The secret for the success and political longevity of Democrat Dick Durbin, Illinois' senior U.S. senator, can be summarized in three words: Location. Location. Location.

Like the explanation for successful real estate marketing, the liberal and obnoxiously partisan Durbin, age 61, is fortunate that he represents a so-called "blue" state -- the People's Socialist Republic of Illinois. Were he from Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska or even Iowa or Missouri, Durbin not only would be toast when he sought re-election, he never would have been elected in the first place.

Nevertheless, the bland, boring and utterly uncharismatic Durbin is the most influential Illinoisan in the U.S. Senate since the late Everett Dirksen, who served from 1951 to 1969 and who was the Republican minority leader from 1959 to 1969. As the Democratic Senate minority whip, Durbin ranks only behind U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-14) as the most powerful Illinoisan in Washington.

As the Democrats' official attack dog, with nary a good word to say about President George Bush, Durbin gets lots of face time on television news, on Sunday morning talk shows and on Fox, CNN and C-SPAN. And, as the Democrats' unofficial investigator of the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba, Durbin got headlines in 2005 when he compared U.S. treatment of Iraqi prisoners to "Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime . . . that had no concern for human beings." Durbin later made a teary-eyed apology for his remarks on the Senate floor.

 Durbin also stepped on his tongue when, as a Senate Judiciary Committee member, he was grilling U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito on whether there was "constitutional support" for a woman's right to choose an abortion and if he would promise to uphold Roe v. Wade. Durbin said he was "troubled" by Alito's refusal to take a position, but then Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, shot back that he was "troubled" by Durbin's contradictory positions on abortion, brandishing a 1989 letter in which Durbin called for the reversal of Roe v. Wade. In 1996, when he announced for senator, Durbin switched from pro-life to pro-choice. As a congressman from the Springfield area for 14 years, Durbin had always opposed abortion rights.

A longtime foe of private oil drilling on public lands and in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Durbin again stepped on his tongue when he accused Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) of somehow encouraging oil industry executives to lie by not requiring them to be sworn prior to testimony at a joint committee hearing. Stevens ripped Durbin for violating Senate Rule 19, which bans imputing to other senators "conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a senator." Durbin never apologized, claiming Stevens was not on the floor when he made his remarks.

Durbin also has relentlessly attacked the Bush Administration for its "drill and burn" policies and for the fact that gas was $1.50 a gallon when Bush took office. Of course, it never occurred to Durbin that more domestic oil production might lower gas prices.

On immigration, Durbin did support the "guest worker" compromise, but he opposed limiting it to illegal aliens in the U.S. for 2 to 5 years and also putting a cap on permanent resident admissions.

On Iraq, Durbin is squarely aligned with the "cut and run" crowd, having supported resolutions to withdraw all U.S. troops by December of 2006 and to redeploy military personnel and withdraw by July of 2007.

Durbin was quick off the blocks on the Patriot Act reauthorization, contending that the president should be censured or even impeached if he violated the law on domestic spying. But that controversy soon died, and Durbin ended up supporting the act's renewal.

Durbin has been a popular senator, having won election to his first term in 1996 with 56.1 percent of the vote by a margin of 655,204 votes over Republican Al Salvi, whom the then-obscure Durbin attacked as an "extremist." Salvi won 52 of 102 counties, but Durbin carried Downstate by 48,385 votes and Cook County by 664,461 votes, while Salvi carried the Collar Counties by 57,642 votes. Durbin won because he spent $4.9 million and made Salvi unelectable. The fact that Bill Clinton carried Illinois by 754,723 votes, getting 54.3 percent of the votes cast, also helped. Durbin was in the right place at the right time, and he had the right foe.

During most of 2001 Durbin toyed with the idea of running for governor, but he opted to run for re-election and faced Republican Jim Durkin, an unknown state representative. In another great Democratic year, Durbin was re-elected by a margin of 778,063 votes (60.3 percent), carrying 77 of 102 counties. He won Downstate by 197,690 votes and Cook County by 587,898 votes, losing the Collar Counties by 7,525 votes. The difference between 1996 and 2002: Durbin cut his Collar County loss by 50,000 votes and upped his Downstate margin by nearly 150,000 votes. The money disparity also doomed Durkin: He spent just $794,634, to Durbin's $4.9 million.

Durbin's term expires in 2008, which looms as another great Democratic year. If the Democrats don't take control of the U.S. Senate, which now is 55-45 Republican, in 2006, they surely will do so in 2008, making Durbin the majority whip. Republicans had been grooming U.S. Representative John Shimkus (R-19) of Collinsville to run in 2008. Shimkus won Durbin's House seat in 1996, and he pledged to serve only 12 years, but he has since recanted that promise and will stay put.

Durbin could have trouble against Joe Birkett, the DuPage County state's attorney, if he is elected lieutenant governor in 2006 on the ticket with Judy Baar Topinka. But Birkett lost a 2002 bid for attorney general, and he may not want another loss. A 2005 SurveyUSA poll, taken after the Guantanamo flap, gave Durbin a 46/34 percent approve/disapprove rating, making him the 88th most popular senator out of 100. The 2008 outlook: Durbin will be well funded and unbeatable. He's lucky he's running in Illinois.

Of course, Durbin is to his Democratic colleague, Barack Obama, what a stagehand is to rock star. Obama was elected in 2004 by an astounding margin of 2,206,766 votes, getting 69.9 percent of the total. Despite being a black Chicagoan, Obama carried 92 of 102 counties. Obama, age 45, is much in demand on the national fund-raising circuit, and he is viewed as a likely Democratic nominee for vice president or president in 2012 or beyond.

As is detailed on the adjoining vote chart, Obama and Durbin voted alike on every issue but one: Obama opposed redeploying Iraq troops and withdrawing by July of 2007, although he did vote for a withdrawal by December of 2006. Unlike Durbin, Obama is not a vehement secularist, having been quoted as saying that he "has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ" and warning Democrats that they must take religion seriously and that "we worship an awesome God in the blue states."

Obama's term expires in 2010, and the 2005 poll gave him a 71 percent approval rating. Obama has voted as a liberal, but has not been virulently ideological or partisan. He is shrewdly laying the groundwork for a presidential bid, eschewing the "I am a victim" and "blame the whites" rhetoric of Jesse Jackson's generation. As demonstrated in Illinois, Obama is the kind of black politician that most whites will not hesitate to support. He will win another term easily in 2010.