The Republican attack and smear machine is legendarily good at what it does – it attacks, relentlessly, and breaks any who oppose it down to nothing. They regularly cross the line, but rarely in as blatant a way as they have attacked Iraq War veteran and Democratic Congressional candidate Tammy Duckworth. Duckworth lost both legs in Iraq and chose to run for public office. The Republicans callously and maliciously have accused her of “cutting and running”.
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.”
The Duckworth campaign isn’t backing down, either.
Tammy Duckworth has never “cut and run” from anything. Tammy lost her legs fighting in Iraq and to accuse her of wanting to “cut and run” is simply crude. Peter Roskam has no idea what position to take in on Iraq besides the infamous Bush slogans “finish well” and “stay the course” (whatever that means).
Instead of coming up with a real solution to the situation in Iraq, Peter Roskam makes slick comments about an Iraq war veteran. Do we want him to represent us in Congress? Tammy lost both of her legs in Iraq and Peter Roskam’s way of saying thank you is to callously accuse her of wanting to “cut and run.”
Well, Peter, let me tell you this, Tammy can’t “cut and run” and she won’t “cut and run.” But I guess we should expect something like this from someone who worked for Tom Delay and gets his talking points from Karl Rove.
This is your modern Republican party, and how it operates.
