Dick Durbin’s Republican opponent is “resorting to personal, hateful personal attacks,” a Durbin spokesman told Chi Trib. 

“I don’t think that’s what people are looking for. I think people are looking for constructive discussion on issues and not scorched-earth, old-style politics.”

No they aren’t.  Personal attacks win elections or tip close ones.  Not that Durbin’s in a close one.  He has a life seat in the U.S. Senate.  But his attacks on personal attacks — this time “personal, hateful personal attacks,” for a double, even triple whammy — are common

“The hottest ring in hell is reserved for those in politics who attack their opponents’ families,” he said on Messy NBC, reacting to criticism of Mrs. O. “And if there are some Republican strategists who think that’s the way to win the election, I think they’re wrong.”

He’s wrong and knows it, which is why he came up with this ring-in-hell business.

On the other hand, he was one of 25 senators voting against condemning “personal attacks” on Gen. Petraeus by a MoveOn.Org last September.  Ah, but that was different, was it not?

September is the cruelest month for Durbin, who in that month in 2005 from the Senate floor, during debate on an energy bill, compared Americans running Guatanomo to “Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime——Pol Pot or others——that had no concern for human beings.”

For which he at first refused to apologize (said Aljazeera in a link now cached-only) but later did, with tears:

“Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line,” the Illinois Democrat said on Tuesday. “To them I extend my heartfelt apologies.”

To the others a wink.