YouSaid · the spoken record

Dick Durbin

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57
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2016-01-18
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2016-01-18
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  1. “Well, because he was only in the Senate as a voting member for a very brief period of time. And I'm sure he was looking to ultimately where his career would lead. But survival is an instinct. It's human and it's political too. And that's why people hold back. But I tell you, the most impressive people don't think twice about that, and they'll say as much. I don't care if this cost me the election. It's the right thing to do. That's what Paul Wellstone said in the will of the Senate as he cast that vote against the war in Iraq. And I went up to him in his reelection campaign. I said, I hope this doesn't hurt Japa, Paul. And he said, it's okay if it does. This is who I really am. This is what I believe. And I think people respect that, even if they disagree with your position.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Barack has a different style. He's raising his family with small children and doing it extremely well. And I think he really focuses more on that family time and personal time, private time. But he does reach out, and members of Congress should be fair in acknowledging that.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Many of them compare him to Bill Clinton, and that's unfair. Bill Clinton is sui generous. He is just one political personality that is truly unique, and he was so outgoing and so social to an extreme. I mean, I sit here with some embarrassment and tell you that I've turned down at least three or four invitations to play golf with President Clinton when he was president. I just got tired of him. Do you want to take his money? No. Well, I'm not that good at it, but he just called like every other week and I thought, am I the only person? You know, and he was very garrulous, very social to a fault.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “They don't speak openly about any of those things, but I sense the reactions to him are disrespectful in many respects, people calling him a liar at a State of the Union address, that sort of thing. I'd never quite seen anything like that before”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “I think it was part of it. He might deny that, but whenever he's asked, tries to play that down. But I think it was part of it. And there were people who opposed him from the start because he was the Democratic president. But this became a part of the equation of opposition against it.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “I have always admired and I think you too have admired his patience. I look at the political assaults that he weathers and think I would have blown my top. He's calm, he's patient, and I think that steady hand, the no drama Obama style has been an important part of his presidency. He's tackled some of the toughest issues not only of his generation but before, whether we're talking about providing health insurance for people or cleaning up Wall Street after the worst recession in modern times. These things to me will be a lasting mark. There are so many others that we don't see now but we'll find over time a part of that Obama legacy.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “For many things the first African American president of the United States taking his oath of office on Abraham Lincoln's Bible. That to me was an historic moment which this country desperately needed and will continue to need similar moments like it in the future.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “For president. For president, about a year and a half before the Iowa caucus said to him, you've got to do this. You're young enough if it doesn't work, you'll get another chance. But you have an appeal which is important, and you and Hillary together, if you can combine your forces after this process, we can win the presidency. But I'll support you. So I endorsed him. I was the first senator to endorse him for 14 months. I was the only senator who endorsed him, and then others joined. But I've disagreed with him, but I've never been disappointed by him. I believe he is genuine and honest. His values are values that I share and hope will be part of our country for a long time.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “What was interesting was you know that the convention floor is going to go crazy. People have spent a lot of their personal money to go out there and wear funny hats, buttons and go crazy. But you wondered what will happen afterwards. Well, we know what happened afterwards. There was this dramatic reaction. He came back within 24 hours. He was on a bus, headed to Northern Illinois, and I was following him around. And I couldn't believe the crowds. And I thought something amazing has just happened here. So you ask, why did I pick this man out and how did I manage to tame my political ego to support him? He was a special person, and I could see it. And that's why I encouraged him to run and said to him.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “Well, that's very unsuccessful. And he called me afterwards and he basically said to me, I've got a lot of offers to do a lot of other things with my life. What do you think? Should I stick around this thing? I mean, I don't want to keep commuting to Springfield for the rest of my life. And I said, you know, it's a funny business. Twists and turns and opportunities are going to emerge and don't give up on it. I don't know what impression that made on him. He stuck around four years later, Fitzgerald, Peter Fitzgerald, retires as Illinois senator, and Barack runs for that. And I remember you played a major role in Barak's speech to the Democratic Convention in Boston, and I introduced him. It was a famous introduction. People asked me for copies all the time. Yeah, that's what people remember most about that speech.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “So So Loretta invited him and Michelle to dinner. They might have had one child at the time, but they were just newly married. I could remember seeing him down when I was new to the Senate or campaigning for the Senate, pushing a stroller down by Lake Michigan. So we go that far back. We became friends. There was a point in his career when he was a state senator, and he ran unsuccessfully for Congress against Bobby Rush in the Democratic primary.