What's a bigger national embarrassment - Gitmo or Durbin?

After his most recent display of malignant partisanship and disregard for our country's security, people in the rest of the country are no doubt wondering, as one writer here speculated yesterday, whether Illinois Senator Dick Durbin has lost his mind.

If you missed the senator's latest, his speech our treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo on June 14, 2005 on the floor of the U.S. Senate, you can read it here, or in this Washington Post story.

Let's just call it the 'Pol Pot or Rice Pilaf—it's all the same' speech, or even better, the 'U.S. Military Are As Bad As Nazis' speech. There they go again, supporting our troops.

Some may be so shocked by the Senator's remarks that they will speculate about his motives. Is he trying to take the heat off of Howard Dean, or trying to appeal to the same moonbats in his party that greet Dean's insane ravings with 'You go, Howard!'?

No, wait, that is the Democratic Party today, the perfunctory statements by certain members of Congress notwithstanding. Those who search for the reasons behind such despicable remarks are unfamiliar with the Senator's long and shameful record. Since it includes enthusiastic and vocal support for the George—Soros funded MoveOn.org, are the Nazi comparisons to American troops really a surprise?

In January, 2004, after CBS refused to sell MoveOn.org an ad on the Super Bowl, Durbin made a speech on the floor of the Senate denouncing this supposed crime against freedom of speech.

Flash forward to March 16, 2005, when the senior Senator from Illinois literally became a cheerleader for this left—wing outfit, ending a speech with a spirited 'Right on, Move on!'

Ah, another proud moment for us citizens of Illinois!

We here in Illinois are used to Senator Durbin making a total fool of himself, although I must admit that his latest leaves even those of us all too familiar with his embarrassing antics stunned, horrified and humiliated once again at the thought of being represented by this pathetic leftist hack. My listeners and I call Senator Durbin 'Eddie Haskell' for his nauseatingly avuncular, soft—spoken demeanor, his constant sighing expressions of sadness over the dishonesty of Republicans, and his obviously phony earnestness. He does the fake sincerity thing almost as well as Diane Sawyer.

Senator Durbin hopes this act will mask his extremist left wing views and distract from his equally appalling voting record. Just to give you an idea of what I mean, in 2000, his ADA (Americans for Democratic Action, the gold standard for liberalism) was a 95. Just to put that in perspective, Barbara Boxer got an 85. Ted Kennedy got a 90.

I hesitate to do what I am about to do because most of us here in the Land of Lincoln are already mortified, but so the rest of the country can appreciate what a disgrace Sen. Durbin has been for sometime, let's recall some of the other episodes in Sen. Durbin's career:

Durbin claims the White House is out to get him
In another episode of an on—going series that could be called 'Democrats and Their Imaginary Friends,' Durbin claims that an anonymous White House staffer is attempting to spread rumors that some of his Senate colleagues want him removed from the Intelligence Committee because of his criticism the war in Iraq in general and that 16 words about Niger in the 2003 State of the Union speech in particular. Once again, Durbin is 'sad' that evil Republicans are persecuting not only him, but that other radiant jewel of ignorance Joseph Wilson. ('Durbin Fights Leak Allegation,' The Hill,
July 23, 2003)

Durbin Revealed to be a sock puppet for NARAL and People for the American Way, Demands to Know Who Let This Get Out
Late in 2003, we got confirmation, in the form of internal memoranda from extreme left—wing groups committed to undo the results of the presidential election, of what we knew all along: Durbin's claims to opposing judicial nominees like Janice Rogers Brown and Miguel Estrada out of  legitimate concerns about 'merit' and 'judicial temperament' were baloney. He takes his marching orders from Ralph Neas and Kate Michelman. He and his leftist colleagues were determined to attempt to unilaterally amend the Constitution, or blow their collective noses on it, if necessary, to keep judges off the bench who will refuse to impose liberalism on the American people.

When these memos were discovered, rather than address the fact that he is a toady for these groups, Durbin went into outrage mode and demanded to know how this information was revealed. Since we are so fond of Nazi comparisons these days, here's one: I suppose that if Durbin's name had been found on a list of administrators at Dachau, he'd suggest that the fact that he marched people into ovens didn't matter. What mattered was how that list got leaked.

Oh, and since we are so enamored of apologies these days, except for Sen. Durbin, who has said he won't apologize for his slander of our brave military, perhaps he might consider an apology to Miguel Estrada, not for the racist remark in the November, 2001 memo which described Mr. Estrada as 'especially dangerous' because 'he is Latino,' but for wasting several years of his life.

Durbin, while railing against those fighting the war on terror, admits on national television that he does not know what he would have done to prevent 9/11. On his 'Hardball' show on MSNBC on January 6, 2005, Chris Matthews asks Dick Durbin about his policy on torture in the context of questioning terrorist prisoners. Here's the question:

'Well, let me give you an example close to home. We picked up Moussaoui, who many people believe was the 20th hijacker. We picked him up before 9/11. If you had been there, the commander on the spot, and you knew that this character knew that something was coming really bad, would you have turned the thumbscrews on him?'

And what does Mr. Accountabilty say? The guy who condemns every action by the adminstration to fight the war on terror? He must have a better idea, right? Not exactly. He replies:

"To stop 3,000 people from dying, I'm not sure what I would have done."

What?! You don't know what you would have done?! But feel free, Senator, to criticize those who are responsible for making the tough decisions. Isn't it nice to have the luxury of sitting back to point fingers at dedicated public servants, self—righteously pound the table demanding that our evil government respect the civil rights of our enemies, and wallow in narcissistic conspiracy theories in which one is the ultimate victim (see above). I am reminded of the memorable quip by the late Susan Sontag:

"I actually envy paranoids. They actually feel people are paying attention to them."

I'm leaving out some other ridiculous stunts, like his recent self—righteous, and easily disproven, denial of religious prejudice against Bill Pryor to his call to investigate Jeff Gannon, but I think the reader can now understand why the only way that the Senator could shock his constituents would be to announce that he has decided to reverse his long—standing procedure and begin to actually honor his oath to uphold the Constitution. What many of us don't understand, and find very discouraging, Is our junior senator Obama's statement during that famous Democrat convention speech,

'Thank you, Dick Durbin. You make us proud.'

Oh, I don't think so, Senator Obama. In fact, since Dick Durbin will not apologize for his treasonous remarks, perhaps we in Illinois should apologize for Dick Durbin.

Teri O'Brien hosts a talk show on Chicago's WLS—AM. Her website can be accessed here.