Mr. Durbin showed his political courage by joining a score of senators in opposing the overly broad Iraqi war resolution. Mr. Durbin said he was "very disappointed" with Congress' brief consideration of such a historic shift in policy, from containment to pre-emption.

The downstate native has been a leader of the congressional probe into the failures of the intelligence agencies prior to Sept. 11, unintimidated by the FBI's investigation of intelligence leaks from Congress. He thinks the Bush administration has released a one-sided account of intelligence findings, burying information that is unfavorable to its case.

Mr. Durbin is an unapologetic liberal. He got a 100 percent score from the League of Conservation Voters and high marks from the AFL-CIO and the Americans for Democratic Action.

One excess on Mr. Durbin's part is his willingness to join in the ideological witch-hunts that have denied judgeships to some highly qualified nominees. Mr. Durbin is right when he says the Bush administration is seeking to overturn Roe vs. Wade through the courts. And he's right when he says the Republicans refused to approve many of President Bill Clinton's nominees. But those justifications don't justify excessive partisanship.

Mr. Durkin, a former Cook County prosecutor, demonstrated his independence by pressing to fix flaws in Illinois' capital punishment system. He is a John McCain-style Republican who favored campaign finance reform. But he doesn't have a firm grasp of national issues.

Publication: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Date: October 22, 2002
Author: Editorial

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