Coordinates	12°2′36″N77°1′42″N
Name	Paul Wellstone
Image name	Paul Wellstone, official Senate photo portrait.jpg
Jr/sr	United States Senator
State	Minnesota
Party	Democratic-Farmer-Labor
Alma mater	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Term	January 3, 1991 – October 25, 2002
Preceded	Rudy Boschwitz
Succeeded	Dean Barkley
Birth date	July 21, 1944
Birth place	Washington, D.C.
Death date	October 25, 2002
Death place	Eveleth, Minnesota
Spouse	Sheila Wellstone
Children	David WellstoneMark WellstoneMarcia Wellstone (1969-2002)
Religion	Judaism
Footnotes	}}

Paul David Wellstone (July 21, 1944 – October 25, 2002) was a two-term U.S. Senator from the state of Minnesota and member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which is affiliated with the national Democratic Party. Before being elected to the Senate in 1990, he was a professor of political science at Carleton College. Wellstone was a progressive and a leading spokesman for the progressive wing of the national Democratic Party. He served in the Senate from 1991 until his death in a plane crash on 25 October 2002, 11 days before the US senate election in which he was running for a third term. His wife, Sheila, and daughter, Marcia, also died in the crash. They had two other grown children, David and Mark, who now co-chair the Wellstone Action nonprofit group.

Early life

Wellstone was born in Washington D.C. to Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants, Leon and Minnie Wellstone, and raised in Arlington, Virginia. Originally, his family name was Wexelstein, but his father changed the name to Wellstone in the 1930s when he encountered virulent anti-semitism. He attended Yorktown High School in Arlington. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) on a wrestling scholarship, graduating with a degree in political science in three years and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He was an undefeated Atlantic Coast Conference champion in wrestling.

Wellstone married in 1963. In 1965 he earned his B.A. in Political Science; William Keech and Joel Schwartz served as his thesis advisers. Four years later he was awarded a Ph.D. in Political Science. Wellstone's 1969 doctoral dissertation at UNC was "Black Militants in the Ghetto: Why They Believe in Violence." Upon earning his Ph.D., Wellstone accepted a job as a Professor of Political Science at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, where he taught until his election to the Senate in 1990.

During the 1970s, he became involved in community organizing, working with the working poor and other politically disenfranchised communities. The first organization he founded was the Organization for a Better Rice County, a group consisting mainly of single parents on welfare, which he organized to advocate for public housing, affordable health care, improved public education, free school lunches, and a publicly-funded day care center . During this same period, he also began organizing with union members, farmers, and liberal activists. Later, he would use these connections in his bid for the Senate.

In the early 1970s, the trustees of Carleton College considered firing him, and actually did fire him for a short time, but his students held a sit-in that resulted in him getting his job back and becoming the youngest professor at Carleton to ever get tenure.

Political career

In 1982, he ran for state auditor but lost to Arne Carlson. In 1988, he was the Minnesota campaign manager for Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign.

In 1990, Wellstone ran for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Rudy Boschwitz, beginning the race as a serious underdog. He narrowly won the election, after being outspent by a 7-to-1 margin. Wellstone played off of his underdog image by airing a number of quirky, humorous advertisements created by political consultant Bill Hillsman including "Fast Paul" and "Looking for Rudy", a pastiche of the 1989 Michael Moore documentary ''Roger & Me''. Boschwitz was also hurt by a letter his supporters wrote, on campaign stationery, to members of the Minnesota Jewish community days before the election, accusing Wellstone of being a "bad Jew" for marrying a Gentile and not raising his children in the Jewish faith. (Boschwitz, like Wellstone, is Jewish.) Wellstone's reply, widely broadcast on Minnesota television, was, "He has a problem with Christians, then." Boschwitz was the only incumbent U.S. senator to lose re-election that year.

Wellstone defeated Boschwitz again for re-election in 1996. During that campaign, Boschwitz ran ads accusing Wellstone of being "embarrassingly liberal" and calling him "Senator Welfare". Boschwitz accused Wellstone of supporting flag burning, a move that some believe possibly backfired. Prior to that accusation, Boschwitz had significantly outspent Wellstone on campaign advertising and the race was closely contested, but Wellstone went on to beat Boschwitz by a nine-point margin in a three way race (Dean Barkley received 7%).

Wellstone's upset victory in 1990 and subsequent re-election in 1996 were also credited to a massive grassroots campaign, which inspired college students, poor people and minorities to get involved in politics for the very first time. In 1990, the number of young people involved in the campaign was so notable that shortly after the election, Walter Mondale told Wellstone that "the kids won it for you". Wellstone also spent a large portion of his Senate career working with the Hmong American community in Minnesota, an immigrant community that had not traditionally been involved in American politics. Wellstone also spent a great deal of his Senate career cultivating the veterans community - he served on the Senate Committee on Veteran's Affairs, and successfully campaigned for atomic veterans to receive compensation from the federal government and for increased spending on health care for veterans.

In 2002, Wellstone campaigned for re-election to a third term (despite an earlier campaign pledge to only serve two terms) against Republican Norm Coleman, the two-term mayor of St. Paul, formerly a Democrat who had supported Wellstone in his 1996 re-election campaign. Earlier that year he announced he had a mild form of multiple sclerosis, causing the limp he had believed was an old wrestling injury.

Wellstone was in a line of left-of-center or liberal senators of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL). The first three, Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy and Walter Mondale, were all prominent in the national Democratic Party. Shortly after joining the Senate, South Carolina Senator Fritz Hollings approached Wellstone and told him, "You remind me of Hubert Humphrey. You talk too much."

Policy views

Wellstone was known for his work for peace, the environment, labor, and health care; he also joined his wife Sheila to support the rights of victims of domestic violence. He made the issue of mental illness a central focus in his career. He was a supporter of immigration to the U.S. He opposed the first Gulf War in 1991 and, in the months before his death, spoke out against the government's threats to go to war with Iraq again. He was strongly supported by groups such as Americans for Democratic Action, the AFL-CIO, the Sierra Club, the ACLU, and People for the American Way.

In 1996, he voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act. He later asked his supporters to educate him on the issue and by 2001, when he wrote his autobiography, ''Conscience of a Liberal'', Wellstone admitted that he had made a mistake.

After voting against the congressional authorization for the war in Iraq on October 11, 2002, in the midst of a tight election, Wellstone is said to have told his wife, "I just cost myself the election."

In the 2002 campaign, the Green Party ran a candidate against Wellstone, a move which some Greens opposed. The party's 2000 Vice-Presidential nominee, Winona LaDuke, described Wellstone as "a champion of the vast majority of our issues". The Green Party's decision to oppose Wellstone was criticized by some liberals.

Wellstone was the author of the 'Wellstone Amendment' added to the McCain-Feingold Bill for Campaign Finance Reform, in what came to be known as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. The law, including the Wellstone Amendment, was called unconstitutional by groups and individuals of various political perspectives, including the California State Democratic Party, the National Rifle Association, and Republican Senator Mitch McConnell (Kentucky), the Senate Majority Whip. On December 10, 2003, the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 ruling upholding the key provisions of McCain-Feingold, including the Wellstone Amendment. Wellstone called McCain-Feingold's protection of "advocacy" groups a "loophole" allowing "special interests" to run last-minute election ads. Wellstone pushed an amendment to extend McCain-Feingold's ban on last-minute ads to nonprofits like "the NRA, the Sierra Club, the Christian Coalition, and others." Under the Wellstone Amendment, these organizations could only advertise using money raised under strict "hard money" limits — no more than $5,000 per individual.

In January 2010 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the McCain-Feingold Bill and removed restrictions on the NRA and other's ability to campaign at election time in the case of ''Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission''.

Presidential aspirations

Shortly after his re-election to the Senate in 1996, Wellstone began contemplating a run for his party's nomination for President of the United States in 2000.

As the first stage in his campaign, he embarked upon a cross-country speaking and listening tour that he dubbed "the Children's Tour" in May 1997. This tour, which took him to rural areas of Mississippi and Appalachia and the inner cities of Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Baltimore, was intended to retrace the steps taken by Senator Robert F. Kennedy during a similar tour in 1966, in order to showcase the fact that conditions had not improved, as well as to test his message.

In 1998, Wellstone began to more openly investigate the possibility of running. He formed an exploratory committee that paid for his travels to Iowa and New Hampshire, homes of the two first contests of the nomination process, to speak before organized labor and local Democrats. (His catchphrase from these speeches, "I represent the democratic wing of the Democratic Party," would later be incorporated into the 2004 stump speech of Governor Howard Dean.)

On January 9, 1999, Wellstone called a press conference in the Minnesota capitol building. Rather than announcing his candidacy, as had been expected, he instead declared that he would not be a candidate. His explanation was that his old wrestling injury (in reality, it would some time later be diagnosed as multiple sclerosis) prevented him from mustering the stamina necessary for a national campaign. Later that year, he would endorse the candidacy of former Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey, the only Democrat to run against Gore.

Gulf War

Wellstone voted against authorizing the use of force before the Persian Gulf War on January 12, 1991 (the vote was 52–47 in favor). He also voted against the use of force before the Iraq War on October 11, 2002 (the vote was 77–23 in favor). Wellstone was one of 11 senators to vote against both the 1991 and 2002 resolutions. The others were also all Democratic senators: Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Carl Levin of Michigan, Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, and Paul Sarbanes of Maryland.