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “I think the first thing I noticed was this man had written a popular book, an autobiography, and I thought to myself how many state senators across America have written a bestseller autobiography one Barack Obama.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “Well, let's see now as we put this program together, no votes have been counted. So we'll see what actually happens. Yeah, yeah, no, we will see”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “Can they really do all of these things that test us in terms of our basic values and establish a winning presidential coalition? They may prove that their test disqualifies themselves from the presidency in the twenty first century, at least this stage.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “Governor Nikki Haley comes out in the answer to the State of the Union and basically said, we don't have a place for these angry voices in the Republican Party. So they are concerned and rightly should be concerned. Because when you put together the Republican strategy and say, can they really go after Planned Parenthood, which is so popular with women across America, and take positions on issues, economic issues that are critically important to women who are trying to raise a family by themselves? Can they really go after all of the Hispanics and especially Mexicans and say we're going to write off this group? They lost the Asians, incidentally, when they went after immigrants in the last presidential election by three to one.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “That he's not going to vote for Trump if he's the nominee, said I'm not going to vote. That, I think, is what happened in 1964 with Goldwater, when the base of the Republican Party said, we don't agree with this man's views, we're just staying home. So I wonder if that will happen here. It's too little totally.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “Philip, you may remember his name, wrote an article in the Washington Post either today or yesterday. Phil wrote. And he basically said, here's why I'm not going to vote for.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “carefully weaves his own philosophy and rips his opponents to shreds, which he's tried to do to me a few times. Trump is another thing. It's hard to explain that this kind of demagogue could be this popular for so long in this campaign. When you think of the things that he has said that would have disqualified any other candidate for president and gets by with it, it's an incredible testament. Dickens.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “Really, that's why he's appealing to some. But in the end, I worry because I used to sit in a subcommittee on Constitution, human rights, and civil rights, which I chaired. He was my ranking Republican and literally sat right next to me, chair against chair. And so I watched this guy as he, the senator, as he explained his positions on issues, and I watched he's not dumb by any means, how he counts.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “That's another question. And he called Mitch McConnell a liar on the floor of the Senate, his own Republican leader. So he doesn't have a lot of friends, a lot of people, George Herbert Walker both.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “What an understatement. He has one friend in the Senate, Mike Lee of Utah. I mean, just lay the cards on the table. And beyond that, the Republican Senate caucus, and I talk to him regularly, has no use for him. He closed down the government and what they thought was a boneheaded stunt where he's reading Dr. Seuss, and people are saying, why did he close down the government?”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “Think she needs to take care. I'm encouraged by the fact that when I talk to the Sanders voters and say, okay, if it isn't Bernie, oh, we're all for Hillary. I hear that. I hope she doesn't burn any of those bridges. We need them. We need the party unified when it's all over.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “Well, right now it's hand to hand combat in Iowa, and I don't think that's going to work. If anything, it's going to inspire his supporters to be sure and vote and bring out some people with him. But I know the temptation when you think, for goodness sakes, if we can just turn a couple percent here, you know, we could end up being the nominal winners of this, and it could make a difference. So on a day-to-day basis, you know this better than I do, you know, the strategists, campaign strategists, trying to figure out all the news cycles and how to move a slivery of the electorate.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “Ed memories But I think she's going to catch her stride, and I think she will by the 1st of March. And I expect her to be an nominee.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “It is quaint, but it brings out some real true believers. You get the party faithful in both parties coming out there. And I think that Bernie is going to have his troops show up there. And Hillary's going to do her best to beat him. But it could be close and he could end up winning that, maybe even his neighboring state of New Hampshire.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “their neighbors and I remember going in'88 when I was with you with Paul Simon and going to one of these schools and as you walked in the door they said Republicans and a cafeteria Democrats in a gymnasium and you think this is the democratic process and then all right those for Simon get over in the corner there”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “I'm supporting Hillary. I endorsed her, and I believe she will be our nominee and elected president. But Bernie Sanders can be explained in a few words. Speech that you hear Bernie Sanders giving on the stump in every stop in America is the same exact speech that he has given in the Senate Democratic Caucus lunch for the last several years. I could give this speech. And I say that to really point to the authenticity and credibility of this man when it comes to this issue of economic justice. He believes it to his core. Do you? I do too, and I think we should. And I think he is moving the debate, the national debate and certainly the democratic in this election year. You know Iowa on a first hand basis with Paul, with Barack. And other experiences you've had.