Durbin pushes Obama agenda as first friend in Senate

In late 2004, Senator Dick Durbin looked like he might go national. The Illinois Democrat was ascending to his party's No. 2 post in the Senate. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, considered him as a running mate.

Durbin, though, saw a star rising in his just-elected Senate colleague from Illinois, Barack Obama. He let the newcomer take the spotlight. In 2006, he encouraged Obama to run for president, providing critical validation for his candidacy.

Durbin's early support -- and his willingness to subsume his own ambitions -- have helped turn the 64-year-old lawmaker into the new president's unofficial First Friend on Capitol Hill, playing a leading part in delivering on the administration's agenda.

"Everybody has to have some group of people whose relationship is more than a close political relationship," said David Axelrod, a senior adviser to Obama. "I don't think he has a better friend in the Congress than Dick Durbin."

Durbin helped Obama, 47, achieve his first major legislative success, the $787 billion economic-stimulus bill. Durbin was in constant contact with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, brokering talks among the president's team, the three Republican senators who supported the bill and the legislators drafting it.

"His approach is not to scream and yell or to attract attention but to quietly try and make his case," said Representative Jerry Costello, an Illinois Democrat who has known Durbin since high school. "Durbin is the person convincing other senators to support legislation."

In the tradition-bound Senate, it is unusual for a state's junior member to take a senior role.

When a junior senator "all of a sudden overshadows the senior senator, that's usually not a good thing," said Representative Luis Gutierrez, an Illinois Democrat. With Durbin and Obama, "there wasn't that kind of jealousy."

It's a familiar role for Durbin. In June 2004 he wanted legislation banning torture by U.S. forces in response to abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. Former President George W. Bush signaled he strongly opposed it.

So Durbin called Senator John McCain and asked the Arizona Republican, a former prisoner of war, to sponsor the measure. The bill became law and the McCain Torture Amendment proved a defining accomplishment for the future presidential candidate.

With Obama in the White House, Durbin's fingerprints will be even more omnipresent. "We're in closer contact now than in parts of the campaign," Durbin said in an interview.

"I see Dick as the grounder for Barack Obama," said Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat and Durbin's close friend. "He can be a good reminder to his friend in the White House about what's happening in the real world."

Republicans see Durbin as a tough opponent and fierce partisan.

In the 2008 campaign, he created a Web site seeking donations to challengers to several Illinois Republicans, said Illinois Representative John Shimkus, who wasn't among those targeted.

"There's some unwritten rules of decorum and political courtesy," said Shimkus, who called the site "crossing over the line."

As a campaigner, Durbin is rarely outworked. In 1992, then-Representative Durbin was challenged by Shimkus, who took to the streets to try to defeat the better-funded incumbent. One day, Shimkus marched in three different parades. In each case, he found Durbin marching either in front of him or behind him.

He began his House career in 1982 as a pro-life politician from a conservative district. He steadily became more liberal.

In 2002, he voted against the Iraq War resolution. In 2005, Durbin read an e-mail on the Senate floor from an FBI agent about torture of U.S. prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, including one detainee whose hands and feet were chained to the floor.

Durbin compared the techniques to something "done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime," sparking a torrent of criticism. He apologized for his rhetoric; he didn't back away from the issue.

Many issues he champions don't attract wide attention. Among those include human rights, health care for veterans, and food safety.

Ertharin Cousin, a Chicago activist and former Obama adviser, said Durbin's legacy will be in the area of social justice. "Those are the issues a lot of senators don't want to put a lot of work into because it doesn't bring in campaign contributions," said Cousin. "But it makes a difference to him."

Durbin eschews the Washington social scene and flies home most weekends to be with his family. The father of three who took much pride in Obama's election had that triumph overshadowed by tragedy. Days before the November election, Durbin lost his eldest daughter, Christine, at the age of 40 to complications from a congenital heart condition.

Long known as a workaholic, he said his job is a form of "therapy" for grief. He often reads six newspapers before he arrives at the office, and he's the last one to leave.

"His hobby is work," said Costello. "He doesn't play golf, he doesn't play tennis. It's family and work."

Some of Durbin's Senate colleagues say that as majority whip he is not always the chamber's most accurate vote counter.

During the week, he lives with three other lawmakers in a Capitol Hill townhouse dubbed "animal house." His roommates, all Democrats, are New York Senator Chuck Schumer, Massachusetts Representative William Delahunt and California Representative George Miller. Durbin, they say, is the neat one.

Durbin attributes his work ethic to his parents. His Irish-American father and Lithuanian-born mother worked on the railroad in East St. Louis, where he was raised. His father died when he was 14 and he worked his way through Georgetown University as an undergraduate and law school student.

While at college, he interned for Illinois Senator Paul Douglas, a Democrat. Later he worked for Paul Simon, another Democrat who as Illinois' lieutenant governor gave Durbin his first job out of law school in 1969. Simon later served as a U.S. senator. When he passed away five years ago, Durbin delivered the eulogy.

"He taught me a brand of politics and public service that I've tried to live up to ever since," said Durbin. "First, government has to be honest. And second, that it will help the helpless. I've really tried to be guided by that."