A6 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22 , 2022
suicide, the statement added.
On Facebook, the sheriff’s of-
fice named Sondra Wiener, 87, as
one of the deceased. It did not
name the man because it said his
family chose to invoke a law that
guarantees the right to privacy of
crime victims. But in a tweet and
an earlier version of the Facebook
post, the sheriff’s office named
Marvin Wiener, 90, Sondra Wie-
ner’s husband.
The police said the medical
examiner’s office will make an
official determination of their
cause of death.In 2009, Sondra Wiener’s son,
David, told the New York Post
that Madoff, the disgraced finan-
cier who masterminded what was
perhaps the largest Ponzi scheme
in history, defrauded his sister,
Sondra, as well. “My family’s a
victim. More so than anybody
else. It’s very painful,” he said.
Madoff, who died in prison in
April, nearly 12 years into a 150-
year sentence for money launder-
ing, securities fraud and other
charges, stole at least $20 billion
of principal investments over
some two decades from his inves-tors, including Holocaust survi-
vor Elie Wiesel and filmmaker
Steven Spielberg.
In 2020, when Madoff was
battling health conditions and
the U.S. Bureau of Prisons judged
he had less than two years left to
live, he asked for but was denied
compassionate release. In phone
interviews with The Washington
Post that year, he expressed re-
morse for his crimes.
Madoff’s son Mark hanged
himself in 2010, on the second
anniversary of his father’s arrest.
In all, four people connected tothe financier have died by sui-
cide.
Madoff’s wife, Ruth, has said
she and her husband tried to kill
themselves on Christmas Eve in
2008 by taking “a bunch of pills.”If you or someone you know needs
help, call the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK
(8255). You can also text a crisis
counselor by messaging the Crisis
Text Line at 741741.Emily Langer and Justin George
contributed to this report.BY ANNABELLE TIMSITThe sister of Bernie Madoff, the
infamous Ponzi schemer who
died in prison last year, and her
husband were found dead in their
Florida home Thursday in what
police described as an apparent
murder-suicide.
The Palm Beach County Sher-
iff’s Office, in a statement posted
to its social media accounts Sun-
day, said officers arrived in Boyn-
ton Beach about 1 p.m. Thursday
after receiving a report that “a
male and female were unrespon-
sive inside their residence.” They
found an elderly couple with
gunshot wounds, and detectives
said signs pointed to a murder-Mado≠’s sister, her h usband
die in likely murder-suicide
JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST
Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), Judiciary Committee chairman, has a goal: “To let every Republican member know that I’m going to treat them with respect ... and I won’t cut them off.”that Republican members of the Senate
Banking Committee employed last week,
delaying five Federal Reserve nominees.
Durbin himself used the tactic against
Barrett in 2020, weaponizing the commit-
tee’s quorum rules. But Republicans pro-
ceeded anyway and overrode the boycott
on the Senate floor. In an evenly split
Senate, however, Democrats don’t have
that option, and Durbin said he was
mindful of a possible GOP blockade.
Mounting a boycott would be “a terrible
mistake” for Republicans, he said, but he
expressed confidence that he would be
able to forestall any hardball tactics by
coordinating closely with Grassley and
other senior Republicans on the panel.
“You can’t be heavy-handed in a tie-vote
committee — it just doesn’t work,” he said.
“And so what I’ve got to do, and I think it’s
coming along, is to let every Republican
member know that I’m going to treat them
with respect, they’re going to get their day
in the sun, their time to express them-
selves, and I won’t cut them off.”
While Durbin goes out of his way to
praise longtime GOP colleagues such as
Grassley and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham
(S.C.), he has less to say about some of the
younger Republicans on the panel, who
include sharp-tongued conservatives
such as Sens. Tom Cotton (Ark.), Ted Cruz
(Tex.) and Josh Hawley (Mo.), who have
routinely used Judiciary Committee hear-
ings over the past year to attack Biden and
other Democrats for allegedly being soft
on crime and indulgent of what they
describe as racially divisive “woke” rheto-
ric.
Durbin has had especially sharp clash-
es with Cotton, who for months blocked
several U.S. attorney nominees after
Durbin interrupted Cotton mid-speech at
a panel meeting last March to hold a vote
advancing a controversial Justice Depart-
ment nominee.
The spat came to a head on the Senate
floor in December, with Cotton demand-
ing an apology before allowing the nomi-
nations to proceed. After explaining the
circumstances involving an obscure Sen-
ate rule, Durbin capitulated and the nomi-
nees were confirmed: “If the senator from
Arkansas wants me to publicly express my
regret for this occurrence, I express that
regret.”
