Dick Durbin's Legacy of Shame

Sen. Dick Durbin will be in the news a lot this month.

Mainstream media outlets have already started praising Durbin for his "Historic" role in the confirmation of the High Court's first black female justice, and it's only going to get worse.

Last month, the Washington Post published a lengthy profile of Durbin highlighting the career politician's determination to "Make history." He could not have asked for a friendlier assessment of his 40-year career in Congress.

The Post examined how Durbin is preparing "To make his star turn on the Senate's biggest stage" by overseeing a historic confirmation that "Would represent a capstone moment in a long, storied career." By achieving the widely anticipated outcome, Durbin would enhance an already "Extensive résumé" and cement "His status as a player in some of the most significant racial advancements in American politics of this generation." The report cites Durbin's "Close association" with Barack Obama as an example.

As David Harsanyi of National Review noted, Durbin and his Democratic colleagues have a long history of using aggressive partisan tactics to befoul the judicial confirmation process.

Several months after President George W. Bush took office in 2001, Durbin and Senate Democrats began plotting with activists to "Change the ground rules" for judicial nominations by insisting that "There was no obligation to confirm someone just because they are scholarly or erudite." Democrats spent the next several years using the filibuster and other procedural tactics to stymie Bush's nominees for federal judgeships.

Perhaps the most egregious example of Democrats blocking a qualified judicial nominee for purely partisan reasons came in 2003, when Durbin and his colleagues repeatedly filibustered the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/dick-durbin-racism/