Doggin' Durbin

At a constituent breakfast, Sen. Dick Durbin rebutted the allegation that he has become a "vicious attack dog" for the Democratic Party.

From your Chicago Defender:

"I think when you have a government that's dominated by one party, the other party can be voiceless and used and step back and say, 'You're in charge. We'll wait until we get our next chance,' or we can speak up," said Durbin. "And I'm going to speak up, and if I get troublesome, I'm sorry."

Sen. Barack Obama said that no one was more concerned about the "poisonous atmosphere" in Washington than Durbin:

"The difficulty that I think we all face is that there are sharp differences and divisions in our own communities about issues like abortion or issues like the Supreme Court or issues like Iraq," said Obama, D-Ill. "What I found is one way to avoid controversy is to just not say anything about it, but that ends up being a certain abdication of leadership."

So let me try to clarify:

• There are two political parties in Congress: the Democrats and the Republicans,
• Currently, the Republicans are the majority party and the Democrats are the minority party,
• Durbin is a leader of the minority party in Congress, i.e. the opposition party,
• As a leader of the opposition party, he will sometimes oppose activities and policies that are bad for our nation, e.g. the cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners at U.S.-controlled detention facilities.
• The use of "vicious attack dogs" is one of the cruel and inhumane treatments of prisoners banned under the Senate resolution sponsored by Sen. John McCain and co-sponsored by Sen. Durbin but opposed by the Bush Whitehouse.

I hope that clears up any confusion.