Not all senators would have been will-
ing to defuse the conflict, some of Durbin’s
colleagues said in testament to his sang-
froid. “His patience as chair of the com-
mittee has been tested by Republicanswho really don’t give a rip about the rest of
the committee members,” said Sen. Mazie
Hirono (D-Hawaii).
Asked about Durbin’s performance as
chairman, Cotton laughed and declined to
comment. Asked why he chose to apolo-
gize, Durbin said, “Read that closely be-
fore you call it an apology.”
There have been areas of bipartisan
progress on the Judiciary Committee,
including a deal sealed last week that will
guarantee that workers who are sexually
harassed or assaulted on the job can sue in
court. Senators are also on the cusp of
reauthorizing the Violence Against Wom-
en Act for the first time since 2013, and a
September hearing that included star
gymnast Simone Biles put a national
spotlight on the FBI’s failure to investigate
sexual abuse claims involving the USA
Gymnastics team doctor.
But Cotton again blocked several U.S.
attorney and U.S. marshal nominations
last week, and virtually every Biden judi-
cial nomination has been subject to the
same lengthy floor maneuvers that Demo-
crats forced for President Donald Trump’s
judges. Durbin lamented it as “part of
some Republican strategy to slow down
the Senate to a cakewalk.” But he ex-
pressed optimism that Senate Minority
Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would
not seek to turn the Supreme Court confir-
mation into an overly bitter clash ahead of
the midterm elections.
“He may think that this is more divisive
and negative for their fate than positive,
so perhaps it won’t be as contentious as it
might be,” he said.
Success for Durbin would mean not
only writing another chapter in a storied
career but it would cement his status as a
player in some of the most significant
racial advancements in American politics
of this generation — first, his close associa-
tion with Obama, and now, his chance to
shepherd the first Black woman onto the
nation’s highest court.
Durbin invoked his Democratic pred-
ecessors Douglas and Sen. Paul Simon
(Ill.), who put civil rights causes at the
center of their political identities. Filling a
lifetime appointment to the Supreme
Court is a distinction enough, he said, but
“making history in the process, you know,
means a lot to me.”
“They did everything thing they could
in their Senate careers to advance civil
rights in America,” he said. “Joe Biden’s
going to do that with this appointment,
and I’m going to help him.”Three judges are known to be on
Biden’s shortlist of finalists: Ketanji
Brown Jackson, 51, whom Biden named to
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit last year; Leondra Kru-
ger, 45, a California Supreme Court justice
since 2015; and J. Michelle Childs, 55, a
federal trial judge in South Carolina who
has already been nominated to the same
appellate court as Jackson.
Durbin said he is putting in the effort to
keep the process on a bipartisan track. His
first call after learning of Breyer’s retire-
ment last month was to Sen. Charles E.
Grassley (Iowa), the Judiciary Commit-
tee’s top Republican. Durbin said his
message was succinct: “I’m not going to
stab you in the back. and I’m not going to
surprise you. I’m going to let you know
what’s coming so that we can work on it
together.”
Grassley last week called it “a very
positive start.” Asked about his relation-
ship with Durbin, he answered with a
single word: “Perfect.”
Durbin also placed an immediate call to
Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), who voted for
both of Obama’s Supreme Court nomi-
nees and is seen as the most likely Repub-
lican vote for Biden’s nominee among the
handful of GOP senators who could sup-
port the pick.
“It’s clear to me that Senator Durbin
wants to do this the right way,” Collins said
in a brief interview. “He wants to give full
access to the nominee. He wants to pro-
vide all the relevant documents. He wants
to hold a hearing that is fair and give us
ample opportunity to ask questions.... I
have a lot of confidence in him.”
Durbin, however, is balancing his tend-
ing of Republican egos with his desire to
confirm Biden’s nominee on a rapid 40-
day timeline, which would be quicker
than any nominee in the past four decades
save for Barrett.
“The longer you wait, the more likely
things get complicated with outside
events,” he said. “What if in the middle of
this, God forbid, war breaks out in some
part of the world? I mean, things can
happen. So if I have a singular focus, it’s to
get this done in an orderly, predictable
way in a timely fashion.”
Should Democrats push too quickly for
Republicans’ liking, they do have pro-
cedural tools at their disposal to slow
Biden’s nominee — and perhaps stop her
entirely. GOP members could boycott a
committee vote to advance a nominee,
thus denying a quorum — a maneuverment-card fees, among many others.
