Sen. Durbin: Revelation of Past Obama Cocaine Use "Refreshing"

Sen. Barack "Osama" Obama revealed in his first memoir a history of cocaine use, which Sen. Dick Durbin finds "refreshing" (from Special Report):

The success of likely Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's most recent book — "the Audacity of Hope" — has brought some attention to his earlier memoir — and the Illinois senator's admission of past illegal drug use. The book is called "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance" and was published 11 years ago when he was 34.

Obama writes of his search for identity as a young man: "Pot had helped and booze and maybe a little blow (cocaine) when you could afford it. Junkie, pothead, that's where I'd been headed. I had got high to push questions of who I was out of my mind."

A Republican strategist tells the Washington Post he does not believe the admission will kill Obama's candidacy. And fellow Illinois Senator Dick Durbin tells the Post he thinks Obama's revelations "will be received as refreshing."

Of course, Durbin's judgement is suspect at best. He is, after all, the Senator that compared Gitmo to gulags and the Nazis.