Unfortunate
I always feel bad for the campaign staff of either party when having to deal with one of these:
During an election debate at the weekend in the outskirts of Chicago, Peter Roskam, the Republican candidate for Illinois’s sixth district, trotted out the familiar line that his Democratic opponent wanted America to “cut and run” from Iraq.
His opponent, Tammy Duckworth, a former National Guard pilot who lost both her legs in Iraq last year when her helicopter was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade, was visibly angry at the exchange. “I just could not believe he would say that to me,” said Ms Duckworth, who now walks on artificial legs with the help of a cane. “I have risked my life to serve my country and you cannot question my patriotism.”
It’s never fun to tell the boss he’s an idiot.
September 25th, 2006 at
What an ass.
And he’s from the party that likes to wrap itself in our flag?
Pathetic. Utterly pathetic.
September 25th, 2006 at
roskamforcongress.com doesn’t even have a statement on iraq.
the duckworth campaign has a new video out. http://www.tammyduckworth.com
you would never say tammy would cut and run after seeing that.
September 25th, 2006 at
In the interests of bipartisanship, I would be willing to contract for the job of telling Roskam he’s an idiot.
I’m all about building bridges.
September 25th, 2006 at
Why not write Roskam a nice little note at his website telling him what you think about him? He needs encouragement to STFU. There’s very few instances other than giving money when people outside a district can help. This is one of them. If he gets enough polite outraged emails it just might tamp down his enthusiasm for being a grade A creep. And we all know when you take that away from Repubs it sucks the life right out of them.
http://www.roskamforcongress.com/
If you’d like to contribute to Duckworth you can do it here:
http://216.122.175.167/index.asp
If you want to see her latest endorsement here’s Senator Bob Kerrey (who lost a leg in Vietnam) here:
http://www.tammyduckworth.com/
You can listen to the debate here, It’s about a half hour long:
http://216.122.175.167/newsroom.asp
September 26th, 2006 at
We can’t simply pull up stakes and create a security vacuum. It wouldn’t be in our national interest to leave Iraq in chaos and risk allowing a country with unlimited oil wealth to become a base for terrorists.
September 26th, 2006 at
hey there, demforwar roskam staffer. duckworth has said over and over that we will not leave iraq until iraqis are capable of maintaining security over their country. our job is to give them the tools to success.
i don’t see cut and run anywhere in that plan, beside the comment being in tremendously poor taste.
September 26th, 2006 at
While Roskam’s comment is in poor taste I also think it is poor taste for Tammy to use her injuries as a campaign tool.
In almost ever campaign event I have seen Tammy at she has used the obvious, metal rod prosthetics instead of ones more similar to living legs that many injured people use and she has repeatedly made jokes about her injuries at campaign stops. F.E. ?Boy my feet hurt?
So you castigate Roskam for using a established republican buzz phrase inadroitly but yet you see nothing wrong in Tammy using her injuries as a campaign device or the Democratic party in general choosing her for as photo op candidate.
Wow, partisan politics is really messed up.
September 26th, 2006 at
I simply quoted Tammy’s position on Iraq. It’s here: http://www.duckworthforcongress.com/issues_details.asp?id=5
What is your problem?
September 26th, 2006 at
With regards to the commenter who thinks it’s in poor taste for Duckworth to “use her injuries as a campaign tool”:
1) It’s kind of difficult to hide missing both your legs; and
2) She was injured while in the service of the United States. She gets to use it in a campaign, without apology.
September 26th, 2006 at
if i lost my legs and made jokes about it, i would hope that people would recognize in me the strength of character that voters of the 6th see in duckworth.
you want to buy her a pair of real-looking fake legs? maybe that would make you feel like less of an ass for questioning her patriotism while staring at shapely fake legs instead of metallic ones.
September 26th, 2006 at
Speaking of the War –
How goes the the predicted “destruction of the all-volunteer Army” by November 2006? As was predicted by Lawrence Korb in his “strategeric redeployment” and endorsed by this site?
I saw in the papers last week the Army has met its recruiting goals for this year. Alas, Lawrence does have 5 more weeks to be proven right. Then maybe we can lend some credence to his overall “cut and walk” strategery, complete with arbitrary dates for removal and redeployment to other “hotspots.” My calendar is marked.
September 26th, 2006 at
The Democrats Can Fight The War Better!!
So it’s agreed. The Democrats must escalate our war effort to defeat the terrorists. We have a fine slate of pro-war democrats in Illinois, Dan Lipinski,
Melissa Bean and of course, Tammy Duckworth.
We must supply our troops with better weapons and better armor. When the Democrats win in the fall,
we must either increase recruitment or reinstate the draft.
Again,
“we can’t simply pull up stakes and create a security vacuum. It wouldn’t be in our national interest to leave Iraq in chaos and risk allowing a country with unlimited oil wealth to become a base for terrorists.”
The war is real, and our Democratic Candidates will do it better. Let’s support Tammy Duckwork,
Dan Lipinski and Melissa Bean!! Let’s go Fightn’ Dems.
