In case you haven't already noticed, Illinois' own Sen. Dick Durbin has been on fire over the past week.  Below are some highlights.

Going It Alone On Health Care Reform

Durbin also remains a leading voice on the revival of the Democrats' health care reform bill. After a great performance at the health care summit last Thursday, Durbin reaffirmed his belief over the weekend that Democrats will pass a health care reform "within weeks" -- with or without the Republicans. "I think they’re going to oppose our efforts,” Durbin told the Sun-Times. “Now we have to get the job done."

This morning, Durbin also agreed to support a public option if it's added during the reconciliation process.  More than half the Democratic caucus have now made similar pledges, including Roland Burris.  (For more on how online progressive advocates revived the debate over the public option, check out Chris Hayes' latest column.)

Blasting Bunning

This morning, approximately 15,000 Illinoisans exhausted their unemployment benefits. Benefits will expire for an additional 15,000 every week until Congress implements some extension. For that, we can thank Sen. Jim Bunning.

Last week, the Kentucky Republican used a procedural maneuver to block a vote on the 30-day unemployment benefit extension. His reason?  Bunning wanted to pay for the bill using unused stimulus funds. When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) offered to bring the idea up for a vote, Bunning objected because he knew it didn't have majority support. What he really wanted was the Democratic caucus to break his hold, which requires a cloture vote and 30 hours of post-cloture debate.  In short, he wanted to stall action on the hundreds of additional bills that are waiting for Senate action.

This is the same tactic the Republicans used in the fall, when they stalled an unemployment benefit extension for nearly a month before approving it in a 98-0 vote. And just like last year, Durbin has been lambasting the minority party on a daily basis.  After reportedly being cursed at by Bunning on the Senate floor last week, Durbin said the following about the former major league pitcher: "This is a wild pitch you're throwing tonight. It is hitting an unemployed worker in Illinois in the stands, and that's a wild pitch which shouldn't have been thrown, senator."

Durbin continued to press the issue at a Chicago press conference yesterday.  "I know we are in tough times with our deficit and with our debt, but we are a caring nation," he said. "This is truly an economic emergency in our time." Watch Fox Chicago's coverage of the event below:

Today, Durbin and the Senate Democrats will ask Bunning to lift his filibuster. If he refuses, it's unclear how Democrats will proceed. They are scheduled to take up a broader jobs bill this week that would extend unemployment insurance further into the year, but that measure wouldn't be fully implemented until at least the end of the month.

As we've previously noted, Durbin is an increasingly strong advocate for filibuster reform.  You can be sure this episode is only going to fuel that fire.

Some Real Talk On TARP

Finally, during an appearance on MSNBC this morning, Durbin got in a good dig at the expense of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Yesterday, the former Republican presidential nominee suggested on NBC's Meet The Press that supporters of the Troubled Asset Relief Program "were all misled" by former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson about the impact the package would have on the broader economy. Asked about McCain's remark on Morning Joe, Durbin responded:

“It’s hard to understand how John McCain could have been brainwashed by Hank Paulson,” the Illinois senator said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“The bottom line is, whether we were buying toxic assets or cleaning up their balance sheets, we were helping big banks and big insurance companies. We knew what all that was all about,” Durbin said.

“At the end of the day, hundreds of billions of dollars were going to stabilize Wall Street.”

Watch it: