Scott Thomas has an excellent op-ed in the Illinois Leader today about Durbin.
Some excerpts:
As the confirmation hearings for Judge John Roberts take political center stage in Washington, our Senator, the number two man in the Democratic party, Dick Durbin had a chance to make us fellow Illinoisans proud. We knew he’d have the opportunity to give a “welcome” speech to Judge Roberts. He could have been gracious. He could have been non-partisan.
Rather, he took the opportunity to showcase just how much partisan politics, with Senators like Dick Durbin leading the charge, has eroded any and all sense of intellectually honest dialogue in the halls on Congress.
It is, apparently, not sufficient to simply have ideological disagreements. It now appears necessary to misrepresent everything from the constitution to the confirmation procedure, purely for the purposes of framing your point of view.
After congratulating Judge Roberts on his nomination, Senator Durbin quoted his mentor, the late Senator Paul Simon, in asking Judge Roberts what the answer would be to the question of history looking back upon his term as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and asking, “Did you restrict freedom or did you expand it?” Senator Durbin would like to see a Chief Justice that would expand freedom.
Really? Is that the job of the Supreme Court? To, invent new freedoms not already contained in the Constitution?
Here's the kicker, the final paragraph of the column:
Our Senator, my Senator, Illinois’ Senator, Dick Durbin had another chance to make us proud, but once again took the opportunity to let us--all of us, Republican and Democrat--down. Since rising to the position of Minority Whip, he has dumped all pretense of representing the people of Illinois and has embraced his position as opposition pit bull.
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