Other key military action votes

Wellstone supported requests for military action by President Bill Clinton, including Operation Restore Hope in Somalia (1992), Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti (1994), Operation Deliberate Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1995), Operation Desert Fox in Iraq (1998) and Operation Allied Force in Yugoslavia (1999). On July 1, 1994, during the 100-day Rwandan Genocide from April 6 to mid-July 1994, Wellstone authored an amendment to the 1995 defense appropriations bill.

Death

On October 25, 2002, Wellstone, along with seven others, died in an airplane crash in northern Minnesota, at approximately 10:22 a.m. He was 58 years old. The other victims were his wife, Sheila; one of his three children, Marcia; the two pilots, his driver and two campaign staffers. The airplane was en route to Eveleth, where Wellstone was to attend the funeral of Martin Rukavina, a steelworker whose son Tom Rukavina serves in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Wellstone decided to go to the funeral instead of a rally and fundraiser in Minneapolis attended by Mondale and fellow Senator Ted Kennedy. He was to debate Norm Coleman in Duluth, Minnesota, that same night.

The Beechcraft King Air A100 airplane crashed into dense forest about two miles from the Eveleth airport, while operating under instrument flight rules. It had no flight data recorders. Autopsy toxicology results on both pilots were negative for drug or alcohol use. Icing, though widely reported on in following days, was considered and eventually rejected as a significant factor in the crash. The board judged that while cloud cover might have prevented the flight crew from seeing the airport, icing did not affect the airplane's performance during the descent.

At first, FBI agents were sent to investigate possible foul play involved with the crash. After a few days, the agents ruled out the possibility that the crash was not accidental, but not before following several criminal leads involving death threats. Wellstone had been receiving death threats since he took office, forcing the FBI to tap his phone so it could locate angry callers. Information regarding the FBI's involvement in investigating Wellstone's death was not publicly released until October 2010. Government documents also indicated that the FBI had been following Wellstone before he became a senator, and included records dating back as far as his arrest at a 1970 anti-war protest.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) later determined that the likely cause of the accident was the failure of both the pilot and copilot to maintain a safe minimum airspeed, leading to a stall from which they could not recover. The final two radar readings detected the airplane traveling at or just below its predicted stall speed given conditions at the time of the accident. Aviation experts speculated the pilots might have lost situational awareness because they were lost and looking for the airport. They had been off course for several minutes and "clicked on" the runway lights, something not usually done in good visibility. There was a problem with the airport's navigational beacon (VOR). According to Minnesota Public Radio:

Other pilots at the charter company told NTSB that both pilots displayed below average flying skills. The captain had a well-known tendency to allow copilots to take over all functions of the aircraft as if they were the sole pilot during flights. After the crash, three copilots told of occasions in which they had to take control of the aircraft away from the captain of the accident flight. After one of those incidents, only three days before the crash, the copilot had urged the captain to retire. A few months before the crash, the accident flight's captain told another pilot, a childhood friend, that he had difficulty piloting and landing King Airs. Significant discrepancies were also found in the captain's flight logs in the course of the post-accident investigation indicating he had probably greatly exaggerated his flying experience, most of which had been accrued before a 12 year hiatus from flying due to a fraud conviction and poor eyesight. In 2001 he had Lasik surgery but it only improved his vision to 20/50, 20/30 and he was required by FAA regulations to wear corrective lenses, however the pilot's wife and his childhood friend said he had stopped wearing them. The coroner who examined his badly burned body was unable to determine if he was wearing contacts at the time of the crash.

The First Officer was cited by coworkers as having to be consistently reminded to keep his hand on the throttle and maintain airspeed during approaches. He had two previous piloting jobs, 1998-9 with Skydive Hutchinson as a pilot and in 1999 with Northwest Airlines as a trainee instructor. However he was dismissed from both jobs for lack of ability. The captain's widow told the NTSB that her husband told her “the other pilots thought [the accident flight's copilot] was not a good pilot.”

Aftermath

Don Hazen, executive editor of Alternet, wrote of the death, "Progressives across the land are in shock as the person many think of as the conscience of the Senate is gone." Wellstone died just 11 days before his potential re-election in a crucial race to maintain Democratic control of the Senate. Campaigning was halted by all sides. Minnesota law required that his name be stricken from the ballot, to be replaced by a candidate chosen by the party. The DFL selected former Vice President Walter Mondale to compete with Norm Coleman in the general election.

The memorial service for Wellstone and the other victims of the crash was held in Williams Arena at the University of Minnesota and was broadcast live on national TV. Many high profile politicians attended the memorial, including former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, and more than half of the U.S. Senate. The White House offered to send Vice-President Dick Cheney to the service, but the Wellstone family declined.

The "raucously partisan" memorial service was criticized by many people, including radio host Rush Limbaugh and Ronald Reagan's former speechwriter Peggy Noonan, for having a political tone. Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, who had stated his preference to appoint a Democrat to serve out the remainder of Wellstone's term through January 2003, "stormed out" of the "partisan foot-stomp" event and threatened to appoint "an ordinary citizen" instead. Some disputed this criticism, however; in his book ''Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them'', comedian and political commentator Al Franken wrote that conservative media figures had distorted the event for political gain. On November 4, the day before the election, Ventura appointed state planning commissioner Dean Barkley, founder and chair of Ventura's Independence Party of Minnesota, to complete the remaining two months of Wellstone's Senate term; he had run against Wellstone in 1996.

Coleman won Wellstone's seat but was defeated in his bid for reelection by Franken in 2008, in a three-way race that included Barkley.

The song "The Ballad of Paul and Sheila" by folk artist Mason Jennings was written about the deaths of the senator and his wife.

Legacy

Wellstone is survived by his sons David and Mark and six grandchildren. The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations has created the AFL-CIO Senator Paul Wellstone Award for supporters of the rights of labor unions. Presidential candidate Howard Dean and California state senator John Burton both received the first award in January 2003. In 2004, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill dedicated the Paul and Sheila Wellstone Memorial Garden as a tribute to the couple, both graduates of the university.

Near the site of his plane crash, a memorial to the Wellstones was dedicated on September 25, 2005. His distinctive green bus was present, as well as hundreds of supporters and loved ones. The Senator and his wife were laid to rest at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis, the same cemetery in which Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey is interred. A memorial sculpture near Lake Calhoun marks their gravesites. Visitors sometimes follow the Jewish custom of placing small stones on the boulder marking the family plot or on the individual markers. His legacy continues as Wellstone Action, a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that trains citizens and potential candidates with a progressive agenda.

In 2007, former First Lady Rosalynn Carter joined with David Wellstone to push Congress to pass legislation regarding mental health insurance. Wellstone and Carter worked to pass the "Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008" which requires equal coverage of mental and physical illnesses when policies include both types of coverage; both testified before a House subcommittee regarding the bill in July 2007. David said of his father, "Although he was passionate on many issues, there was not another issue that surpassed this in terms of his passion." Because Paul Wellstone's brother had suffered from mental illness, Wellstone had fought for changes in mental health and insurance laws when he reached the Senate.

On March 5, 2008 the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1424, the ''Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007'', by a vote of 268-148. It was sponsored by Representatives Patrick Kennedy (D-Rhode Island) and Representative Jim Ramstad, (R-Minnesota), both of whom are recovering alcoholics. The narrower Senate bill S. 558, passed earlier, was introduced by Kennedy's father, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts), Pete Domenici, (R-New Mexico), and Mike Enzi, (R-Wyoming).

Electoral history

*Wellstone won the Democratic primary in 2002, but was replaced by Mondale after his death. Absentee ballots that had already been cast did not count towards Mondale's totals.

See also

Albert Scott Crossfield

Brook Berringer

Jessica Dubroff

John F. Kennedy, Jr. Piper Saratoga crash

John T. Walton

Notes

Human Performance 14 — Factual Report of Human Performance Specialist Interview Summaries

Further reading

Blodgett, Jeff, ''Winning Your Election the Wellstone Way'', University of Minnesota Press, 2008. http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/B/blodgett_winning.html

Casper, Barry (Mike), ''Lost in Washington: Finding the Way Back to Democracy in America'', University of Massachusetts Press, 2000.

Four Arrows (Don Trent Jacobs) and Fetzer, Jim, ''American Assassination: the Strange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone'', Vox Pop, 2004.

Hightower, Jim. "Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can go With the Flow". Hoboken, NJ: Wiley and Sons, Inc, 2008.

Bill Hillsman, ''Run The Other Way: Fixing the Two-Party System, One Campaign at a Time''

Lofy, Bill, ''Paul Wellstone: The Life of a Passionate Progressive'', University of Michigan Press, 2005

Lofy, Bill, ''Politics the Wellstone Way: How to Elect Progressive Candidates and Win on Issues'', University of Minnesota Press, 2005. http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/W/wellstone_politics.html

McGrath, Dennis J. and Smith, Dane, ''Professor Wellstone Goes to Washington: The Inside Story of a Grassroots U.S. Senate Campaign'', University of Minnesota Press, 1995. http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/M/mcgrath_prof.html

Wellstone, Paul, ''The Conscience of a Liberal: Reclaiming the Compassionate Agenda'', University of Minnesota Press, 2002. http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/W/wellstone_conscience.html

Wellstone, Paul, ''How the Rural Poor Got Power: Narrative of a Grass-Roots Organizer'', University of Minnesota Press, 2003. http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/W/wellstone_how.html

Wellstone, Paul, and Barry Casper, ''Powerline: The First Battle of America's Energy War'', University of Minnesota Press, 2003. http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/W/wellstone_powerline.html

External links

Get Out The Vote!

