{"id":379103,"date":"2010-03-02T06:00:28","date_gmt":"2010-03-02T11:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/?p=77980"},"modified":"2010-03-02T06:00:28","modified_gmt":"2010-03-02T11:00:28","slug":"2-dick-durbin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/379103","title":{"rendered":"2. Dick Durbin"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_77981\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"width: 490px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/durbin.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-77981\" title=\"Durbin\" src=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/durbin-480x320.jpg\" alt=\"Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) (James Berglie\/ZUMA Press)\" width=\"480\" height=\"320\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) (James Berglie\/ZUMA Press)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Durbin wields considerable power in the Senate as majority whip, the  second-highest leadership post in the Senate. And his ties to the  president extend beyond that formal role. Obama and Durbin are linked by  their home state connection, having both represented Illinois in the  Senate.<\/p>\n<p>Yeas: Durbin grew up in Missouri with a father who worked  as a railroad night watchman and a mother who worked as a switchboard  operator. His father died when Durbin was just 14 and Durbin helped  support the family, in part, by working at a meatpacking plant while  attending high school. Durbin is well-known on the Hill for his penchant  for colloquialisms, a characteristic that contributes to his populist  image. A leader on crafting the current jobs bill, his contempt for  corporate power is well-documented in his public statements, including  one that continues to be quoted during economic debates: &#8220;And the banks  &#8212; hard to believe in a time when we&#8217;re facing a banking crisis that  many of the banks created &#8212; are still the most powerful lobby on  Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place,&#8221; <a id=\"gq.2\" title=\"Durbin said last April\" href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2009\/04\/29\/dick-durbin-banks-frankly_n_193010.html\">Durbin said last April<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Nays:  Durbin may hold the power in the Senate, but he hardly possesses a  strong national profile. In his home state, he&#8217;s been overshadowed by  other political leaders, from the celebrity (Barack Obama) to the  infamous (Rod Blagojevich.) Plus, despite the political power he does  possess, Durbin has disappointed some progressives who believe the  senator could be doing more to advance their causes.<\/p>\n<p>Next: <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/77977\/1-brian-schweitzer\" >1. Brian Schweitzer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) (James Berglie\/ZUMA Press) Durbin wields considerable power in the Senate as majority whip, the second-highest leadership post in the Senate. And his ties to the president extend beyond that formal role. Obama and Durbin are linked by their home state connection, having both represented Illinois in the Senate. Yeas: Durbin grew [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5036,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-379103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5036"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379103\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}