This should be a joyous time for Dick Durbin, the assistant Senate majority leader from Illinois.
His close friend was just elected president of the United States. Senate Democrats will return to work in January with their effective ranks swelled to 58, if not more. And he was just elected to a third term with his biggest percentage ever.
And yet, the Saturday before Election Day, Durbin and his wife, Loretta, were in a Washington-area hospital as their oldest daughter, Christine, 40, died of a congenital heart condition after weeks in intensive care as her organs shut down, foreclosing the hope of a lifesaving heart transplant.
The Illinois senator missed the jubilant celebration in Grant Park for Barack Obama’s victory, watching it on television instead. And he missed his own victory celebration as staff in Chicago phoned him in Washington with returns.
“It hurt because it was something that I had dreamed of, and it was just a magical night,” Durbin said of the raw elation he saw in Chicago that historic Election Night. But, he said, “I was where I needed to be: with my family.”
His friends say Durbin is a little quieter these days and a little more reflective. His staff members say he has reminded them to stop and remember what’s most important in life.
“I think a part of him has died with her,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), a close friend.
Obama, who speaks regularly with Durbin and has consulted with him on Cabinet appointments and other decisions, called Durbin “a special, caring person.”
“It is painful to see anyone suffer great loss,” said Obama. “He and Loretta have been such wonderful friends to me and Michelle and so many others that we ache for them and their family.”
Durbin was in his Senate leadership office on the third floor of the Capitol recently, plotting the legislative agenda with staff and talking about the road ahead as the balance of power in Washington shifts dramatically to Democratic control.
“Getting back to work for me is therapeutic,” said Durbin, who spent the Thanksgiving holiday in the capital with a large contingent of family, including his wife, son Paul, daughter Jennifer, son-in-law Marty Johnson and grandson Alex.
During the first lame-duck session, he spent much of the week meeting with incoming freshman senators, holding discussions about rescuing the auto industry and sifting through requests for jobs in the new administration.
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First on the legislative agenda is an omnibus spending bill, in addition to an economic stimulus package. Durbin said he would like to see Congress pass the legislation so it is ready for Obama’s signature as soon as he is sworn in on Jan. 20.
Of course, even with a healthy new majority in the Senate, he acknowledged, “that may be wishful thinking.”
Durbin also hopes to quickly expand the children’s health insurance program known as SCHIP to include coverage for children above the poverty line. That’s something President George W. Bush vetoed despite protests from many of the states.
Even before Obama was elected to the Senate, Durbin was promoting him to colleagues as someone special.
“I said, ‘I don’t believe you, no one could be that great,'” Boxer recalled.
After Obama was sworn in, Durbin shared credit with his junior colleague when it came to announcing federal grants for Illinois projects and urged him repeatedly to run for president.
“He was his best friend, his best adviser. He protected him from the time Barack got here until just the other day,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “At a non-public meeting the other day someone criticized something that one of Obama’s staff had done, and he came to the defense of Barack in a tenth of a second.”
Being close to the U.S. president has its perks, and Durbin said he will feel comfortable talking to any one of several aides to Obama, including Durbin’s own former chief of staff, Pete Rouse, as well as Chicagoans like Rep. Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett.
“It will be helpful to be able to call the White House and have a person on the other end of the line who doesn’t need a memo to understand what I’m calling about,” said Durbin, referring to issues unique to Illinois. (One such issue put a spotlight on Durbin this week, when he said he was asking President Bush to commute the federal corruption sentence of former Gov. George Ryan to time served in prison.)
Still, Durbin said, he’s cognizant that he represents a separate branch of government with its own prerogatives.
“I want to help him be successful, but I also have a responsibility as a senator to speak out when I think he is making a bad decision and to try to be constructive but honest in analyzing his administration,” Durbin said.
If anything, Durbin realizes the expectations for Obama are extraordinary even as the president-elect will face problems that are beyond anything the nation has confronted in recent history.
“What’s amazing to me is how many people out there, even in these tough economic times, are willing to walk away from a better-paying position in life to be part of this Obama march,” he said. “They really see it as I do as part of a historic moment.”
In fact, with so many qualified people, Durbin said Obama is struggling to decide how to fill several positions. Obama this week announced he wants retired Gen. Jim Jones to be his national security adviser and Sen. Hillary Clinton to serve as secretary of state, choices Durbin has lauded.
“When Hillary Clinton as secretary of state visits a foreign country, she will be received in a way no other Cabinet member could be,” he said. “She will be respected because of her role as first lady, her connection to President [Bill] Clinton and the respect she managed to accumulate during the course of her campaign.”
In the few weeks since Election Day and his daughter’s death, Durbin has been reading through thousands of condolence cards and e-mails. He has heard from friends he has not seen in decades and even from the student teacher in Christine’s kindergarten class who wrote that she still remembered his little girl.
And he’s been struck by the number of people in the world who can identify with his loss.
“There is a fraternity of grief in America of people who are still grieving deaths in their family,” he said. “This very public event with my daughter allows them to sit down and write a card that says, ‘You don’t know me, but this is what I went through and I know what you’re going through.'”
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Sen. Dick Durbin
Born: Nov. 21, 1944, East St. Louis, Ill.
Residence: Springfield, Ill.
Political service: Senate, 1997 to present; U.S. House, 1983-1997. Also served as the Illinois Senate parliamentarian and as an aide to then-Lt. Gov. Paul Simon.
Of note: In the late 1980s, Durbin led the effort to ban smoking on domestic airline flights; he’s also been a foe of government subsidies for tobacco farmers. Durbin has a strong pro-union voting record but parted ways with organized labor when he supported NAFTA and normal trade relations with China.
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WHAT DURBIN SAYS
On Obama’s election: “I’ve been lucky to be in public life for a long time. I’ve had a lot of wonderful experiences and opportunities, but this is the highlight. To have a president of the United States who is a close personal friend and has the opportunity to lead this nation and change the world is a dream come true for me in my public life.”
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On the separation of powers: “I want to help him be successful, but I also have a responsibility as a senator to speak out when I think he is making a bad decision and to try to be constructive but honest in analyzing his administration.”
On the Illinois advantage: “It will be helpful to be able to call the White House and have a person on the other end of the line who doesn’t need a memo to understand what I’m calling about.”
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Why speak up for Ryan? See what Durbin wrote to Bush at chicagotribune.com/durbin