MnWPC eWomen Win

Live Events: ''(October 25, 2003)''

Wellstone Action, an advocacy group organized by Wellstone's survivors.

Wellstone documentary home page

The Paul and Sheila Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Center at the University of Minnesota

Senator, family members killed in Minnesota plane crash, CNN, October 25, 2002

Minnesota Crash Kills Wellstone Amid Senate Fight, ''The New York Times,'' October 26, 2002

Minnesota Senator Is Among 8 Dead in Crash, ''The New York Times,'' October 25, 2002

THE SENATOR: Paul Wellstone, 58, Icon of Liberalism in Senate, Dies, ''The New York Times,'' October 26, 2002 obituary

THE FAMILY: A Lifetime Together, Serving the People, ''The New York Times,'' October 26, 2002

Specter of War Sets Debate in a Tight Race in Minnesota, ''The New York Times,'' October 5, 2002

Minnesota Swing Voters Are Seen as Crucial in Senate Race, ''The New York Times,'' March 10, 2002

Senator Wellstone of Minnesota Says He Has Multiple Sclerosis, ''The New York Times,'' February 25, 2002

Aircraft Accident Report: Loss of Control and Impact With Terrain Aviation Charter, Inc. Raytheon (Beechcraft) King Air A100, N41BE Eveleth, Minnesota October 25, 2002, ''National Transportation Safety Board,'' report number AAR-03-03, November 18, 2003

FBI Documents on Senator Paul Wellstone Raise Questions about His Death - video report by ''Democracy Now!''

Category:1944 births Category:2002 deaths Category:People from Washington, D.C. Category:Jewish United States Senators Category:Minnesota Democrats Category:Accidental deaths in Minnesota Category:American people of the Iraq War Category:American political scientists Category:American political writers Category:American sport wrestlers Category:Carleton College faculty Category:Community organizers Category:People from Northfield, Minnesota Category:People from Rice County, Minnesota Category:People from Arlington County, Virginia Category:United States Senators from Minnesota Category:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the United States Category:Yorktown High School (Virginia) alumni Category:Democratic Party United States Senators

de:Paul Wellstone fr:Paul Wellstone it:Paul Wellstone sv:Paul Wellstone

Coordinates	12°2′36″N77°1′42″N
Name	ApologetiX
Background	group_or_band
Origin	United States
Genre	Christian rock, CCM, comedy rock, parody
Years active	1992–present
Label	Parodudes
Website	www.apologetix.com
Current members	J. Jackson Keith Haynie Jimmy Tanner Bill Hubauer Tom Milnes Tom Tincha Todd Waites
Past members	Karl Messner Jerry Hayostek Bob Flaherty Fred Behanna Jeff Pakula Rick Servocky Andy Sparks Bill "Moose" Rieger }}

ApologetiX is a Christian parody band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. The band was founded in 1992, and since then, has played in 44 states, released 17 studio albums, and built up a fan club that includes 45,000 people. The band is currently composed of J. Jackson on vocals, Keith Haynie on bass guitar, Jimmy "Vegas" Tanner on drums, Bill Hubauer and Todd Waites on keyboard, and Tom Milnes and Tom Tincha (a.k.a. "TNT"), both on lead guitar.

ApologetiX gets their name from the word "apologetics," which is a defense of the Christian faith. It is based on the Greek word for defense, "apologia." The word is used in 1 Peter 3:15, "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer (defense or "apologia") to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect..." (NIV). Their logo, a triquetra, is an ancient symbol which has gained Christian use for the the Holy Trinity. But it alone pre-dates Christianity.

History

One of the co-founders of ApologetiX, along with lead singer and lyricist J. Jackson, Karl Messner served as the band's lead guitarist and producer from the band's inception until early September 2007.

In the early days of the band, Karl shared lead guitar duties with Andy Sparks, until Andy moved to bass in the fall of 1993. After that, Karl played all lead guitars for the band, with occasional rhythm guitar by J. Jackson (from 1992–97). From 1998 on, he was band's sole guitarist until February 2004, when Bill Hubauer began touring with the band as both a keyboardist and guitarist. Karl was replaced as lead guitarist and producer by Bill Hubauer in September 2007. When ApologetiX added Tom Milnes and Tom Tincha on lead guitars in the fall of 2008, Bill was able to concentrate on keyboards again, while continuing to produce the band's CDs.

ApologetiX has had six official drummers. Jeff Pakula (June 1990-September 1993), Rick Servocky (November 1993-April 1995), Bob Flaherty (May 1995-September 1998), Fred Behanna (February 1999-January 2001), Bill "Moose" Rieger (March 2001-January 2005) and Jimmy "Vegas" Tanner (October 2005-Current).

ApologetiX has had multiple other drummers as well. Their longtime fill-in drummer, Keith Harrold (played on ''Isn't Wasn't Ain't'' and ''Keep The Change''), David McKee (played on ''Jesus Christ Morningstar'' as well as two concerts in 1998), and Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz (drummer for "Weird Al" Yankovic), who played 7 tracks on ''Biblical Graffiti''. Ron Zanski (two shows in 1993) and Allen Muckle (three shows in 2001) have also played with the band.

According to the band's website, Weird Al himself has told them he thinks they do "fabulous work."

Musical style and lyrical themes

ApologetiX rewrites secular songs with Christian lyrics to create parodies with Christian messages, and, in the song "We're In A Parody Band," ApologetiX refers to itself as a cross between "Weird Al" Yankovic and Billy Graham. Some of their parodies include "Micah No. 5" (Mambo No. 5 by Lou Bega) "Lazy Brain" (Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne), "Hotel Can't Afford Ya" ("Hotel California" by The Eagles), "Corinthians" (based on "In the End" by Linkin Park), "Look Yourself" ("Lose Yourself" by Eminem), "Smooth Grandmama" (based on the Alien Ant Farm cover version of "Smooth Criminal" by Michael Jackson), "Smells Like Thirtysomething Spirit" ("Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana), "The Sounds of Silas" ("The Sounds of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel), and "Bethlehemian Rhapsody" ("Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen).

Band members

;Current

Keith Haynie - Bass guitar (1995–present)

Tom Milnoes - Lead guitarist (2008–present)

J. Jackson - Vocals (1992–present)

Tom Tincha - Lead guitarist (2008–present)

Bill Hubauer - Keyboardist, producer (1998–present)

Jimmy "Vegas" Tanner - Drums (2005–present)

Todd Waites - Keyboardist (2011–present)

;Former

Jerry Hayostek - Bass guitar (1992–1993)

Karl Messner - Lead guitarist (1990–2007)

Andy Sparks - Rhythm guitarist, Bass (1991–1995)

B.J. Collins - Keyboardist, producer (1997–1998)

Jeff Pakula - Drums (1990–1993)

Rick Servocky - Drums (1993–1995)

Bob Flaherty - Drums (1995–1998)

Fred Behanna - Drums (1999–2001)

David McKee - Drums (2001)

Bill "Moose" Rieger - Drums (2001–2005)

;Session

Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz - Drums (1999)

Keith Harrold - Drums (1993–2000)

Steve Kayner - Bass (1993)

Discography

Studio & live albums

! Year	! Title	! Label
1993	''Isn't Wasn't Ain't''	Parodudes
1994	''Radical History Tour''	Parodudes
1997	''Ticked''	Parodudes
1998	''Jesus Christ Morningstar''	Parodudes
1999	''Biblical Graffiti''	Parodudes
2000	''Spoofernatural''	Parodudes
2001		Parodudes
2002	''Grace Period''	Parodudes
2003	''Adam Up''	Parodudes
2005	''Apol-acoustiX''	Parodudes
2005	''Hits: The Road''	Parodudes
2006		Parodudes
2007	''Chosen Ones''	Parodudes
2008		Parodudes
2009		Parodudes
2009	''The Boys Aren't Backin' Down''	Parodudes
2010		Parodudes

Christmas Albums

! Year	! Title	! Label
2002	''Have Yourself A Parody Little Christmas''	Parodudes
2008	''The 12 Downloads of Christmas''	Parodudes

Compilation albums

! Year	! Title	! Label
2004	''New & Used Hits: The Best of ApologetiX Vol. 1 & 2''	Parodudes

Filmography

! Year	! Title	! Label
2003	''Downer of a Sister Video''	Parodudes
2005	''Samson Comes Alive: An Evening With ApologetiX DVD''	Parodudes

Awards

2005 Best CD Award: ''New & Used Hits: The Best of ApologetiX Vol. 1 & 2'' (Christianity Today's Reader's Choice Awards)

2004 Favorite Indie Artist (CCM Magazine Reader's Choice Awards)

2002 Recorded Fringe Song of the Year: "The Real Sin Savior" (American Christian Music Awards/ChristianBEATS)

2004 American Christian Music Awards, Alternative Song of The Year: "Lifestyles of The Rich & Nameless" 2004 American Christian Music Awards, Outstanding Modern/College Rock Artist

Karl was instrumental in establishing ApologetiX as a successful independent Christian band. As a web developer and programmer Karl designed the band's website & created a program called "Dexter" that handles the booking, online sales & other aspects of the band. The internet & tools like Dexter are challenging the notion that for a band to be successful, it needs to be signed to a large record label.

He announced his first solo album, tentatively called Liberty, in March 2009. The album is expected to be released in 2011.

