Breakfast with Senator Durbin

The classic political junkie question is, "If you could choose anyone to have a meal with, who would it be and what would you ask?" Well yesterday, I had a chance to do just this with one of my top pick politicians, Senator Dick Durbin.

As many of you know, I was chosen to be a delegate to for the Illinois Women's Institute for Leadership 2006 class. This organization was developed by women leaders of the Illinois Democratic Party, with Loretta Durbin as founder and president. Similar to Howard Dean's plan for the 50-state strategy, the IWIL program recognized the importance of a developing a "farm team" for future politicians. This has given me an opportunity to have some incredible training, to network with leaders in the Democratic Party and to share this experience with other fledgling female politicians. Our group of fourteen women is as diverse as the Democratic Party. Seven of the 14 are from Chicago and seven of us are from "downstate" four are African-American and two are Hispanic. I represent the old-age group. :-)

This weekend we met at DePaul University in Chicago. This makes two weekends in a row for sleeping in a college dorm. Friday evening our group watched "Iron Jawed Angels". Our Friday night video about women's suffrage was a great way to start an inspiring weekend.

The meetings were at the university student center. On Thursday I received and email from our organizer that Sen. Durbin would start the day with a short talk. So as a seasoned Dean fan, I started my planning. When I entered I scoped out the room, four round tables with 6 chairs each and a long table at the end set with a warm breakfast. I figured that a front table could give me a closer view. I noticed that only two other women chose to sit there leaving 2 empty seats.

After we sat down, in entered Sen. and Loretta Durbin. Sharon said, "Look he is wearing a green tie." We noted that it matched Loretta's well fitted, lime green blazer. Jacky stated, "I have noticed a lot more green ties on men lately." As Sen, Durbin was filling up his plate with food, I could tell all the chairs were almost full so I quietly motioned for the Sharon to take off her bag from the chair next to her. Durbin, with a plate load of scrambled eggs asked, "Can I sit here?"

We had about ten minutes to talk before he was to speak. "Thanks for your great work in the senate for getting the stem cell research passed." stated a delegate that joined us. Yes it did force Bush to make his stance by vetoing it. We told him how we appreciated him coming here and how Loretta was insightful for organizing this women's training program. We continued to expressed appreciation of what he was doing in the Senate but I certainly didn't bring up my husband's concern about the Lebanon situation nor my son's anger about the upcoming Senate bill that would stop on-line gambling.

When we finished eating, he stood before the group directly in front of me. Sen. Durban, like someone else we know, is not a tall man. He started by saying he didn't want to take time away from the scheduled speaker but we all heartily expressed approval for him to continue his talk.

You could see his pride as he looked around the room filled with empowered woman (and amazingly, I was one of these women!!). He looked affectionately across the room to his wife of 39 years, and acknowledged her for making this all a happen.

Like all good politicians, he talked to his audience. He opened with encouraging us to run for office. He said if someone encourages you to run for office, consider it closely. 'Don't be discouraged, not everyone wins the first time. I ran four times before I was successful.' He proceeded to describe his failed candidacies. I never think about all that people go through prior to their success.

He talked about some successes this last week with the passage of the Right to Vote Act and the approval of stem cell research, at least in the Senate.

I especially love to hear insider stories. He talked about a recent meeting other Democrats and he had with the (evil!!) Republican message maker, Frank Luntz, Luntz talked with them about messaging and how successful the Republicans have been and what the Democrats need to do. This is amazing, Luntz sees this all as one big game and he is more interested in the ability to control people and how they vote yet he seems to have little alliance to a belief system of his own or a loyality to a particular party. Someone asked Durbin if there was a Democratic plan and he said they would be releasing it in the next month. He went over a few points, which we DNC people know is what Dean has already introduced.

Apologizing for interrupting our sessions, Senator Durbin left us to our instruction by two women from Emily's List organization and message maker, Pete Giangreca from John Edward's campaign. Giangreca had helped to develop the idea of "Two Americas." When asked about blogging he warned us not to blog because what you say there cannot be taken back, too late for me!

***An interesting side note. Saturday evening there was a BBQ with past delegates from the IWIL program and Loretta told Sen. Durbin that he could not attend because there was not enough room for spouses.

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