Dick Durbin, or Dirty Dick as we like to call him around the shop, is a prominent Senator from Illinois and another $10,000.00 donor to Paul Hodes. Durbin has all the standard conflicts with the "New and Improved Hodes–With extra Hypocritical Action!, and coming in at 685 million in earmark requests since fiscal year 2008 (117 million in 2010), dirty Dick should fit nicely into Paul’s stated mission to end earmark abuse in congress.
You’d think that soon to be private citizen Hodes would be concerned that all of his major donors are pork addicts. Simply taking money from them violates his earmark parole, but since when did integrity have anything to do with it. It’s clearly about saying whatever it takes to get re-elected.
So what else is so special about Durbin?
Hodes donor Dick Durbin’s gravy train comes from lawyers and lobbyists, with some bailed out banks for good measure, but one of his favorite donors is Kirkland & Ellis. They’ve got hundreds of lawyers and have doled out over $135,000.00 to Durbin over the years. Kirkland and Ellis have also been picked by BP to help them deal with what could amount to decades of litigation over the Gulf Oil spill.
Could it be a coincidence that Durbin co-sponsored S3305, the bill that would remove the oil spill liability cap set at 75 million to a number that will keep the Lawyers at Durbin donor Kirkland & Ellis working to "represent" BP for a good long time–work that will make future donations to Mr. Durbin that much easier to make?
Durbins second biggest donor overall, currently number one for 2010, is lobbyist Simmons Cooper LLC–who lobbies for–lawyers and law firms. Always good to take money from a guy who gets lobbyist love. Another top donor, Corboy and Demitrio, are personal injury lawyers who have been handling cases of brain cancer related to the Illinois plant run by BP where the oil dispersants used in the Gulf are made.
It’s all seems very cozy when Durbin’s donors are making money on both sides of BP. Of course Durbin is good at working both sides. He takes money from ethanol, the carbon trading exchange, promotes clean coal in Illinois (at taxpayer expense) while taking tens of thousands in donations from the coal industry. What a good role model for Hodes.
Durbin is also–since it matters–a Goldman Sachs recipient, taking almost 20,000.00 from the SEC violators in 2008.
Durbin’s PAC, Prairie PAC is top heavy with union donors but includes a few incestuous connections. McAndrews and Forbes for example is a holding company that donates heavily to Durbin while having holdings in a number of companies that also donate to Durbin’s PAC. The executives of these companies are also personal donors making for a tight nit group with a shared interest in Durbin and each other.
So overall, dirty Dick Durbin is your standard dirt-bag Senator, miking deals and staying in office, something Hodes seems more than willing to do considering what he says versus whom he’ll take donations from. and doesn’t New Hampshire need another democrat shill Senator is is Shaheen enough for now?
