Update

Update: 100% of people posting here still disapprove of Sen. Durbin's job performance.

I wish SurveyUSA would release another poll with Durbin's approval rating in IL. I'd like to know whether I have reason to be optimistic this year...

Durbin's Fox News Sunday Appearance

Here's an article deconstructing Sen. Dick Durbin's appearance on Fox News Sunday. And here's the transcript of the show.

And that's all I feel like typing, for now.

Illinois Blogs

Howdy.

So, I removed links to a couple of dead blogs and added a link to Illinois Review. IR has an entire category devoted to Dick Durbin, which you can check out here. Hooray for that!

That's all, for now.

Teri O'Brien

890 WLS AM radio personality Teri O'Brien has a page of Durbin.-related articles, including some written by her, here.

Bipartisan legislation?!

Regarding the president's State of the Union address:

"Durbin said people were looking for new ideas that were lacking in the president's speech, specifically more detail on how to resolve the health-care crisis."

"Sen. Durbin was right. Bush didn't spend much time on healthcare. Maybe that's because Bush doesn't have the answers to rising costs. So Durbin should support the president's call for a bipartisan solution to increasing Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid costs - the latter two being major factors in increasing healthcare costs for everyone. Earlier, the president offered and Democrats rejected his solution to Social Security, which prompted the only demonstrative Democratic jeering during his speech. But as the president reminded them, 'the problem is not going away.'" (article)

Amen, yeah buddy! Durbin should support the call for a bipartisan solution to these problems. Although he will probably continue to whine and attack and to highlight failures made by the president or others in Congress, wouldn't it be great if Durbin could work with fellow senators to get something done?

Everyone should demand this of Durbin: Less talk and more action!

What do YOU want the government to do?

"But while all people want America to be safe, most people really want the government to improve their lives."

--Sen. Dick Durbin, 2/03/2006

Is that most people want the government to do? To improve their lives? Are people so helpless that they need the government to step in and make things better? Isn't it up to people themselves to improve their lives?

Well, I, for one, don't trust Durbin's notion of "improvement" and don't want him "improving" my life.

Article

Poll: 65% of Illinois Residents Are Clueless

Approval ratings of all the U.S. senators have been announced by Survey USA. January's approval ratings show: 52% of those surveyed approve of Sen. Durbin's job performance, 13% are unsure, and 34% understand that Sen. Durbin is just awful.

See the survey: here.

Also, sorry for the lack of posts. "My bad," as the cool kids say.

Durbin on Face the Nation

Dick Durbin was on CBS' Face the Nation today. I didn't think it was a particularly interesting segment, but maybe others did/will. Read the transcript here.

Durbin Meets Alito

Sen. Dick Durbin met with judge Samuel Alito, today. And, after the meeting, Durbin came across as open-minded. But coming across as open-minded and actually being open-minded are two different things. Dick Durbin is about as narrow-minded as it gets. The president could've nominated a clone of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Durbin would vote against her because she was nominated by a Republican. So here's my prediction, and I know I'm not going out on much of a limb -- Durbin will vote "nay" when it comes time to confirm or reject Alito.

Here's the thing -- Durbin voted against the confirmation of John Roberts. What would make Durbin support a candidate like Alito, who is as conservative as Roberts? It's not as if Alito has a more impressive legal background. He's qualified, to be sure, but so was John Roberts.

Dick Durbin talks as if he's reserving judgment. He's not. His mind is made up. And he will vote against Alito. Durbin had this to say about Alito: "Although he didn't go quite as far as John Roberts did in his hearing, he satisfied me that he recognized this to be one of the unenumerated rights in the Constitution, and he led me to believe that he felt that it was an established right. I think he believes in the fundamental right to privacy." Alright, so, Alito's words didn't satisfy Durbin as much as Roberts' did. And what Roberts told Durbin wasn't good enough to earn him a "yea" vote. So...

The search continues...

Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination to become a Supreme Court justice, leading to a search for a replacement candidate. Who will that candidate be? Sen. Dick Durbin described the type of person he'd like to see on the bench:

"Durbin says the person who replaces Miers as the nominee should have a moderate, balanced approach and be not too far to the right and not too far to the left." (article)

Hmm... This sounds sensible, which is suspicious, seeing as it's coming from Durbin. The problem is, I think, that Durbin has a skewed conception of the terms "moderate," "right," and "left."

...

New Poll: 60% of Illinois Voters Are Clueless

Alright, so, every month Survey USA comes out with polls tracking the approval/disapproval ratings of each US senator. And this month's results just came out. And Illinois' senior senator, Dick Durbin, still has a higher favorability rating than he deserves, at 50%.

There is some good news, though. A recent Tribune poll said that only 26% of Illinoisans disapproved of Durbin's performanace. The Survey USA poll says that 40% of people disapprove. I hope Survey USA is right, and I hope more and more people realize what a joke Dick Durbin is. Among young people, the target audience of this blog, 48% approve, 40% disapprove, and 12% aren't sure. Some anti-Durbinite should get the attention of my peers and expose Durbin by running anti-Durbin ads during The OC or One Tree Hill or whatever it is my generation is choosing to watch!

See the poll here.

Durbin on the War

Support for the war in Iraq certainly seems to have waned here in the US. And Dick Durbin is one of many people to have voiced concern about the direction the war is taking. Recently, Durbin had this to say:

"Words of tribute are in order to honor the sacrifice of these brave men and women and their loved ones. But words are not enough. We owe them leadership and a clear strategy to bring our troops home with their mission truly accomplished." (article)

Durbin, stepping up to the plate and exercising the leadership abilities he spoke of, outlined his clear strategy to bring the troops home. Oh, wait, no. No, Durbin did NOT do that.

