A front page headline in today's
Chicago Tribune reads
Iraq vets making a run for Congress
Democrats see hopes in GOP strongholds
While the article is nominally about the much-remarked-upon trend of Iraq vets running for Congress as Democrats, large chunks of it are about Tammy Duckworth and the IL-06 race.
I present this article without editorial comment regarding the whole Duckworth vs. Cegelis thing; I don't really have a dog in this fight. I live in Illinois, but in Chicago per se, and don't begin to know enough about the sixth district to have an informed opinion about the primary. Some excerpts below:
One note: I imagine that the writing of this article was due, to some extent, to Rahm Emmanuel. Take with a grain of salt if desired.
In little more than a year, Tammy Duckworth has gone from a casualty in Iraq to a congressional candidate at home, her campaign a symbol of the partisan battle being waged at the highest reaches of the U.S. House.
By seeking the west suburban 6th Congressional District seat being vacated by retiring Republican Rep. Henry Hyde of Wood Dale, Duckworth joins a host of military veterans running as Democrats for House seats in GOP-leaning districts, seizing upon war as a chief campaign issue.
Whatever you may think about this race in particular, the overall theme of veterans coming back from the war and running as Democrats is becoming increasingly prevalent in news stories about next year's elections.
The effort to get her to run, spurred by North and Northwest Side Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, has drawn fire from some local Democrats who accuse him of meddling from Washington.
At the same time, Emanuel's vaunted public-relations skills, honed during his tenure in the Clinton White House, have pushed Duckworth to the national stage. Despite being a political novice, on Sunday she will gain a prized spot on a Washington-based network news show typically reserved for lawmakers and policy experts.
Ladies and gentlemen, Start Your Flamethrowers!
The model for Duckworth's candidacy, and of the campaigns of other vets, was the candidacy this summer of Paul Hackett, a former Marine Corps major. Hackett came close to winning a special election for an Ohio congressional seat that had been held by the GOP for decades.
Thank you, Paul Hackett. The pebble that started an avalanche, perhaps.
"I have a great deal of respect for Tammy Duckworth," Hastert said recently. "I think she's given a great contribution to her country, obviously, and she's a great patriot.
"But you know, just to bring those people in wholesale to run in districts because of the popularity issue, I wish the Democratic Party would rethink that."
Pat Durante, a longtime Hyde aide and chairman of the Addison Township Republican Party, conceded that, "one has to tread very carefully in this kind of a campaign." But the way to do that, he advised, is to "run on the issues."
Well, the other way to campaign against an amputee war veteran is to impugn his/her patriotism, smear them at every opportunity, accuse them of being on Bin Laden's side. But Republicans would never do such a thing. Just ask Max Cleland.
-dms