal counsel to Lieutenant Governor Paul Simon from 1969 to 1972, and then 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 became an adjunct professor at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine for five years while maintaining his law practice.

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

[edit] U.S. House of Representatives

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.

[edit] U.S. Senate

[edit] Campaigns

In 1996, Durbin became the Democratic Party's candidate for the Senate to replace the retiring Democratic incumbent, Paul Simon, a long-time friend. He faced Republican State Representative Al Salvi in the November general election. 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.

In 2000 Durbin was reportedly on the short list of possible Democratic nominees for Vice President of the United States considered 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^[4]. However, Gore ultimately selected Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut to be his running-mate.

Durbin was easily reelected in 2002, in a year when the Democrats won all but one statewide office. In November 2008, he will face Republican Steve Sauerberg in the general election, where he is heavily favored.

[edit] Political actions and positions

[edit] Iraq War

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), responding to the Bush administration's request for 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.^[5] 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.^[6]

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.^[7] 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.^[8]

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.^[9] On October 11, 2002, Durbin was one of 23 U.S. Senators to vote against the joint Congressional resolution authorizing the Iraq War.^[10]

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.^[11] This revelation prompted an online attack ad against Durbin by the National Republican Senatorial Committee.^[12]

[edit] Abortion

As a congressman, 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.^[13]. In 1989, he reversed his position, 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.^[14]

Durbin has said 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.^[15] 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."^[16]

[edit] Other political positions

Among Durbin's 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 for efforts to prevent closure of military bases in Illinois.

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.^[17]

In April of 2006, TIME Magazine listed Senator Durbin as one of America's 10 Best Senators.^[18]

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.^[19]

[edit] Interest group ratings

Durbin's ratings from interest groups indicate how often he votes in agreement with their priorities. Durbin's voting record is very similar to the Democratic caucus position, consistent with his leadership position as Whip, which has the duty of persuading senators to follow the party line in their votes.

• 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: 15%

[edit] June 2005 controversy

Durbin received a lot of media attention on June 14, 2005, 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."^[20]

Durbin’s comments drew widespread criticism 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,^[21] while former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich called on the Senate to censure Durbin.^[22] Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, whose son Patrick was serving in U.S. 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”.^[23] New Mexico Democratic state party chairman, John Wertheim, and Arizona Democratic party chairman Jim Pederson were also critical of Durbin’s remarks.^[24] The leader of the Veterans of Foreign Wars also demanded an apology^[25], as did the Anti-Defamation League^[26] Durbin at first refused, but on June 21, 2005, went before the Senate to tearfully apologize for his statement, saying, "More than most people, a senator lives by his words ... occasionally words fail us, occasionally we will fail words."^[27]

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^[28]. 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.^[29][30]

[edit] Democratic Whip

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.

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] Committee assignments

• Committee on Appropriations
  • Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Defense
  • Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government (Chairman)
  • Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Legislative Branch
  • Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
  • Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
• Committee on the Judiciary
  • Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights
  • Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law (Chairman)
  • Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs
  • Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship
  • Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security
• Committee on Rules and Administration

[edit] Electoral history

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Richard Durbin

• United States Senator Dick Durbin, U.S. Senate site

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• Current Bills Sponsored at StateSurge.com
• Campaign site

[edit] Further reading

• Nichols, John Dick Durbin: Bush Fighter The Nation, January 27, 2005
• New York Times — Topics: Richard J. Durbin collection of news stories and commentary

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