References

article from HM Magazine

article from AFA

Christianity Today - Interview with Apologetix

External links

* Karl Messner Official Website

Category:American Christian musical groups Category:Musical groups established in 1992 Category:Musical groups from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Category:Parody musicians Category:Religious parodies and satires

sv:ApologetiX

Coordinates	12°2′36″N77°1′42″N
nationality	American
jr/sr	Junior Senator
state	Minnesota
term start	July 7, 2009
preceded	Norm Coleman
alongside	Amy Klobuchar
name	Al Franken
birthname	Alan Stuart Franken
birth date	May 21, 1951
birth place	New York City, New York
occupation	U.S. Senator, comedian, actor, author, screenwriter, political commentator, politician, and radio host
party	Democratic-Farmer-Labor
alma mater	Harvard College (A.B.)
residence	Minneapolis, Minnesota
spouse	Franni Bryson Franken
children	ThomasinJoe
religion	Judaism
website	Official Senate website
signature	Al Franken Signature.svg }}

Alan Stuart "Al" Franken (born May 21, 1951) is the junior United States Senator from Minnesota. He is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which affiliates with the national Democratic Party.

Franken achieved note as a writer and performer for the television show ''Saturday Night Live'' from its inception in 1975 before moving to writing and acting in films and television shows. He then became a political commentator, author of five books and host of a nationally syndicated radio show on the Air America Radio network.

In 2008, Franken narrowly defeated incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman, by 312 votes, after a mandatory statewide manual recount. Coleman contested the outcome in court, but the Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously upheld Franken's victory on June 30, 2009. Franken was sworn in to the Senate on July 7, 2009.

Early life

Franken was born in New York City to Phoebe G. Kunst – a homemaker and real estate agent – and Joseph P. Franken, a printing salesman. The family later moved to St. Louis Park, a suburb near Minneapolis. Franken had a Jewish upbringing. His older brother Owen is a photojournalist; MSNBC's Bob Franken is his cousin. Franken was graduated in 1969 from The Blake School, where he was on the wrestling team. He attended Harvard College and graduated with an A.B. ''cum laude'' in 1973 in political science.

Family

Franken met his wife, Franni (''née'' Bryson), in his first year of college. In 2005, they moved back to Minnesota and reside in Minneapolis. The Frankens have two children: daughter Thomasin (born 1981) has degrees from Harvard and the French Culinary Institute and is a former elementary school teacher turned "food educator and private chef"; son Joe (born 1984) holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Princeton.

''Saturday Night Live''

Franken began his performing career in high school at The Blake School, where he and long-time writing partner Tom Davis were known for their humor. Franken honed his writing and performing skills at Minneapolis' Dudley Riggs' Brave New Workshop theater, specializing in political satire. He and Davis soon found themselves in "a life of near-total failure on the fringes of show business in Los Angeles."

Franken and Davis were recruited as two of the original writers (and occasional performers) on ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1980, 1985–1995). In the latter period, only Franken returned as a performer, while Davis usually stayed behind the camera.

In Season 1 of ''SNL,'' as apprentice writers, the two shared a salary of $350 per week. Franken, who received seven Emmy nominations and three Emmy Awards for his television writing and producing, created such characters as self-help guru Stuart Smalley and such routines as proclaiming the 1980s to be the "Al Franken Decade." Franken was associated with ''SNL'' for over 15 years and, in 2002, interviewed former Vice President Al Gore while in character as Smalley. Franken and Davis wrote the script to the 1986 comedy film ''One More Saturday Night,'' appearing in it as rock singers in a band called "Bad Mouth." They also appeared in cameo roles in ''The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash'' and in the Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd film ''Trading Places''.

Franken's most notorious ''SNL'' performance may have been "A Limo for the Lame-O," a commentary he delivered near the end of the 1979–80 season during a Weekend Update segment. Franken mocked controversial NBC president Fred Silverman as "a total unequivocal failure" and displayed a chart showing the poor ratings of NBC programs. Franken proclaimed that Silverman did not deserve a limousine. As a result of this sketch, Silverman refused Lorne Michaels' request that Franken succeed him as ''SNL'''s head producer, prompting Franken to leave the show when Michaels did, at the end of the 1979–80 season. Franken later returned to the show in 1985, mostly as a writer, but also as an occasional performer best known for the Stuart Smalley character. He acknowledged using cocaine while working for ''Saturday Night Live'' but says he no longer uses any illegal drugs. Franken left the show in 1995 in protest over losing the role of Weekend Update anchor to Norm Macdonald.

Post-''SNL''

Franken is the author of five ''New York Times'' best-selling books, three of which reached #1, including ''Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations''.

USO service

Franken has served as a volunteer with the United Service Organizations since he first visited Kosovo in 1999. Franken has conducted several overseas tours to both Iraq and Afghanistan, in addition to participating in numerous celebrity handshake tours at military hospitals to visit wounded soldiers. On March 25, 2009, Franken was presented with the USO's Merit Award for his 10 years of service to the organization through visiting injured and deployed servicemembers.

Fox News lawsuit

In 2003, Penguin Books published Franken's book ''Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right'', which included a cover photo of Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly and a chapter accusing O'Reilly of lying. In August of that year, Fox News sued, claiming infringement of its registered trademark phrase "Fair and Balanced". A federal judge found the lawsuit to be "wholly without merit". The incident with Fox focused media attention on Franken's book and, according to Franken, greatly increased its sales (see Streisand effect).

Radio show

Franken signed a one-year contract in early 2004 to host a talk show for Air America Radio's flagship program with co-host Katherine Lanpher, who remained with the show until October 2005. The network was launched March 31, 2004. Originally named ''The O'Franken Factor'' but renamed ''The Al Franken Show'' on July 12, 2004, the show aired three hours a day, five days a week for three years. The stated goal of the show was to provide the public airwaves with more progressive views to counter what Franken perceived to be the dominance of conservative syndicated commentary on the radio. "I'm doing this because I want to use my energies to get Bush unelected," he told a ''New York Times'' reporter in 2004.

Franken is a Grateful Dead fan, and he used their songs as bumper music on his radio show. Franken's last radio show on Air America Radio was on February 14, 2007, at the end of which Franken announced his candidacy for the United States Senate.

Other projects

Franken wrote the original screenplay and starred in the film ''Stuart Saves His Family'', which was panned by critics (receiving a rating of 29% on the website Rottentomatoes.com). He also co-wrote the film ''''When a Man Loves a Woman''.'' He co-created and starred in the NBC sitcom ''LateLine'' until it was canceled in Season 2. He appeared in the 2004 remake of ''The Manchurian Candidate''.

In 2003, Franken served as a Fellow with Harvard's Kennedy School of Government at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

Since 2005, Franken has been a contributing blogger at ''The Huffington Post''. His most recent book, ''The Truth (With Jokes),'' was released in 2005.

Franken has long been associated with the International Order of Odd Fellows (Manchester Unity), but in September 2009, his spokesperson said he is not a member.

Political activism prior to 2008

According to an article by Richard Corliss published in ''Time'', "In a way, Franken has been running for office since the late '70s." Corliss also hinted at Franken's "possibly ironic role as a relentless self-promoter" in proclaiming the 1980s "the Al Franken Decade" and saying, "Vote for me, Al Franken. You'll be glad you did!" In 1999, Franken released a parody book, ''Why Not Me?,'' detailing his campaign for the Presidency in 2000. He had been a strong supporter of Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone and was deeply affected by the senator's death in a plane crash shortly before the 2002 Senate election. After the funeral, Rush Limbaugh and several other commentators identified by Franken as "rightwing bloggers" and "Republicans" accused the organizers and participants of Wellstone's remembrance ceremony of using the tragedy for political purposes. Conservative columnists Peggy Noonan and Chris Caldwell asserted that 20,000 people booed Trent Lott. Franken, who attended, denied there was widespread jeering: "Along with everyone else, I cried, I laughed, I cheered. It was, to my mind, a beautiful four-hour memorial. I didn't boo. Neither did 22,800 of the some 23,000 people there." In ''Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them'', Franken wrote that Noonan and Caldwell had later told him that they had not personally been at the memorial service. Franken felt that "the right wing line on the Wellstone Memorial" was accepted by some "mainstream" journalists such as Howard Kurtz.

Franken said he learned that 21% of Americans received most of their news from talk radio, then an almost exclusively conservative medium. Said Franken, "I didn't want to sit on the sidelines, and I believed Air America could make a difference." In November 2003, Franken talked about moving to his home state of Minnesota to run for the Senate. The seat once held by Wellstone, then occupied by Republican Norm Coleman, was to be contested in the 2008 election. In 2005, Franken announced his move to Minnesota: "I can tell you honestly, I don't know if I'm going to run, but I'm doing the stuff I need to do in order to do it." He said that he would run as a Democrat.

In late 2005, Franken started his own political action committee, called Midwest Values PAC. By early 2007, the PAC had raised more than $1 million.

Franken was the subject of the 2006 documentary film ''Al Franken: God Spoke'', which premiered in April 2006 at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. It was released nationally on September 13 of that year.