But when it comes to high political
stakes and raw drama, a Supreme Court
confirmation is unparalleled on Capitol
Hill, and despite Durbin’s four decades of
service, this Congress is the first time he
has chaired a full committee — a distinc-
tion he achieved only after Sen. Dianne
Feinstein (Calif.), a more-senior Demo-
cratic senator, agreed to forgo the Judici-
ary gavel in 2020 amid questions about
her fitness to lead a high-profile confirma-
tion fight.
Durbin’s unpresuming, unfailingly
courteous, thoroughly Midwestern per-
sonality has played against his interests at
times. He was outmaneuvered, notably, by
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) in the
derby to succeed Sen. Harry M. Reid (Nev.)
as the Democratic leader in 2015. And his
long, mannerly floor speeches — delivered
most days the Senate is in session — can
sometimes seem out of step with an
increasingly social-media-centric political
culture that rewards partisan theatrics.
But senators of both parties said this
month that his composure might be exact-
ly what the Judiciary Committee needs,
particularly after an especially acrimoni-
ous stretch for Supreme Court confirma-
tions. It began with the Republican block-
ade of Obama nominee Merrick Garland,
reached a peak with the dramatic pro-
ceedings surrounding Brett M. Ka-
vanaugh, and continued though the rapid-
fire GOP approval of Amy Coney Barrett
just before the 2020 election.
Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.), a
Judiciary Committee member, said it was
important for both the Senate and the
Supreme Court to have a “lower tempera-
ture” process this time around.
“If anyone can accomplish that, Chair-
man Durbin can,” he said, adding, “He
knows how to be a pugilist and to stand up
and fight hard for principles. But he’s also
been respectful and constructive, and
despite what is a very partisan committee
that fights over a lot of very difficult issues,
he’s invested a lot of time and effort in
trying to hold together what bipartisan
respect there is on the committee.”
Biden has vowed to announce his
choice by the end of the month, and
Durbin has publicly set a goal of confirm-
ing that nominee before the Easter recess,
which is scheduled to begin April 8. Biden
made a campaign pledge to nominate the
first Black woman to the high court, and
he reiterated that pledge after Breyer
announced his retirement.BY MIKE DEBONIS,
SEUNG MIN KIM
AND RHONDA COLVINAs a college intern in the 1960s, a young
Richard J. Durbin was awed by the U.S.
Senate as a grand theater of democracy, a
solemn forum where men of distinction
engaged in momentous, nation-changing
debates.
That job, helping answer mail for leg-
endary Sen. Paul H. Douglas of Illinois,
helped launch Durbin’s six-decade politi-
cal career. Now, after nearly 40 years of
congressional service, Durbin is about to
get his star turn on the Senate’s biggest
stage.
The 77-year-old Democrat will hold the
gavel when the Senate Judiciary Commit-
tee conducts hearings as soon as next
month on President Biden’s forthcoming
nominee to succeed retiring Supreme
Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer. Durbin
and his staff face the delicate task of
shepherding the first Black female justice
to confirmation — and delivering a badly
needed victory to Biden — in an evenly
split Senate where just about everything,
judicial nominations included, has turned
exceptionally rancorous.
In a wide-ranging interview ahead of
the nomination, which Biden has pledged
to make this month, Durbin said he was
determined to run a thorough but effi-
cient vetting process, one that could pave
the way for a bipartisan confirmation. He
also made clear that the confirmation
would represent a capstone moment in a
long, storied career.
“Personally, it’s the reason I ran the first
time for office,” he said. “I want to be
smack dab in the middle of, as Oliver
Wendell Holmes said, the actions and
passions of our time, and I couldn’t ask for
a better seat than to be chair of Judiciary
filling a Supreme Court vacancy.”
That might strike some as a peculiar
statement for someone with Durbin’s ex-
tensive résumé: He has served as party
whip, the No. 2 leadership position, for
more than 15 years. He was a confidant
and close adviser to Barack Obama, his
former fellow senator from Illinois, as
Obama rose to the presidency. He has
directed billions of dollars in federal
spending as a top appropriator. And he
has mounted multiple protracted and
frequently successful crusades — to ob-
tain legal status for young undocumented
immigrants, crack down on predatory
for-profit colleges, and curb costly pay-
Durbin aims for a history-making high court winWith Biden’s promise to nominate a Black woman, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman sees an opportunity to advance civil rights