The Republican Party renewed its suicidal commitment to ensuring that Barack Obama not fill Antonin Scalia's seat on the Supreme Court on Wednesday, bare moments after the president nominated appeals court Judge Merrick Garland for the post. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell immediately took to his chamber's floor to reiterate that under no circumstances would he allow this nomination to move forward—not a hearing, not a vote, nothing. The final year of Obama's term doesn't count, according to the GOP, and neither does this nomination.
But McConnell did do us one favor: He provided a searing reminder of why it's so vital we take the Senate back from these delusional apostles of dysfunction. And that's why Daily Kos is once again adding a new name to our roster of Senate candidates we're endorsing this year, one that might already be familiar to you: Illinois Rep. Tammy Duckworth.
Duckworth's personal story is a justly famous one. The Bangkok-born daughter of a Thai mother and an American father, she joined the Army Reserves and trained as a helicopter pilot in the early 1990s, shortly after the Department of Defense began permitting women to fly in combat. In 2004, as a member of the Illinois National Guard, she was deployed to Iraq; not long after, disaster of immense proportions struck. Duckworth herself vividly relates what went down:
Eight months into our deployment, in November 2004, a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Iraqi insurgents tore through the pilot’s side of the Blackhawk helicopter I was flying. My right leg was vaporized; my left leg was crushed and shredded against the instrument panel. My pilot in command miraculously brought down the helicopter safely. I went from being the most senior member on board to the weakest. I could easily have died that day, but my crew wouldn’t give up on me. They pulled me from the disabled aircraft and, when help arrived, insisted I be attended to first even though some of them were also seriously injured.
Please donate $3 to Tammy Duckworth to help make the GOP pay the price for its obstruction and turn the Senate blue again.
After a grueling recovery that required she receive two prosthetic legs, Duckworth narrowly lost a congressional bid in 2006, then came back in 2012 to win a seat in the Chicago area, defeating notorious tea partier Joe Walsh. Now, after a resounding win in this week's Democratic primary, Duckworth faces a new fight against Republican Sen. Mark Kirk, a faux-moderate with a dangerous mouth that's both offensive—he once declared that "the black community" is one "we drive faster through"—and inflammatory: Last year, he said that Obama wants to "get nukes to Iran" and termed the nuclear deal "the greatest appeasement since Chamberlain gave Czechoslovakia to Hitler."
Kirk was lucky to first win his Senate seat in the GOP wave of 2010, but now he'll face a much stronger opponent in a presidential election year, when Democrats are assured of carrying Illinois's electoral votes. But while Illinois may be a blue state, Kirk is a wily campaigner and a strong fundraiser. Democrats simply have to beat him to have any shot at taking back the Senate, but it won't be easy—defeating an incumbent never is.
That's why we're helping Tammy Duckworth. We need to get rid of Kirk and restore sanity to the Senate. Republicans can try blocking any and every Supreme Court nominee Obama puts forth this year, but if we hold the White House and win a majority in the Senate, the game will finally be up for them come 2017. The very last thing we can afford is to see the GOP in control next year with Scalia's seat still vacant.
Please donate $3 so that Tammy Duckworth can beat Mark Kirk and lift the GOP siege of the Supreme Court.