Tax issues

During the 2008 election, New York state officials asserted that Al Franken Inc. had failed to carry required workers' compensation insurance for employees who assisted him with his comedy and public speaking from 2002 to 2005. Franken paid the $25,000 fine to the state of New York upon being advised his corporation was out of compliance with the state's workers' compensation laws. At the same time, the California Franchise Tax Board reported that the same corporation owed more than $4,743.40 in taxes, fines, and associated penalties in the state of California for 2003 through 2007 because the corporation did not file tax returns in the state for those years. A Franken representative said that it followed the advice of an accountant who believed when the corporation stopped doing business in California that no further filing was required. Subsequently, Franken paid $70,000 in back income taxes in 17 states dating to 2003 mostly from Franken's speeches and other paid appearances. Franken said he paid the income tax in his state of residence, and he will seek retroactive credit for paying the taxes in the wrong states.

Views

Franken had initially supported the Iraq War but opposed the 2007 troop surge. In an interview with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, Franken said that he "believed Colin Powell", whose presentation at the United Nations convinced him that the war was necessary. However, since then he had come to believe that "we were misled into the war" and urged the Democratically-controlled Congress to refuse to pass appropriations bills to fund the war if they don't include timetables for leaving Iraq. In an interview with Josh Marshall, Franken said of the Democrats, "I think we've gotta make [President George W. Bush] say, 'OK, I'm cutting off funding because I won't agree to a timetable.'"

Franken favors transitioning to a universal health care system, with the provision that every child in America should receive health care coverage, immediately. He has spoken in favor of protecting private pensions and Social Security. He has also advocated cutting subsidies for oil companies, increasing money available for college students, and cutting interest rates on student loans.

U.S. Senate

2008 election

On January 29, 2007, Al Franken announced his departure from Air America Radio. On the day of his final show, February 14, Franken formally announced that he would run for the United States Senate from Minnesota in 2008. Challenging him for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party endorsement was Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, a professor, author, and activist. Other candidates were trial lawyer Mike Ciresi, and Jim Cohen, an attorney and human rights activist who had dropped out of the race earlier.

On April 13, 2007, Franken's campaign filed a campaign finance report. He raised $1.35 million in the first quarter of 2007. The incumbent Senator, Norm Coleman, raised $1.53 million. On July 8, 2007, the Franken campaign stated that it expected to announce that Franken had raised more money than Coleman during the second quarter of the year, taking in $1.9 million to Coleman's $1.6 million, although as of early July 2007, Coleman's $3.8 million cash on hand exceeded Franken's $2 million.

In late May 2008, the Minnesota Republican Party released a letter regarding an article Franken had written for ''Playboy'' in 2000 entitled "Porn-O-Rama!" The letter, signed by six prominent GOP women, including a state senator and state representative, called on Franken to apologize for what they referred to as a "demeaning and degrading" article. Several DFL leaders expressed personal and political discomfort with the article as well. A Franken campaign spokesman responded that, "Al had a long career as a satirist. But he understands the difference between what you say as a satirist and what you do as a senator. And as a senator, Norm Coleman has disrespected the people of Minnesota by putting the Exxons and Halliburtons ahead of working families. And there’s nothing funny about that."

On June 7, 2008, Franken was endorsed at the DFL convention. In a July 2008 interview with CNN, Franken was endorsed by Ben Stein, the noted entertainer, speechwriter, lawyer and author who is known for his conservative views and generally supports Republican candidates. Stein said of Franken, "He is my pal, and he is a really, really capable smart guy. I don't agree with all of his positions, but he is a very impressive guy, and I think he should be in the Senate."

On September 9, 2008, Franken won the Democratic primary for the Senate seat.

During his campaign for the Senate, Franken was criticized for advising ''SNL'' creator Lorne Michaels on a political sketch ridiculing Senator John McCain's ads attacking Barack Obama. Coleman's campaign reacted, saying, "Once again, he proves he's more interested in entertainment than service, and ridiculing those with whom he disagrees."

Preliminary reports on election night November 4 had Coleman ahead by over 700 votes; but the official results certified on by November 18, 2008, had Coleman leading by only 215 votes. As the two candidates were separated by less than 0.5 percent, the Secretary of State of Minnesota, Mark Ritchie, authorized the automatic recount stipulated in Minnesota election law. In the recount, ballots and certifying materials were examined by hand, and candidates could file challenges to the legality of ballots or materials for inclusion or exclusion with regard to the recount. On January 5, 2009, the Minnesota State Canvassing Board certified the recounted vote totals, with Franken ahead by 225 votes.

On January 6, 2009, Coleman's campaign filed an election contest, which led to a trial before a three-judge panel. The trial ended on April 7, when the panel ruled that 351 of 387 disputed absentee ballots were incorrectly rejected and ordered them counted. Counting those ballots raised Franken's lead to 312 votes. Coleman appealed to the Minnesota Supreme Court on April 20. On April 24, the Minnesota Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. and oral arguments were conducted on June 1.

On June 30, 2009, the Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously rejected Coleman's appeal and said that Franken was entitled to be certified as the winner. Shortly after the court's decision, Coleman conceded. Governor Tim Pawlenty signed Franken’s election certificate that same evening. Franken was sworn in to the Senate on July 7, 2009, using the Bible of late Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone.

Tenure

Franken was sworn in to the Senate on July 7, 2009, 246 days after the November 2008 election. He became the fifth senator to be sworn in since the class of 2008 was sworn in January 2009. The desk where he sat was the same desk that Paul Wellstone used, which Senate leaders had kept open for Franken.

On August 6, 2009, Franken presided over the confirmation vote of Sonia Sotomayor to be an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. A year later on August 5, 2010, Franken presided over the confirmation vote of Elena Kagan. His first piece of legislation was the Service Dogs for Veterans Act (), which he wrote jointly with Sen. Johnny Isakson (R). The bill, which passed the Senate via unanimous consent, established a program with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs to pair disabled veterans with service dogs.

A video began circulating on the Internet of Franken at the Minnesota State Fair on September 2, 2009, engaging in a discussion with a group of Tea Party protesters on health care reform, and soon found itself going viral. The discussion was noted for its civility, in contrast to the explosive character of several other similar discussions between members of the 111th Congress and their constituents that had occurred over the summer.

Citing the case of Jamie Leigh Jones, Franken offered an amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill that would withhold defense contracts from companies like KBR "if they restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court." It passed the U.S. Senate, 68 to 30, in a roll-call vote.

In May 2010 Franken proposed a financial reform legislation amendment which would create a board to select which credit rating agency would evaluate a given security; currently any companies issuing a security may select which company evaluates the security. The amendment was passed; however, the financial industry lobbied to have Franken's amendment removed from the final bill. Negotiations between the Senate and House of Representatives, whose version of financial reform did not include such a provision, resulted in the amendment's being watered down to require only a series of studies being done upon the issue for two years. After the studies, if the SEC has not implemented another solution to the conflict of interest problem, Franken's solution will go into effect.

A March 2010 poll taken by Rasmussen Reports placed Franken's approval rating at 50% with Minnesotans.

In August 2010, Franken made faces and hand gestures and rolled his eyes while Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered a speech in opposition to the confirmation of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court. Franken's actions prompted McConnell to remark, "This isn't 'Saturday Night Live', Al." Following Kagan's confirmation, Franken delivered a handwritten apology to McConnell and issued a public statement saying that McConnell had a right "to give his speech with the presiding officer just listening respectfully."

Committee assignments

Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

*Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety

*Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging

Committee on the Judiciary

* Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights

* Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law

* Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law (Chair)

* Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts

Committee on Indian Affairs

Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

Special Committee on Aging

Bibliography

Books

''I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!: Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smalley'' (Dell Books, 1992) ISBN 0-440-50470-8

''Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations'' (Delacorte Press, 1996) ISBN 0-385-31474-4

''Why Not Me?'' (Delacorte Press, 1999) a parody-journal of the fictional “Franken campaign” for President ISBN 0-385-31809-X

''Oh, the Things I Know! A Guide to Success, or Failing That, Happiness'' (Plume Books, 2003) ISBN 0-452-28450-3

''Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right'' (Dutton Books, 2003) ISBN 0-525-94764-7

''The Truth (With Jokes)'' (Dutton Books, 2005) ISBN 0-525-94906-2

CDs and compilations

''The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Truth About Corporate Cons, Globalization, and High-Finance Fraudsters'' with Greg Palast (2004)

''The O'Franken Factor Factor — The Best of the O'Franken Factor''

''The Al Franken Show Party Album''

Filmography

As Performer

''Saturday Night Live'' (1975-1995) (TV)

''Franken and Davis at Stockton State'' (1984) (TV)

''Tunnel Vision'' (1976)

''The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash'' (1978) (TV)

''Grateful Dead: Dead Ahead'' (1980)

''Trading Places'' (1983)

''One More Saturday Night'' (1986)

''Stuart Saves His Family'' (1995)

''LateLine'' (1998) (TV)

''From the Earth to the Moon'' (1998) (TV)

''Harvard Man'' (2001)

''Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism'' (2004)

''The Manchurian Candidate'' (2004)

''Indian Point: Imagining the Unimaginable'' (2004) HBO documentary (TV)

''The Al Franken Show'' (2004) (TV)

''Tanner on Tanner'' (2004) (TV)

''Al Franken: God Spoke'' (2006)

As Writer

''Saturday Night Live'' (1975-1995) (TV)

''The Paul Simon Special'' (1977) (TV)

''Steve Martin's Best Show Ever'' (1981) (TV)

''Bob and Ray, Jane, Laraine and Gilda'' (1981) (TV)

''The Coneheads'' (with Tom Davis) (1981) (TV)

