Dick Durbin
Dick Durbin
Richard Joseph "Dick" Durbinis the senior United States Senator from Illinois, in office since 1997. He has been the Assistant Minority Leader, the second highest position in the Democratic Party leadership in the Senate, since 2015...
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth21 November 1944
blind call loyalty policies
the president's call for blind loyalty to his policies in Iraq.
values
We need to know as much as we can and as much as he will tell us about his values and beliefs,
mend patriot
We do not want to end the Patriot Act. We want to mend the Patriot Act.
largest level magnet talent
We are the largest magnet for this level of talent in the world.
hands opportunity
This opportunity is slipping through our hands like grains of sand.
business businesses families family frankly income money needs record unfair
Why is it we're transferring all this family and business income to businesses making record profits? ... I think frankly this is unfair to families and businesses. This money needs to come back to families and the consumer.
powerful believe banking-crisis
And the banks - hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created - are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place.
police needs safe
We can't do much about ensuring that the homeland is safe if our local police and sheriffs' departments don't have the personnel they need to keep our streets and neighborhoods secure.
issues giving long
We have a long way to go, some tough issues ahead of us, and I'm sure there will be some obstacles in the path ... But the good faith effort that's being put into this absolutely is encouraging to me and gives me hope.
years people birth-control
Hard to imagine 40 years ago people could be convicted of a crime, fined, sent to prison for using the most common forms of birth control.
senior country cutting
It simply isn't fair for senators to cut to the front of the line when seniors around the country have been forced to wait for hours to get a flu shot.
senior hurt people
If we do nothing, as the Republicans suggest, we're going to see health care costs reach a point where small businesses can't afford it and families can't afford it. We're going to see people turned down from pre-existing conditions. We're going to find the Medicare doughnut hole - a gap in coverage that's going to hurt a lot of seniors.
veterans-day illinois speech
It is unacceptable that disabled veterans in Illinois rank at the bottom of the list when it comes to disability pay. We owe our disabled veterans more than speeches, parades and monuments.
real writing opportunity
Justice O'Connor was the fifth vote to uphold the time- honored principle, which bears repeating, of separation of church and state. There was real wisdom in the decision of our forefathers in writing a Constitution that gave us an opportunity to grow as such a diverse nation, and we should never forget it.