Durbin makes what I regard as a common sense type observation.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

He gets completely shouted down by the RW noise/spin machine and is "forced" to issue some kind of lame semi-apology (the fact that that is how it is reported and perceived is the main thing that is important).

Why could he not have stuck to his guns and simply said, "let's review my exact statement again" etc...

How am I supposed to be encouraged about DSM etc. being in the news when something so defensible as Durbin's remarks wind up with this kind of result?

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Any public assasination of this type gets amplified

by orders of magnitude in DC... that said... I fear he was also threatened, physically threatened.

We live in 1930s Germany and the same tactics that worked then are being used now...

Sooner or later they will come after you and me...

[Goldeneye]

2. He was obviously under a

shitload of pressure. He was almost in tears. His record is good and there is no way I can be upset with Durbin right now. He was at the center of a full on rightwing attack, and he was completely alone.

We need to realize he is only a person. Sometimes I forget that. I know they are supposed to be tough and maybe politicians used to be tougher, but things have changed. The republicans control the media. They had rush limbaugh and newt gingrich calling out the rabid right wingers by the thousands to attack Durbin. We need to back our leaders better if we want them to stand alone in the Senate and fight the beast.

[Qanisqineq]

3. Maybe he apologized just to get the repukes to shut the hell up

and move on to something that is actually IMPORTANT. Like I heard Reid say last Wednesday or Thursday, that the republican noise machine is used to detract from things that are really important.

:shrug:

[Rosco T.]

4. I wish he had said something like this....

I apologize. I'm… sorry. I'm sorry we had to defend ourselves against an unwarranted attack. I'm sorry that your crew was stupid enough to fire on a station filled with a quarter million civilians, including your own people. And I'm sorry I waited as long as I did before I blew them all straight to hell.

As with everything else, it's the thought that counts.

- Captain John Sheridan, Babylon 5 - "The Fall of Night"

[eileen from OH]

5. Oh fer pete's sake. . .

You're not and I'm not.

love Dick Durbin, always have. And Gawd knows why he apologized, or semi-apologized, or faux apologized.

But, in regard to comments below - human being or not, pressure or not, he's also given the rightwing a better target than they had before. By adding even a response, much less a tearful "apology" he's forevermore made the Gitmo abuse story about HIM, rather than about the abuse. How can he ever, credibly, go after it again? How can any Dem, without excruciatingly parsing his/her words (not that they don't do it now) go after it.

The grassroots had his back and he let us down. Jeebus, even some rightwing blogs said he wasn't culpable of anything other than clumsy language and that his POINT was dead on.

I'm guessing he got some Senatorial "advice" from a few guys who haven't been out of D.C. for 20 years along with maybe a few of those priceless political "consultants" who've helped us lose for how many years.

Again, I love Durbin, always have. But I'm extremely disappointed that he has succeeded in helping the rightwing make the story about HIM rather than about the abuse.

Apologies don't work. Period. (Or name me one where they did, okay?)

eileen from OH

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

6. Nixon "Checkers" speech. That's the only one I can think of... eom

[Bluerthanblue]

7. it mattered a HELL of alot to me-

when Bill Clinton apologized for something he never should have had dragged out for the world to see and the details with which the sick and perverted minds obsessed on for
YEARS-

it DID matter to me- He didn't 'owe' me an apology- even though he lied about having an affair- it was none of anyones business outside the people DIRECTLY involved.

It takes a REAL man- a REAL 'christian' to humble oneself- and apologize- it is NOT a sign of 'weakness' or buckling under- but rather a willingness to GIVE UP some 'pride'- or macho bullshit' and say, in a heart felt way "I'm sorry if I offended anyone"-

We don't have to become like those we oppose to win- if we do, if we have to be arrogant and hate-filled and unwilling to move an inch towards finding common ground, then we may 'win' but we will have lost ourselves in the process.

Bush can't admit to ever being wrong- now, what kind of a 'man' is that? a very sad, sick, and selfcentered fool-
and an arrogant dictator- everything he 'claims' to despise in the 'evildoers' is embodied within himself-

[Bluerthanblue]

8. and, quoting Durbin, who

quotes a man i admire greatly:

“Some may believe that my remarks crossed a line. To them, I extend my heartfelt apologies.”

“There's usually a quote from Abraham Lincoln that you can turn to in moments like this. Maybe this is the right one. Lincoln said, ‘If the end brings me out right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, 10,000 angels swearing I was right wouldn't make any difference.’”


His apology was to those who were victims of the holocost, and Russian persicutions- and to those troops serving in Guantanimo, and thier families-

but NOT to those in authority who were and are advocating, encouraging and demanding that the abuses Mr.Durbin and many of us find so deplorable defend- and dismiss as 'ok'- like Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush, and Rice for starters.

[lumpy]

9. In future I hope he makes that abundently

clear. He needs our moral and morale support. He's a brave man who is bucking some pretty stubborn bastards in the Congress. Patience.

[Bluerthanblue]

10. i believe he did- remember it is the

'news clips' that people see, and take at face value-

GO TO THE SOURCE- trust no media- is my motto.
everyone has an agenda- and i agree he does need our support, not OUR condemnation on top of it all.

[FreedomAngel82]

11. I agree

Whenever I bring up that Bush lied to us to a rightwinger I always get the response that "Clinton lied" as well. The difference is Clinton repented to us and probably to God. Bush has yet. He's never wrong. Clinton is more of a man because he apologized and admitted he was wrong to lie to us. Plus, nobody died.

[oasis]

12. Durbin is A-okay in my book. The rightwing is grasping at straws if they

think they this b.s. will discredit him. They tried the same shit with Marcy Kaptur and Patty Murray on remarks they made.

Newsflash to Frist&Co.: Durbin is not a national figure.