VIDEO: Durbin flubs, forgets own quotes, and falsely accuses Senator Ensign of “misquoting” him

Here is an example of how to make yourself look like a complete fool on camera … by forgetting your own words, and having to be reminded of them – by staffers:

It’s hard to hear, so in case you have any audio issues, here’s a partial transcript:

SEN. DURBIN: “Finally … a friend of mine and colleague, Senator Ensign of Nevada, came to the floor just yesterday and quoted me. Unfortunately – I’m sure his staff is responsible for this – but Senator Ensign’s quotation was not accurate. … Unfortunately, Senator Ensign’s staff did not give him the entire quote, and in fairness to him I want to put it in the record so that he gets a chance to read exactly what I said. … I urge his staff to be on their toes.”

(moments later) “I misread my notes for that statement. I want to clarify that Senator Ensign did, in fact, quote me accurately … I apologize if my earlier statement suggested that Senator Ensign had said something different. He did accurately quote me”

He slammed Ensign misquoting him (and blamed Ensign’s staffers, too), declares that his respect for Ensign had “diminished” as a result, and then turned around and essentially says “oops, yes I did say that” and then explains what he meant by a quote he’d just denied making a few minutes earlier!

Senator Dick Durbin: Once an embarassment, always an embarassment.