''Franken and Davis at Stockton State'' (1984) (TV)

''The New Show'' (1984) (TV)

''One More Saturday Night'' (with Tom Davis) (1986)

''When a Man Loves a Woman'' (with Ron Bass) (1994)

''Stuart Saves His Family'' (1995)

''3rd Rock From The Sun'' (1996) (Guest Star) (TV)

''Lateline'' (1998) (Creator) (TV)

''The Al Franken Show'' (2004) (TV)

Electoral history

}}

See also

Saturday Night Live cast

References

External links

Senator Al Franken ''official U.S. Senate site''

Al Franken for Congress ''official campaign site''

in 2002 in 2003 in 2004

Al Franken profile in ''Moment'' Magazine in 2005

{{S-ttl|title=DFL nominee for U.S. Senator from Minnesota(Class 2) |years=2008}} {{U.S. Senator box |before= Norm Coleman |state=Minnesota |class=2 |years=2009-present |alongside=Amy Klobuchar}}

Category:Actors from Minnesota Category:Actors from New York City Category:American actor-politicians Category:American comedians Category:American film actors Category:American humorists Category:American Jews Category:American political pundits Category:American political writers Category:American satirists Category:American screenwriters Category:American talk radio hosts Category:American television actors Category:American television producers Category:American television writers Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Jewish actors Category:Jewish American writers Category:Jewish comedians Category:Jewish United States Senators Category:Minnesota Democrats Category:People from Hennepin County, Minnesota Category:People from Minneapolis, Minnesota Category:United States Senators from Minnesota Category:Writers from Minnesota Category:1951 births Category:Living people Category:Democratic Party United States Senators

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Coordinates	12°2′36″N77°1′42″N
name	Robert Michael ("Mickey") Kaus
birth date	July 06, 1951
birth place	Santa Monica, California
education	Undergraduate degree from Harvard (1973); Law degree from Harvard law school
occupation	author, journalist, blogger
alias	"Mickey" Kaus
relatives	brother: Stephen Kaus
credits	noted blogger; author of several books; on air personality for several audio and video media outlets; published journalist for ''Newsweek'', ''The New Republic'' and Washington Monthly, among other places
url	http://www.kausfiles.com }}

Robert Michael Kaus (; born July 6, 1951), better known as Mickey Kaus, is an American journalist, pundit, and author best known for writing Kausfiles, a "mostly political" blog which was featured on ''Slate'' until 2010. Kaus is the author of ''The End of Equality'' and had previously worked as a journalist for ''Newsweek'', ''The New Republic'', and ''Washington Monthly'', among other places. Kaus attended Harvard College and Harvard Law School but has never practiced law. He has a brother, Stephen Kaus, who is a lawyer and occasional commentator on ''The Huffington Post''. His late father was California Supreme Court Associate Justice Otto Kaus, a Democrat. He is not married. He currently resides in Venice Beach, California.

Kausfiles

Kaus first wrote ''Slate'''s "Chatterbox" column in 1997 but started Kausfiles in 1999 as a private blog. It was perhaps the second major political blog in the United States (after Bob Somerby's The Daily Howler). In 2002, he returned to Slate at the invitation of editor Michael Kinsley. During 2003, the daily readership of Kausfiles varied between 15,000 and 30,000.

Stylistically the blog is most notable for its interior monologues including the ruse of a non-existent editor, as well as frequent, ironic exclamation points. Media critic James Wolcott, in his book ''Attack Poodles and Other Media Mutants'', uses Kaus as the archetypal example of a type of pundit he labels "counterintuitives". This type of pundit goes out of his way to stake out positions which run counter to conventional wisdom.

During the 2003 California recall, Kausfiles uncovered an interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger by ''Oui'' magazine in which he boasted of participating in group sex. This post sparked a series of claims of sexual misconduct during Schwarzenegger's bodybuilding and acting career. Kaus later posted about a 1981 ''Today Show'' appearance where Schwarzenegger claimed that he deliberately damaged chimneys in order to boost demand for his bricklaying business, which was another scoop.

During the 2004 U.S. presidential election, the blog displayed a strong and consistent distaste for John Kerry, despite the fact that Kaus endorsed Kerry and contributed to his campaign. Kausfiles has also consistently criticized the ''Los Angeles Times,'' Santa Monica radio station KCRW, media critic Howard Kurtz, and CNN President Jonathan Klein.

In 2007, Kaus reported from an anonymous source that candidate John Edwards was having an affair with documentarian Rielle Hunter. Edwards and Hunter both publicly denied this, and Kaus was widely criticized for what amounted to an assumption of guilt. Several bloggers of satiric bent spread intentionally ludicrous and offensive memes concerning Kaus and bestiality to illustrate that an assumption of guilt can be unfairly hard to disprove. It later turned out that the rumors regarding Edwards were actually true.

The blog also comments on the automotive industry and Kaus irregularly files automotive-centric "Gearbox" columns on ''Slate''.

As a result of his run for the Senate, Kaus left ''Slate'' and hosted his blog on his campaign website. On September 20, the Kausfiles blog has been relaunched at ''Newsweek''. He has recently left Newsweek and now blogs at the Daily Caller.

Political views

Kaus has identified himself as neoliberal. He tends to support liberal ends, including social equality (the topic of ''The End of Equality'') and universal health care, but frequently attacks traditional liberal means of reaching those ends. Most notably, he was an influential proponent of welfare reform in the 1980s, and is a fierce critic of both labor unions (particularly automotive workers' unions and teachers' unions) and immigration reform (he supports the new Arizona anti-illegal-immigration law, calling to wait to see the law's practical effects before overturning it).

Kaus' constant criticisms of traditional liberalism have prompted some liberals (including his Bloggingheads sparring partner Robert Wright) to see him as a right-winger. He has been criticized for his persistent defense of his friend Ann Coulter from many liberal critics

His views, and willingness to attack the Democratic Party, have also made him popular with conservative writers.

Kaus usually supports Democratic politicians. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Kaus endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, while criticizing other Democrats including Barack Obama. In the 2006 U.S. Midterm Elections Kaus wrote that he hoped the Democrats would fail to take over the U.S. House of Representatives but take the Senate. He called the election "perverse" because he saw a Democratic victory as not impeding George W. Bush's Iraq policy but helping his immigration policy. Nevertheless, Kaus declared he still voted for Democrat Jane Harman.

Kaus is generally moderate on foreign policy (he is notably dovish on issues pertaining to Israel and the Middle East), but he comparively spends little time writing about international topics. In March 2011, he wrote that he feared that the U.S. has entered into an age of 'humanitarian imperialism' in which the U.S. functions as an 'empire' where "war never really ends."

Radio

Kaus has also contributed to radio, making occasional contributions to the Slate/NPR show ''Day to Day''.

Bloggingheads.tv

On November 1, 2005, Kaus and journalist Robert Wright launched BloggingHeads.tv, a video weblog dialog or dia-vlog focusing on mostly-political current events. Initially Kaus and Wright were the regular participants. Eventually Wright recruited many other bloggers, journalists and scholars to take part, discussing the headlines and latest developments and making predictions. Wright, who bought out Kaus in the early days of the site, still appears often with various guests. By contrast, Kaus's appearances have became increasingly infrequent. When he does appear he is almost always paired with Wright.

To exploit the visual side of the medium, Kaus sometimes uses visual aids such as an Al Gore mask and a stuffed moose. According to Kaus "Deploying the moose" symbolizes Pinch Sulzberger's idea of "the unaddressed important issue" similar to the "elephant in the room."

In an episode recorded February 8, 2006, Kaus said "half the Democrats are going to vote for McCain and I'm going to be one of them." Kaus linked to his own statement in a February 10, 2008 blog post with the words, "I can't believe I said this."

2010 Senate Run

According to a March 1, 2010 report in L.A. Weekly, Kaus took out papers to run for the United States Senate. Kaus ran as a "Common Sense Democrat," stating that he did not expect to win, but hoped to raise issues.

In a March 2, 2010 entry on Kausfiles, Kaus announced that he had taken out nomination papers to run in the Senate primary for California against Barbara Boxer.

Kaus finished a distant third in the June 8th, 2010 Democratic primary election, with 5.3% of the total vote (or 94,298 votes). Political unknown Brian Quintana took second with 14.2%, while incumbent Barbara Boxer secured 80.5%, ensuring that she would continue on to the general election.

References

External links

The Kausfiles blog

Video debates featuring Kaus and others (usually Robert Wright) on Bloggingheads.tv

Annotated copy of LA Times feature on Mickey Kaus

The Kausfiles forum

Interview of Kaus on fora.tv about the 2008 Republican Nat. Convention

Category:1951 births Category:Living people Category:American anti–illegal immigration activists Category:American journalists Category:American political pundits Category:American political writers Category:Harvard Law School alumni Category:Political weblogs Category:The New Republic people Category:Slate (magazine) people Category:American bloggers Category:Video bloggers Category:People from Santa Monica, California

Coordinates	12°2′36″N77°1′42″N
Name	Dick Durbin
Office1	Senate Assistant Majority Leader
Leader1	Harry Reid
Term start1	January 3, 2007
Predecessor1	Mitch McConnell
Office2	Senate Minority Whip
Leader2	Harry Reid
Term start2	January 3, 2005
Term end2	January 3, 2007
Predecessor2	Harry Reid
Successor2	Trent Lott
Jr/sr	United States Senator
State	Illinois
Alongside	Mark Kirk
Term start	January 3, 1997
Predecessor	Paul Simon
State4	Illinois
District4	20th
Term start4	January 3, 1983
Term end4	January 3, 1997
Predecessor4	Paul Findley
Successor4	John Shimkus
Birth date	November 21, 1944
Birth place	East St. Louis, Illinois, United States
Party	Democratic Party
Spouse	Loretta Schaefer
Children	Christine (Deceased)JenniferPaul
Alma mater	Georgetown University
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Website	Senator Dick Durbin }}

Richard Joseph "Dick" Durbin (born November 21, 1944) is the senior United States Senator from Illinois and the Senate Majority Whip, the second highest position in the Democratic Party leadership in the Senate.

