Free Republic

It appears that Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) broke Senate ethics rules by improperly using the Senate seal on a campaign video. By visiting Senator Durbin's YouTube channel, you will see that it is titled "Dick Durbin For Senate," gives his campaign website (not his Senate website) as its URL, and even describes the channel as "All the latest videos from Senator Dick Durbin's re-election campaign." Posted on Dick Durbin's YouTube channel is a video he recorded for the YearlyKos Convention, which we all know is a gathering of liberal bloggers/activists, otherwise known as the "netroots." Seen on the video is...

Congress is grappling with a hot button issue - immigration legislation that would make a college education tens of thousands of dollars cheaper for illegal students than U.S. citizens. The controversy stems from the senate bill S.B. 2611, the so-called "DREAM Act," which would allow states to offer in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. Currently, that practice is banned under the federal Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. It prohibits public colleges from favoring undocumented students by offering them in-state tuition rates, unless those same rates are extended to all U.S. citizens regardless of their state of residency....

Every once in a while I start asking myself the same question, “What can be the motivation of someone like Senator Leahy, who was tossed off the Senate Intelligence Committee for leaking classified information, or of Senator Durbin, who compared Guantanamo to Hitler’s death camps and called our soldiers, Nazis?”. Is it really just politics that drives them – a desire to regain power at any cost – even at the expense of the security of our country or of the lives of our soldiers? They certainly are not stupid men; they are US Senators; they must understand the consequences...

Two Sandra Day O'Connors have served as Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court. It makes a world of difference which one President Bush chooses to replace. First, we look at the late O'Connor, the one who is retiring. The L.A. Times asserted this week that O'Connor “alone was in the majority of every one of the court’s 13 5-4 decisions this last term.” There are two tiny problems with this assertion. There were 24 such decisions this Term. And, Justices Souter and Scalia were in the majority in them more often than Justice O’Connor. See SCOTUSBlog for the facts....

<p>FReepers from the DC Chapter conducted a FReep of Senator Richard Durbin at a Democrat fundraiser on June 21. DNC Chair Howard Dean, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid  of Nevada were among those in attendance in addition to Senate Minority Assistant Leader Durbin of Illinois.</p>

Some readers are angry that I made light of the politics surrounding the treatment of suspected terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay. They're upset that I didn't take it seriously. OK. I'll take it seriously, particularly statements by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who compared Guantanamo to Hitler's camps, Stalin's gulags and the Cambodian killing fields of the Khmer Rouge. Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot murdered roughly 50 million people. At Guantanamo, suspected terrorists have been made uncomfortable, including a minion of Osama bin Laden's who was forced to listen to Christina Aguilera tunes. But I haven't heard of anyone...

Comments this week from Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., about the treatment of Al Quaida prisoners at Guantanamo Bay angered the wife of at least one local serviceman who helped guard the detainees. Danette Lemkee said her husband, Brian Lemkee, of the U.S. Army 339th Military Police, couldn't comment about Sen. Durbin's statements in which he compared the actions of Americans at Guantanamo Bay to Nazis, Soviet gulags and a "mad regime" like Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. However, she said the comments upset her. She challenged the senator to come to Arsenal Island where she and her family are stationed...

Reader Scott Wright raises an excellent point regarding Senator Durbin's comments: Senator Durbin's comments comparing mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay by U.S. military interrogators to that of Nazis are particularly ironic considering the fact that most of the allegations of mistreatment seem to be in regard to "Prisoner 063", Mohammed al-Qahtani otherwise known as "the 20th hijacker". As most Americans already know, Mr. al-Qahtani had planned to be onboard United Airlines flight 93, which is believed to have been headed for the Capitol building before the four hijackers on board were overpowered by passengers. If Mr. al-Qahtani had been...

Pro-abortion/gay rights Catholic Senator Durbin highlighted for "keeping the faith" media-hypocrite style...   Last week in Washington, Sen. Dick Durbin once again found himself at odds with the Roman Catholic Church. After an emotional debate on the Senate floor, the Illinois Democrat voted against a bill that made harming an unborn child a federal crime. He then flew to Chicago, where despite a packed schedule he made it to Sunday mass at Old St. Patrick's Church in the West Loop. "You can't have me until after mass on Sunday," the senator said in an interview last week in his...