Harsh comments by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley surprised Sen. Dick Durbin and triggered the Illinois senator’s decision to apologize Tuesday afternoon from the Senate floor for comparing the U.S. treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo to murderous regimes.

Daley’s strong words came Tuesday, at the end of a press conference the mayor called at Navy Pier on the city’s lakefront to highlight a new anti-prostitution policy of putting the names of alleged johns on a Chicago police website.

On Friday, Durbin, a Democrat, said he regretted his June 14 remarks about the treatment of detainees at the U.S. military prison in Cuba — making a comparison to Nazis, Soviets and Pol Pot. “I have learned from my statement that historical parallels can be misused and misunderstood,” Durbin said. “I sincerely regret if what I said caused anyone to misunderstand my true feelings: Our soldiers around the world and their families at home deserve our respect, admiration and total support.”

Daley’s press secretary, Jacquelyn Heard, told me Daley was unaware of Durbin’s initial retreat when a reporter asked him if Durbin should apologize.

Daley, a fellow Democrat whose son recently enlisted in the Army and could face duty in Iraq, said in reply to the reporters’ question, “It’s a disgrace — and [Durbin] is a good friend of mine — but I think it’s a disgrace to say that any man or woman in the military acts like [Nazis] or that a report is like that,” Daley said. “You go and talk to some victims of the Holocaust and they will tell you horror stories, and there are not horror stories like that in Guantanamo Bay.”

No matter to the mayor that Durbin never accused the military of the mistreatment at Guantanamo.

Durbin said it was not clear, from the one-page declassified FBI memo that was the source of information about conditions at the prison he cited, exactly who was responsible: military, CIA or private contractors.

The mayor is concerned about his son’s safety, and that probably heavily influenced how the mayor replied to the question about whether Durbin should apologize.

For years, Daley has railed against Washington, no matter whether the president was Bill Clinton or George W. Bush. Daley has been critical of the climate in Washington even when his brother Bill was the commerce secretary under Clinton.

Daley thought, Heard said, that he was making his usual anti-Washington comments.

“Dick is not a hater, I know that ... but the rhetoric is getting worse and worse, and I don’t think it’s good for the country,” said Daley.

The mayor did not realize the impact his remarks would have, Heard said. Heard did realize it after she was on a conference call, she said, with Durbin’s staff.

The mayor did not understand that his comments gave the right-wing Internet websites, radio and cable shows the opening they were looking for and undermined Durbin. It also did not help Durbin that the criticism came from one of the nation’s leading Democrats who happened to be the mayor of the largest city in Durbin’s state.

Heard told the mayor his statement would become national news. “The moment he realized that this had gone to a different level, he called Durbin to say this was not meant to hurt him,” Heard said.

Sweet is the Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it