Sen. Dick Durbin Caused 'Gang of 6' Talks to Fall Apart

by: warner todd huston | published: 05 20, 2011

The "gang of six" is a group of senators who had taken it upon themselves to come to some sort of agreement over the competing budget ideas between Republicans and Democrats. It was hoped that these six senators could find a compromise that could kick off the debate with some sort of general agreement right at the start. But it was doomed to begin with. In fact, it is easy to understand how the new "gang of six" talks fell apart in the U.S. Senate this week.

The gang of six had the misfortune of having Dick Durbin (D, IL), one of the most partisan, far left senators in America, as a member. Compromise was never in the cards.

True to form, Durbin's far left, no compromise demeanor caused the talks to bog down and ultimately led to the gang's parting of ways. Politico has the story.

The spat over a deficit-reduction package had been building for weeks, and Coburn had grown frustrated that the Gang of Six wouldn’t get specific enough about where it would cut domestic spending — and he wanted some $130 billion more in cuts out of Medicare.

Believing that the demands were unreasonable, an irritated Durbin engaged in what one source said was a “loud and passionate” argument with the combative conservative Republican, prompting the Illinois Democrat to ultimately tell Coburn that they had reached an “impasse.” Coburn said he slept on it and called Durbin the next morning to tell him, “You’re right.”

Politico tried to steer the story to blame Tom Coburn (R, OK) for his lack of compromise and for continually asking for deeper cuts, but Politico also only quoted Democrats in it's hit job against Coburn, which is telling.

However, one thing that Politico conveniently ignored: the results of the midterm elections.

While Durbin and the Democrats offered weak tea for cuts and while they did little to advance the will of the voters, Coburn seems to have been the only member of the gang who heard what the voters were saying. He was the only one trying to advance the sort of cuts that voters are demanding.

But it was Durbin that really wouldn't bend. He is the biggest pusher of the nanny state in congress. He is the far left's attack dog. He supports every left-wing shibboleth you can imagine. Last year, for instance, Durbin claimed that the people didn't need any vote on brining terrorists to Illinois. His vote was all we needed, apparently.

It might also be remembered that during the Bush years it was Durbin that said our troops were like Nazis. When pushed he gave one of those non-apology apologies and tried to pretend that he really didn't mean it. Fake apology or not, this sort of hate is typical from Dick Durbin.

So, while Politico attacks the only one of the vaunted gang of six that was paying any attention at all to what YOU want, Dick Durbin was torpedoing the group with his hardcore leftism. It went from a gang of six to a gang of Dicks.

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