The American Spectator

p> DURBIN DECLINE br> Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin ‘s vote against Judge Charles Pickering in the Senate Judiciary Committee may have far-reaching implications for his constituents. For several years Durbin has been pushing big federal financial guarantees to help fund the expansion of O’Hare International Airport outside Chicago. /p>

It is a pet project of Mayor Richard Daley and former Clinton-Gore crony William Daley.The airport expansion has been fought by Illinois Republican Sen. Peter Fitzgerald.

The Bush administration had expressed a desire to help Durbin and the Daleys get the funding. But while dining with the Daley brothers in Chicago during St. Patrick’s Day festivities last weekend, Bush told them that Durbin’s refusal to support Pickering may very well doom their sky-high airport plans.

“Durbin wouldn’t even speak to Lott about the Pickering matter,” says a Republican leadership source. “This is personal now, and the Pickering thing is going to have some far reaching effects on pet legislation on the Democratic side.”

Fitzgerald has struggled in the past to keep the airport financing deal off the books, but has been told by Lott that this year’s fight won’t be half as hard. Republicans won’t the let the deal go through. Across the Capitol, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, a fellow Land of Lincoln resident, has similarly agreed to keep O’Hare expansion backing off the books to spite Durbin’s and the Daleys’ dreams.

p> JANET’S LOST LABOR br> Former Attorney General