Dick Durbin is not a leader. He can find problems, but can't come up with solutions. Illinois deserves better.

A Matter of Pressing Importance

Sen. Dick Durbin sure does make the most of his time, doesn't he? He's been griping a lot lately, but at least he's coming up with solutions for all the things that are bugging him.

What's on Dick's mind? Well, we've got those poor prisoners in Guantanamo. And, the war in Iraq isn't going so smoothly. And, well, the president's judicial nominees just don't seem to cut it.

Fortunately for Illinois voters and the rest of the nation, Dick Durbin doesn't just dish out criticism, he offers meaningful feedback. And Sen. Durbin has a secret plan that will end prisoner abuse, win the war in Iraq, AND ensure that only the best, brightest, and fairest nominees make it to the Supreme Court bench. Are you ready for Durbin's top-secret plan? Are you?!? Well here it is: talk about baseball. That's right, baseball:

"(AP) WASHINGTON Illinois Senator Dick Durbin has an explanation for why it was so, so easy for the Chicago White Sox to win their first American League pennant in 46 years.

And he offered it today on the floor of the U.S. Senate." (article)

Durbin on Fox News Sunday

Chris Wallace grilled Dick Durbin on Fox News Sunday, yesterday. In case you missed it, read the transcript here.

The issues covered on the show:

The war on Iraq. Chris Wallace pointed out what was going right. Dick Durbin highlighted what he views as errors. Durbin, of course, offered no solutions to the problems he mentioned. Wallace caught Durbin on this, saying: "frankly, in your answer, I still didn't hear a plan."

The CIA leak case. ::yawn::

Harriet Miers. Dick Durbin said it was wrong of the president to bring up Harriet Miers' religion to drum up support for her, to which Wallace replied: "I've got to ask whether you were hypocritical, because you talked with Judge Roberts about his faith, the faith that you share, the Catholic faith, and what role that would play. So aren't you playing — didn't you bring up the religion issue just as much as the White House?" Why, yes! Dick Durbin is hypocritical. I'm glad someone called him on it!

The more Dick Durbin talks, the clearer his strategy to win his next election becomes. Here's his plan to stay in office, best as I can tell: criticize the president at every opportunity. I don't care if Dick Durbin likes or dislikes the president. I don't care if Illinois voters like or dislike the president. I do care that Dick Durbin can level plenty of criticism, but he can't offer any constructive feedback. C'mon, Dick, think of something brilliant! Get something done!

Dick Durbin is simply inept as a senator, and that's that.

Poll: 78% of Illinois voters are clueless

According to a recent Chicago Tribune poll:


"Fifty-two percent of voters approve of Durbin, while 22 percent disapprove. Twenty-six percent offered no opinion of his performance in the Senate, where he serves as the assistant Democratic leader. His approval rating is virtually unchanged since a similar poll was taken in May." (article)

::sigh::

What is wrong with this state?!?

If you have a blog or a website and you are among the 22% of Illinoisans who are sensible, please consider linking to Students Against Dick Durbin. We are dedicated to exposing Dick Durbin for what he is -- wrong on the issues, and wrong for Illinois.

New Link

I added Illini Pundit to my list of Illinois-oriented political blogs some time ago. Well, I recently came across another, similar-sounding blog -- Illinois Pundit.

I like Illinois Pundit, so I'm adding it to the list o' blogs.

Here's a link to Illinois Pundit's recent post about Durbin's proposed tax increase on oil companies: blog entry. What?!? Durbin supports higher taxes?!? What else is new? ::sigh::

Durbin's Double Standards

I'm as confused as anybody else when it comes to the president's latest judicial nominee, Harriet Miers. I don't know if she's qualified or not or whether to support her or not. But I do know this: Dick Durbin has a double standard.

After meeting with Miers, Durbin asked this: "If she ends up satisfying the extreme right, where does that leave the rest of [t]he country?" (article) I would ask Sen. Durbin this: you've ended up satisfying the extreme left, where does that leave the rest of the state?

Congratulations!

Congratulations and thanks To Ms. Stephanie D!

Stephanie has succeeded me as president of Students Against Dick Durbin at the University of Illinois, and I couldn't be happier. When I started SADD last year, I had hoped the organization would grow steadily such that there would be a strong, committed group of students ready to help defeat Sen. Durbin in 2008. I have no doubt that Stephanie will continue to expand the organzation and that she will be an able president.

So, congrats again, Stephanie on becoming President of Students Against Dick Durbin for the 2005-2006 school year! Thank you for taking over the reins and good luck!

(*Note to readers: I, Matt S., will continue to be the primary blogger for SADD)

Big surprise

I was out of the country for a week, hence the lack of posting. But, I'm back, now.

So, Dick Durbin voted against John Roberts?!? Big freakin' surprise. I guess that puts the matter to rest. But I'm sure Durbin's judicial obstruction will continue to be a serious issue...

Robert Novak Article

Jim Edgar becomes governor, Dick Durbin loses his Senate seat? Whatever it takes:

"Beyond the governorship, Democrats see Edgar reviving Republicans for 2008 in the Chicago suburbs. Democratic suburban growth has paced the party's current domination of Illinois.

Edgar as governor, according to this theory, would not only put Illinois in play for the presidential election but also endanger 2008 re-election prospects for Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin."

Read Bob Novak's article.