Born in East St. Louis, Illinois, he graduated from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and Georgetown University Law Center. Working in state legal counsel throughout the 1970s, he made an unsuccessful run for Lieutenant Governor of Illinois in 1978. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, representing the Springfield-based 20th congressional district. In 1996 he won election to the U.S. Senate by an unexpected 15-point margin. He has served as Senate Democratic Whip since 2005, and assumed his current title when the Democratic Party obtained a majority in 2007. As a member of the Democratic leadership, he has a record as one of the most liberal members of Congress.

Early life, education and career

Durbin was born in East St. Louis, Illinois to an Irish-American father, William Durbin, and a Lithuanian-born mother, Ann Kutkin (Lithuanian: Ona Kutkaitė). He graduated from Assumption High School in East St. Louis in 1962. During his high school years he worked at a meatpacking plant. He earned a B.S. from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1966. He was an intern in the office of Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois during his senior year in college. Durbin earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1969 and was admitted to the Illinois bar later that year.

After graduating from law school, Durbin started a law practice in Springfield. He was legal counsel to Lieutenant Governor Paul Simon from 1969 to 1972, and then legal counsel to the Illinois State Senate Judiciary Committee from 1972 to 1982. Durbin was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for a seat in the Illinois State Senate in 1976. He ran for Lieutenant Governor in 1978 as the running mate of State Superintendent of Schools Michael Bakalis. They were defeated by Republican incumbents Jim Thompson and Dave O'Neal. Durbin then worked as an adjunct professor at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine for five years while maintaining his law practice.

U.S. House of Representatives

In 1982, Durbin won the Democratic nomination for the 20th congressional district, which includes most of Springfield. He scored a huge upset, defeating 22-year incumbent Paul Findley. Durbin was reelected six times, rarely facing serious opposition, and winning more than 55% of the vote in each election except 1994.

U.S. Senate

Committees

Committee on Appropriations

*Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies

*Subcommittee on Defense

*Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government (Chairman)

*Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies

*Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs

*Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies

Committee on Foreign Relations

*Subcommittee on African Affairs

*

*Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy and Global Women's Issues

*Subcommittee on European Affairs

*Subcommittee on International Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs, and International Environmental Protection

Committee on the Judiciary

*Subcommittee on the Constitution

*Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs

*Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security

*Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security

*Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law (Chairman)

Committee on Rules and Administration

Caucus memberships

Bi-Cameral High- Speed & Intercity Passenger Rail Caucus

Caucus on International Narcotics Control (Co-Chair)

International Conservation Caucus

Senate Diabetes Caucus

Senate Hunger Caucus (Co-Chair)

Senate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education Caucus (Co-Chair)

Sportsmen's Caucus

Congressional COPD Caucus (Co-Chair)

Leadership

In November 1998, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle appointed Durbin to the role of Assistant Democratic Whip. Following the Election of 2004, Durbin became the Democratic Whip in the 109th Congress. He became the first senator from Illinois to serve as a Senate Whip since Everett Dirksen did so in the late 1950s, and the fifth to serve in Senate Leadership. Durbin served as Assistant Minority Leader from 2005 until 2007, when the Democrats became the Majority Party in the Senate. He then assumed the role of Assistant Majority Leader, or Majority Whip.

In addition to his caucus duties, Durbin is Chairman the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.

In 2000, Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore listed Durbin as his possible running mate and candidate for Vice President of the United States. Gore ultimately selected Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman.

When Majority Leader Harry Reid faced a difficult reelection fight in 2010, some pundits predicted a possibly heated fight to succeed him between his Assistant Durbin and Senator Chuck Schumer, who is well-known for his fundraising prowess. Reid's reelection victory, however, rendered such speculation moot.

Political positions

Durbin is one of the most liberal members of Congress. ''Mother Jones'' has called him a "top Senate liberal." His voting record is very similar to the Democratic caucus position, consistent with his leadership position as Whip, which has the duty of persuading senators to follow the party line in their votes. As a trial lawyer, Durbin has excellent debating abilities, so much so that majority leader Harry Reid called him "the best debater" in the U.S. senate.

Abortion

As a congressman, Durbin voted consistently to uphold pre-existing restrictions on abortion or impose new limitations including supporting a Constitutional amendment that would have nullifed ''Roe v. Wade''. He reversed his position in 1989 and has since voted to maintain access to abortion, including support for Medicaid funding of the procedure, and opposition to any limitation that he considers a practical or potential encroachment upon ''Roe''. Durbin has maintained that this reversal came about as a result of personal reflection and his growing awareness of potentially harmful implications of his previous policy with respect to women facing dangerous pregnancies. While visiting a home for abused children in Quincy, Illinois, the director, a friend, asked him to speak with two girls who were about to turn 18 and be turned out of state care. Talking with the girls, victims of gang rape and incest, made him reconsider his position on the subject. He says, "I still oppose abortion and would try my best to convince any woman in my family to carry the baby to term. But I believe that ultimately the decision must be made by the woman, her doctor, her family, and her conscience."

NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood both give him a 100% rating while the National Right to Life Committee gives him a 0% rating.

Darfur

On March 2, 2005, then Senator Jon Corzine presented the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act (S. 495) to the Senate. Durbin was one of 40 senators who co-sponsored the bill. The Darfur Accountability Act is noted as the premier legislative attempt to instill peace in Darfur. The bill asks that all people involved in or deemed in some way responsible for the genocide in Darfur be denied visas and entrance to the U.S.

In 2006, Durbin co-sponsored the Durbin-Leahy Amendment to the Supplemental Appropriations bill for emergency funding to instill peace in Darfur. In 2006, he also co-sponsored the Lieberman Resolution, and the Clinton Amendment.

On June 7, 2007, Durbin introduced the Sudan Disclosure Enforcement Act, "Aimed at enhancing the U.S. Government's ability to impose penalties on violators of U.S. sanctions against Sudan." The bill called for the United Nations Security Council to vote on sanctions against the Sudanese Government for the genocide in Darfur.

Durbin has voted in favor of all Darfur-related legislation. In addition to the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act, he also supported the Civilian Protection No-Fly Zone Act, the Hybrid Force Resolution, and the Sudan Divestment Authorization Act.

HIV/AIDS

In March 2007, Durbin introduced the African Health Capacity Investment Act of 2007 to the Senate. The bill was designed so that over a three year period, the U.S. would supply over $600 million to help create safer medical facilities and working conditions, and the recruitment and training of doctors from all over the continent.

In December 2007, Durbin and two other senators co-sponsored Senator Kerry's Nondiscrimination in Travel and Immigration Act. Also, in March 2007, Durbin joined thirty-two other senators to co-sponsor the Early Treatment for HIV Act of 2007.

American Public Health Association gives him a rating of 100%.

Iraq War

On September 9, 2002, Durbin was the first of four Democratic senators (the others being Sens. Bob Graham, Feinstein, and Levin) on the Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), responding to the Bush administration's request for a joint resolution authorizing a preemptive war on Iraq without having prepared a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), to ask George Tenet, the Director of Central Intelligence, to prepare a NIE on the status of Iraq's WMD programs. Durbin was one of the few senators who read the resulting prepared October 1, 2002 NIE, ''Iraq's Continuing Programs for Weapons of Mass Destruction''.

On September 29, 2002, Durbin held a news conference in Chicago to announce that "absent dramatic changes" in the resolution, he would vote against the resolution authorizing war on Iraq. On October 2, 2002, at the first high-profile Chicago anti-Iraq War rally in Federal Plaza, Durbin repeated his promise to oppose the resolution in a letter read during the rally.

On October 10, 2002, the U.S. Senate failed to pass Durbin's amendment to the resolution to strike "the continuing threat posed by Iraq" and insert "an imminent threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction", by a vote of 30 to 70, with the majority of Democratic senators voting for the amendment, but with 21 Democratic senators joining all 49 Republican senators voting against it. On October 11, 2002, Durbin was one of 23 senators to vote against the joint resolution authorizing the Iraq War.

On April 25, 2007, Durbin said that as an intelligence committee member he knew in 2002 from classified information that the American people were being misled by the Bush Administration into a war on Iraq, but he could not reveal this because, as an intelligence committee member, he was sworn to secrecy. This revelation prompted an online attack ad against Durbin by the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Fair Sentencing Act

Durbin authored the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, legislation that has corrected some of the imbalance in cocaine sentencing.

Dream Act

He is the chief proponent for The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (The "DREAM Act"), a piece of proposed federal legislation. This bill would provide certain illegal immigrant students with the opportunity to earn conditional permanent residency if they arrived in the US as children, graduated from a US high school, have been in the country continuously for at least five years prior to the bill's enactment, submit biometric data, pass a criminal background check, and complete two years toward a four-year degree from an accredited university or complete at least two years in the military within a five-year period.

