Iraq vets making a run for Congress
Democrats see hopes in GOP strongholds
By John Biemer
Tribune staff reporter
Chicago Tribune
Published December 17, 2005
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.
Duckworth, who lost her legs when a rocket-propelled grenade blew up in the helicopter she was piloting, calls the Iraq war "a mistake."
"Nobody in Congress right now has the perspective that those of us who've served in Iraq have," Duckworth said Friday as she sought signatures for her candidacy petitions from the lunch crowd at a Streamwood restaurant.
"Only those of us who've served on the ground over there understand the dynamics that are truly going on over there right now." [...] Read the rest at the Chicago Tribune: http://tinyurl.com/ap32l It is really a shame that we have two very good candidates running in the same district!
© Virginia Metze
By John Biemer
Tribune staff reporter
Chicago Tribune
Published December 17, 2005
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.
Duckworth, who lost her legs when a rocket-propelled grenade blew up in the helicopter she was piloting, calls the Iraq war "a mistake."
"Nobody in Congress right now has the perspective that those of us who've served in Iraq have," Duckworth said Friday as she sought signatures for her candidacy petitions from the lunch crowd at a Streamwood restaurant.
"Only those of us who've served on the ground over there understand the dynamics that are truly going on over there right now." [...] Read the rest at the Chicago Tribune: http://tinyurl.com/ap32l It is really a shame that we have two very good candidates running in the same district!
© Virginia Metze
Starmail - 21. Dez, 12:10