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “and particularly to give those guilty of drug offenses that don't involve a gun, a gang, or violence, a chance to have less time in prison. So things do break through, and what an alliance we have. It isn't just grassley, corn and Durban, and Leahy. This is supported by the civil rights community and by the Koch brothers. Go figure.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “And there were progressive Republicans, John Chafee of Rhode Island, good example. I look back at Olympia Snow. Susan Collins still there and still hanging in there, thank goodness, from the state of Maine. But in terms of Arl Inspector, in terms of Republicans that you could turn to and work with to get solutions fewer and fewer those are available. And it means that many things are just blatantly partisan. Now there's an exception. Let me give you one. The president kicked off a State of the Union address the other night talking about there's some things we can do this year. The first thing he said was criminal justice reform, and this is a bill that I introduced with Mike Lee, a tea party Republican of Utah, and now have joined forces with Chuck Grassley, Conservative Republican of Iowa, that we're pushing forward, that's going to change mandatory minimum federal sentences to reduce prison population.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “dramatically and this sounds partisan I'll say it anyway I think my friends and I do have friends on the Republican side of the aisle are more vulnerable than Democrats because the Tea Party sits in waiting and if they are some of the group feels that they've wandered off of the party doctrine they'll take them on in a primary I can't tell you how many times I've been told you know I'm sorry you know Dick I can't join you on this issue here in the Senate it's a tax issue you know no matter what it is if the word tax is in it so they've reached a point now where it's really hurt them”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “At the same time we're seeing a communications network that goes beyond the traditional. When I started, can you get a news adjacency for your television ad? Can you put your television ad on Thursday night the biggest night of the week on the networks? That's not so much the case. It's now a question of tell me about your Facebook page. What are you tweeting on a regular basis? How many followers do you have? Whatever a Snapchat is are you doing it? All these things have created a new social media, and I'm wondering at the end of the day if we have democratized, decentralized to the point where raising money and delivering a message is at least attainable, but whether the massive amounts that can be spent on campaigns by those who have these benefactors won't overwhelm it.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “And the question is whether or not they will spend it in this next race. And as I say, the mere mortals in politics look around and say, how do we keep up with this? That's one major change. The second major change is one that I'm struggling to understand. For the state of the Union address, my press secretary came in and said we need for you to do a Snapchat. I didn't have a clue what they were talking about, but it turns out to be a ten second video. Literally ten second video. I went eleven seconds. They said we have to do it over again. But the communication systems are kind of changing things. We're seeing with the emails and internet this low bore small contributions which can make a campaign, ask Bernie Sanders. Right.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “pushing money their way so they can stay in the running. We have decentralized politics from political parties into these oligarchs, as you described, who really picked their favorite candidates and push them forward. On the state scene here, I mean, we take a look around and say we have a governor who's fortunately for him a very wealthy man, and he can spend a lot of his own money. He has friends with even more money”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “I can remember when Paul Simon left. He served twelve years and said I'm sick and tired of raising money. And he wouldn't, if he were alive today, he wouldn't believe where we are. We're now living in a world because of citizen United where vast amounts of money are being spent. And in the super pack world, which is separate and dark and secret, a lot of money is being spent. We don't know where it's coming from. If you notice, there are, as we speak here, eleven or twelve candidates, Republican candidates for president. Virtually everyone still in the running has some benefactor, some very rich person.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “I haven't found any of the twenty three of us who voted against it who said we wish we had it to do over again, but I've certainly run into a lot of the sixty seven who voted for it, who wishes they could vote again. It was the biggest single foreign policy mistake of my lifetime, maybe of modern times, and we're paying for it today.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  36. “I always say that votes on going to war are the toughest votes. You lie awake at night. You think people are going to die because of this vote, not just the enemy, but our own people are going to die because of it. Keeps you up late at night. The Iraq vote was one of those. It was just a few weeks before my reelect I didn't have a tough race that year, but it was a time when you had to think twice about it. Public sentiment was overwhelmingly in favor of the invasion of Iraq, and I decided to join twenty two others in voting against that war. I knew at the time it was the right thing to do, but I didn't know if I was pushing it too far at the last minute in a campaign.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  37. “Some will walk away and never come back, but a lot of them will stick around and say, you know, I don't agree with it, Simon, on that issue. But he was at least honest with me. He gave me a straight answer. And that, to me, has been a motivating force. Try to educate the voters. At least let them know that you're dealing with these issues in an honest fashion.