Free Republic

A South Side pastor who is highly visible in Chicago’s black community endorsed Republican candidate Jim Oberweis on Thursday in his bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin. The Rev. Corey Brooks, pastor of New Beginnings Church of Chicago, said some Democrats had taken the African-American vote for granted and that black voters shouldn’t rule out candidates simply because of their party affiliation. Brooks, who is known as the “rooftop pastor” because he once slept for three months atop a shuttered motel to protest violence, cited Oberweis’ views on education and job creation as well the state senator’s visits to...

Andersonville is a hip, young part of town, supposedly. It’s hard to tell at 8 a.m. on a Friday, because nobody is on the street. Maybe they are all indoors, still waking up from being hip and young until the wee hours the night before. They aren’t missing much today. A gray, drizzly morning. Still, it feels good to settle at a table in the front window at m. henry, a hip, young, lower-case restaurant and bakery on Clark Street. I drink my coffee and look out at the gloom. Customers start filtering in. My pal Dick Durbin, the senior...

WASHINGTON — In the ongoing deficit negotiations, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) is at all the White House meetings and is one of the bipartisan “Gang of Six.” Then there is freshman Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), who is a leading voice of anti-President Obama tea party conservatives. Two Illinoisans, a study in contrasts. Durbin, the number two leader in the Senate, is a voice of reason as an Aug. 2 default deadline looms — willing to take on Democratic sacred cows of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. A deal, Durbin told Illinois reporters on a conference call Wednesday, “requires spending cuts,...

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin this morning joined the chorus of voices calling for Scott Lee Cohen to step aside, even as the embattled Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor gave no indication he plans to do so. “He really should spare himself, and his friends and family what he’s about to go through,” Durbin said this morning in Evanston, speaking to WBBM-AM (780). “I’m afraid the disclosures so far really disqualify him.” On Thursday, Gov. Quinn called for Cohen to step down if he couldn’t adequately explain an October 2005 domestic-battery arrest. also allegedly abused anabolic steroids, displayed fits of rage...

Yesterday by a whopping 87-11 vote, the Senate added as a rider to the passed DC voting rights bill the Broadcaster Freedom Act (BFA). The BFA, if also passed by the House and signed by the President, would kill once and for all the Censorship Doctrine -- also mis-known as the "Fairness" Doctrine. Much Conservative celebration ensued. However, the revelry is misplaced and premature. It means only that the Left means to destroy Conservative and Christian talk radio by other means. Because another rider was added via a party-line 57-41 vote. Written by Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, S.160's Purpose...

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) laid it out pretty clear this week on why the Democrats, who were empowered in 2006 to take “control” of the U.S. Senate and Congress and bring our soldiers home, haven’t been able to do that. Durbin explained that the Senate, for example, needs 67 members to override a presidential veto and that there are now only 51 Democratic Senators in the Senate. That gives Democrats enough votes to “control” key positions in the Senate but not enough to “end the war.” “We have about five Republicans who will join us but that still is...

`Nazi' comment disgraceful By Boston Herald editorial staff Friday, June 17, 2005 The second highest ranking Democrat in the Senate has compared American servicemen and women to Nazis on the floor of that body. Has political debate sunk so low that a comment that hideous can be made by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) without repercussions? Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) lost his leadership position for the lesser if still odious offense of praising Strom Thurmond's presidential campaign which had taken place decades earlier. ``If I read this ... and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what...