Tobacco regulation

In 1987, Durbin introduced major tobacco regulation legislation in the House to ban cigarette smoking on airline flights of two hours or less. He was joined by Rep. C. W. Bill Young, a Republican from Florida, in saying that the rights of smokers to smoke end where their smoking affects the health and safety of others, such as on airplanes. The bill went on to pass as part of the 1988 transportation spending bill. In 1989, Congress banned cigarette smoking on all domestic airline flights.

In March 1994, Durbin proposed an amendment to the Improving America's Schools Act that required schools that receive Federal drug prevention money to teach elementary and secondary students about the dangers of tobacco in addition to those of drugs and alcohol. The amendment also required that schools warn students against tobacco and teach them how to resist peer pressure to smoke.

In February 2008, Durbin called on Congress to support a measure that would give the Food and Drug Administration the power to oversee the tobacco industry. This measure would require companies to disclose the contents of tobacco products, restrict advertising and promotions, and mandate the removal of harmful ingredients in tobacco products. The measure would also prohibit tobacco companies from using terms such as "low risk," "light," and "mild" on packaging.

Durbin attributes his stance against tobacco smoking to his father, who smoked two packs of Camel cigarettes a day and died of lung cancer.

Freedom of Speech

In 2007, speaking as Senate Majority Whip, Durbin went on record as stating that "It’s time to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine."

In 2010, Durbin cosponsored and passed from committee the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, a bill that aims to combat media piracy by blacklisting websites though many opposed to the bill argue that it violates First Amendment rights and promotes censorship. The announcement of the bill was followed by a wave of protest from digital rights activists, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation calling it censorship and stating that action may be taken against all users of sites in which only some users are uploading infringing material.

Financial crisis of 2007–2010

On April 27, 2009, in an interview with WJJG talk radio host Ray Hanania, Durbin accused banks of creating the financial crisis of 2007–2010. Durbin expressed a belief that many of the banks responsible for creating the crisis "own the place," referring to the power wielded by the banking lobby on Capitol Hill.

On September 18, 2008, Durbin attended a closed meeting with congressional leaders, then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and was urged to craft legislation to help financially troubled banks. That same day (trade effective the next day), Durbin sold mutual-fund shares worth $42,696, and reinvested it all with Warren Buffet.

Durbin is currently sponsoring a bill (Senate Bill 500) that calls for a maximum annual interest rate cap of 36%, including all interest and fees. This bill will purportedly put an end to predatory lending activities. However, if passed, it will have a far-reaching impact on many industries - including pawn shop lending, auto title lending, and payday lending - and the customers who rely on their short-term, small-dollar loans.

Rod Blagojevich

Shortly after Governor Rod Blagojevich's arrest on federal corruption charges on December 9, 2008, Durbin called for the Illinois legislature to quickly pass legislation for a special election to fill then President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat. He stated that no United States Senate appointment of Blagojevich's could produce a credible replacement under the circumstances.

Durbin and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid led all 50 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus in writing Illinois Governor Blagojevich to urge him to resign and not name a successor to Obama following Blagojevich's arrest. Despite this, the governor appointed Roland Burris to the seat on December 30. Burris is a former state official and donated thousands to Blagojevich's re-election fund.

Trade

In January 2005, Durbin changed his longstanding position on sugar tariffs and price supports. After several years of voting to keep sugar quotas and price supports, Durbin now favors abolishing the program. "The sugar program depended on congressmen like me from states that grew corn," Durbin said, referring to the fact that, though they were formerly a single entity, the sugar market and the corn syrup market are now largely separate.

In May 2006, Durbin campaigned to maintain a $0.54 per gallon tariff on imported ethanol. Durbin justified the tariff by joining Barack Obama in stating that "ethanol imports are neither necessary nor a practical response to current gasoline prices," arguing instead that domestic ethanol production is sufficient and expanding. American Coalition for Ethanol gives him a rating of 100%.

Environmentalism

Among Durbin's legislative causes are environmental protection, particularly the protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. League of Conservation Voters gives him a rating of 89%. Sierra Club gives him a 90% rating.

Other positions

Durbin has also been a major proponent of expanded Amtrak funding and support. In October 2007, he opposed a bill in the Illinois General Assembly that would allow three casinos to be built, saying, "I really, really think we ought to stop and catch our breath and say, 'Is this the future of Illinois? That every time we want to do something we'll just build more casinos?'"

He has campaigned against asbestos.

''Agriculture'' National Farmers Union gives him a rating of 100%.

''Animal rights and wildlife'' Humane Society of the United States gives him a rating of 100%.

''Budget, spending, and taxes'' Americans for Tax Reform gives him a rating of 5%. Citizens for Tax Justice gives him a rating of 100%. National Taxpayers Union gives him a rating of 14%. U.S. Chamber of Commerce gives him a rating of 45%.

''Civil liberties and civil rights'' American Civil Liberties Union gives him a rating of 71%. NAACP gives him a rating of 100%. Americans United for Separation of Church and State gives him a rating of 100%.

''Conservative'' The John Birch Society gives him a rating of 10%.

''Education'' National Education Association of America gives him an A rating.

''Family and children'' Children's Defense Fund gives him a rating of 100%.

''Government reform'' Citizens Against Government Waste gives him a 4% rating. U.S. Public Interest Research Group gives him a rating of 95%.

''Guns'' Gun Owners of America gives him an F- rating. National Rifle Association gives him an F rating.

''Immigration'' American Immigration Lawyers Association gives him a rating of 88%.

''Labor'' AFL-CIO gives him a rating of 100%.

''Seniors and Social Security'' Alliance for Retired Americans gives him a rating of 100%. American Association of Retired Persons gives him a rating of 90%.

''Veterans'' American Legion gives him a rating of 50%. Disabled Veterans of America gives him a rating of 80%. Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gives him an A- rating.

''Welfare and poverty'' Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law gives him an A+ rating.

''Women'' National Organization for Women gives him a rating of 96%.

''Other'' The Cato Institute gives him a rating of 17%. Christian Coalition gives him a rating of 0%.

Guantanamo interrogation criticism

Durbin received a lot of media attention on June 14, 2005, when in the U.S. Senate chambers he compared interrogation techniques used at Camp X-Ray, Guantanamo Bay, as reported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with those utilized by such regimes as Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and the Khmer Rouge:

:"When you read some of the graphic descriptions of what has occurred here I almost hesitate to put them in the record, and yet they have to be added to this debate. Let me read to you what one FBI agent saw. And I quote from his report:

::"On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18–24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold.... On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor.

:"If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime Pol Pot or others that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners."

Durbin's comments drew widespread criticism that comparing U.S. actions to such regimes insulted the United States and victims of genocide. Radio host Rush Limbaugh and White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove accused Durbin of treason, while former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich called on the Senate to censure Durbin. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, whose son Patrick was serving in U.S. Army, also called on Durbin to apologize for his remarks, saying that he thought it was a "disgrace to say that any man or woman in the military would act like that." John Wertheim, Democratic state party chairman of New Mexico, and Jim Pederson, Arizona Democratic party chairman, also criticized Durbin's remarks. The leader of the Veterans of Foreign Wars also demanded an apology, as did the Anti-Defamation League

Durbin initially did not apologize, but on June 21, 2005, he went before the Senate, saying, "More than most people, a senator lives by his words ... occasionally words fail us, occasionally we will fail words."

Andrew Sullivan, former editor of ''The New Republic'', praised Durbin for raising serious moral issues about U.S. policy. Other commentators, including liberal commentator Markos Moulitsas Zúniga of ''Daily Kos'', condemned Durbin for apologizing to his critics, arguing Durbin made a mistake in making himself, rather than detention and torture concerns at Guantanamo Bay, the focus of media coverage.

Political campaigns

In 1996, Durbin defeated Pat Quinn to become the Democratic Party's nominee to replace the retiring Democratic incumbent, Senator Paul Simon, a long-time friend. He faced Republican State Representative Al Salvi in the November general election. Although the election was initially expected to be competitive, Durbin won by a surprising 15-point margin, undoubtedly helped by Bill Clinton's 18-point win in Illinois that year.

Electoral history

+ : Results 1982–1994	! Year	!	! Democrat	! Votes	! Pct	!	! Republican	! Votes	! Pct

| align="right" |1,479,984 | |29% | |}

Personal life

Durbin and his wife Loretta had three children, Christine, Jennifer and Paul. After several weeks in the hospital with complications due to a congenital heart condition, Christine died on November 1, 2008.

References

External links

United States Senator Dick Durbin ''official U.S. Senate site''

Dick Durbin, U.S. Senator ''official campaign site''

Nichols, John Dick Durbin: Bush Fighter, ''The Nation'', January 27, 2005

{{U.S. Senator box |state=Illinois |class=2 |before=Paul M. Simon |after=Incumbent |years=January 7, 1997 – present |alongside=Carol Moseley Braun, Peter Fitzgerald, Barack Obama, Roland Burris, Mark Kirk}}

Category:United States Senators from Illinois Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois Category:Illinois lawyers Category:Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service alumni Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of Lithuanian descent Category:People from East St. Louis, Illinois Category:People from Springfield, Illinois Category:Illinois Democrats Category:Georgetown University Law Center alumni Category:Recipients of the Order of the Three Stars, 2nd Class Category:1944 births Category:Living people Category:Democratic Party United States Senators Category:Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 1st Class

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