...Senator-for-Life from Illinois and Democratic Party Whip. In April 2006, Time magazine identified Durbin as one of America's 10 Best Senators,so what's that tell you? He was the first United States Senator to support the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama, then the junior senator from Illinois...
intends to seek the top Democratic spot on the Senate Judiciary Committee, he announced Tuesday, one day after panel Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein said she would step down from the post amid near-universal party consensus against her leading the influential committee."We have to roll up our sleeves and get to work on undoing the damage of the last four years and protecting fundamental civil and human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
," Durbin (D-Ill.) said in a statement announcing his intentions.
Feinstein (D-Calif.) framed her decision to leave her post as a way to better focus on specific policy areas for her state.
In his statement, Durbin thanked Feinstein "for her distinguished leadership on the Judiciary Committee during turbulent years."
The Illinois politician, the No. 2 Democrat on the committee and in the Senate, went on to decry his GOP colleagues and their handling of the committee in the Trump era.
"For the last four years, Republicans leading the Senate Judiciary Committee have turned a blind eye to the worst abuses of the Trump era. While President Trump assaulted the Constitution, the Judiciary Committee abdicated its oversight responsibilities and became little more than a conveyor belt to rubberstamp ideological and largely underqualified judicial nominees," the statement read.
"The to-do list for the Senate Judiciary Committee is long, and of critical importance to the future progress of our country."
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