September 26th, 2006 at
Roskam is now essentially a national laughing stock of asininity…
Link 1
Link 2
—
AnonPundit, why don’t you ask the thousands of brave troops who were just informed their tours in Iraq are being extended what they think of things?
While you’re at it, please explain how firm redeployment dates are any more or less arbitrary than the dates set for the invasion, for the Constitution writing, for the Iraqi elections, and on and on.
For that matter, why does school arbitrarily let out at the beginning of summer and return at the beginning of fall?
Why is the Illinois primary date set so arbitrarily?
Why have Republicans in Washington arbitrarily set such a low standard for attendance (Congress under the Republicans had been in session far fewer days than in the past)? What are Republicans doing earning a taxpayer funded salary which they (wait for it) arbitrarily raised in recent months if they are actually legislating less and less?
Without “arbitrary” deadlines nothing would get done.
Say, isn’t that was happening in Iraq now. No hard and fast deadlines and, surprise, little to no progress.
I thought conservatives believed in responsibility and hard work, not endless and ambiguous corner-turning and last-throe’ing.
September 26th, 2006 at
demforwar let me explain something to you. 147,000 US troops can’t stop 25 million Iraqis from killing each other. Neither can half a million at this point. A million might do the trick, but we don’t have a million troops. The US Army has 504,000 active members most of which are serving in Iraq, just back from Iraq or preparing to go back.
Our presence there makes matters worse. It encourages the insurgency and what little efforts we’re able to make to provide security for Iraqis in fact just draws more attacks with locals in the crossfire. Iraqis overwhelmingly want us to go home. Terrorism is much worse worldwide because of this hairbrained occupation.
Yes we must elect Democrats and take back congress. But don’t expect them to be able to put the egg Bush has smashed on the sidewalk back together again.
September 26th, 2006 at
New concern troll or TrueDemocratRealAuthentic sneaking back in under a new alias?
And don’t you know? Truthful statements in pursuit of a partisan goal (Duckworth’s using her injuries) are equivalent to lying in pursuit of a partisan goal (Roskam’s cut-and-run statements). Ask David Broder.
September 26th, 2006 at
ArchPundit: Can you do something about the clueless punks who commented here on Ms. Duckworth’s choice of prosthetic and willingness to make self-effacing comments about injuries that most of us would find devastating? I don’t feel guilty about it because I didn’t send her but I sure as hell won’t criticize the way she chooses to handle it.
I know you really can’t do anything but I’m so sick and tired of these lying, war-mongering, chicken-hawk Bushies that I could scream.
September 26th, 2006 at
ellen,
please tell me what war Peter Roskam avoided serving in while of enlistment age. How is he a “chickenhawk?”
September 26th, 2006 at
I believe ellen’s post was referring to the clueless morons who have posted here criticizing Ms. Duckworth for having been wounded and having the temerity not to hide her injuries, not Roskam himself.
Although, the Armed Forces can always use good people whether the nation is at war or not.
September 26th, 2006 at
“While Roskam’s comment is in poor taste I also think it is poor taste for Tammy to use her injuries as a campaign tool.”
Until service and sacrifice for one’s country goes out of style, she’s got every right to include her injuries as part of the experience that makes her superior to her opponent.
Roskam, on the other hand, can’t make the same claim.
September 26th, 2006 at
demforwar,
I know Democrats.
Democrats are friends of mine.
demforwar,
You’re no Democrat.
September 27th, 2006 at
Lets see here GOPpy,
Peter Roskam is roughly 45 years old, give or take a few months.
So, why didn’t he enlist for Operation Desert Storm? He would have been roughly 30. Plenty young enough to enlist.
I believe that Reagan had all kinds of invasions of podunk little countries that Roskam could have signed up to potentially help invade. Grenada, Panama, etc.
It’s not so much that Roskam didn’t fight in a war, it’s also that he never even enlisted.
And I thought you Republicans just hated Personal Injury Lawyers? On one hand he endorses gutting tort law, and on the other hand he claims that he would never vote to gut tort law.
Lets see here…Endorsed by the Illinois Family Institute…No to stem cells, fought against the Illinois Human Rights act, and he is a flip-flopper of the worst kind on Social Security, telling a right wing tax advocacy group that he wants to gut it, while telling the AARP that it must be protected.
Peter “Flippy” Roskam?
September 27th, 2006 at
Jerry 101,
The fact that Roskam, like Major Duckworth, could’ve enlisted in the military all on his own despite the lack of a major war has been explained to G.O. Partisan several times over.
He chooses to ignore this obvious fact.
I myself didn’t enlist. But I also don’t run around promoting wars based on false pretenses and screeching “cutandrun” at anyone who thinks we maybe oughtta have a plan for this war we’re now in.
G.O. Partisan is a part of the “Plan? Who needs a plan?” crowd. Why plan anything when you can just wing it?
So much for Republicans being smart. Their inability to plan things out has hurt our nation on everything from healthcare and economic buying power for families to a lack of adequate response to major disasters like Katrina and man-made disasters like the Iraq quagmire.