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  38. “The two paws when you do those things? You know, the political gospel, according to the Saints Paul. And I would say that each of them, in their own way, was willing to step out and take some heat on issues. For Douglas, he took on the banks, you know, when it came to truth and lending. That was one of his passions. And he didn't have a chance. He never passed it during his career eighteen years in the Senate. For Paul Simon, here he was in southern Illinois a congressman defending the sale of the Panama Canal, you know, and the bailout of New York City. None of those things had any appeal whatsoever down there, if anything, they cost him votes. But they had an approach to this, David, which I think, I believe, and that is even if you're going to disagree with the majority, do it in an honest, forthright way. Don't fudge around with your answers. Tell them exactly where you stand and why.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  39. “Well, if you recall when he ran in the Democratic primary for governor nineteen seventy two against Dan Walker and lost, he got in trouble because he said the contempt. He talked about increasing the income tax for our schools around the state. It was an honest answer, but it cost him.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  40. “That as well as he was a fiscal conservative when it came to it, he and I parted ways on the balance budget constitutional amendment.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  41. “He really stood out, he came to the Illinois House of Representatives when he was elected there, teamed up with Abner McFa, Tony Scariano, Bob Mann, a group of the Kosher Nostra, as I called it, and Paul then met his future wife Gene Simon, who was Jean Hurley, a state representative from the Evanston area. I think they were the only, they were certainly he was the only one from downstate who listed in his blue book biography in Illinois that he was a member of the NAACP. As you said, he really was, you know, stuck his neck out early in his political life for things he believed in, inspired by his father, who was a Lutheran minister, who stood up for the Japanese Americans who were interred during World War II. Paul told that story so many times I knew that stuck with him.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  42. “Never made much, drove an old Chevy most of the time. But student loans and the rest. But I've done it ever since, every year. Full disclosure, income, net worth. And folks, as Paul used to say, they can question your judgment on an issue. Just don't have them question your honesty on an issue. So I've always felt that that was kind of an inoculation against some of the terrible things that have happened in Illinois politics. I happened to start off with a fellow who was pretty clean, very clean, and very honest.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  43. “Those were the two things that guided him. And so he got into this income and net worth disclosure thing, which I had to sign up for fresh out of law school when I went to work for him when he was Lieutenant Governor. Think of the embarrassment of a negative net worth that you then put into a press release. Poor Loretta, I mean, she was just almost in tears, but with all that sense.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  44. “A lot of practice at it. And endorsed me, supported me, and got me moving, gave me some basic rules. I remember some things he said. Some of them many people would disagree with. But he said there are two things you've got to do in public life. You've got to be honest and you've got to help the helpless.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  45. “More than any other person, and he was my mentor. Douglas situation. Simon, my mentor. And the nice thing about Paul was whenever I'd lose, he'd pick me up, dust me off, and say, you know, we'll look for another chance.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  46. “My mother was an immigrant from Lithuania, brought here at the age of two, father's family goes back before the Revolutionary War, and my mother came, as I mentioned, from Lithuania, grew up in East Saint Louis, that Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, when you landed at Baltimore, gave you two destinations Chicago and St. Louis. She took the Saint Louis route for the Lithuanians instead of coming up here where most of the Lithuanians came to, and that's why I ended up on the other end of the state growing up.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  47. “Durbin. And I think that this hole is getting deeper. So it became my political nom de plume and I loved him. He inspired me. He was such an honest, ethical man, a real liberal. And I think I started at least speculating that maybe I could get involved in government. I'd been at the School of Foreign Service at that point.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  48. “That's right. So I'm his intern. He had a practice in his office that he signed every letter that it went out. Can you imagine? We get ten thousand letters and emails a week now, but in those days not as many, and they were all typed answers. So at five o'clock every night they would stack up all of the letters for him to sign. He has one arm. He needs help. An intern sits next to him. So they said Durban, get in there, sit next to him, pull the letters as he signs them, and try not to breathe. So I was sitting there in mortal fear that I would disrupt this great man's thought patterns, and he stops in the middle of signing his letters and says So you're Dick Durbin from East Saint Louis, Illinois and I thought nobody in the world's ever called me Dick Durbin. It's rich, it's Durb, it's all these things never call. And I think I can't start off by correcting him. The next thing his personal secretary, Jane Inger, walks in, and he says, Jane, have you met Dick?”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  49. “He used to talk about preparing to go to Paris Island doing laps here at University of Chicago at the stadium, their football field. He goes into combat, insists on going into combat, gets a terrible wound, lost the use of his left arm much like Bob Dole, came back, run for the Senate, nineteen forty eight.”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  50. “50 years old went through basic training at Paris Island. He was a PhD in economics. They tried to stick him in the war department”

    2016-01-18 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 24 - Sen. Dick Durbin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source