A VIEW FROM THE CHEAP SEATS
By Rich Trzupek
The Duckworth Blues
Is it just me, or does it seem like Tammy Duckworth would rather be back in Iraq than in the middle of this election? She always just appears to be, in a ord, miserable.
A big part of that is probably a reflection of the fact that her party expects nothing less. Democrats have become the party of misery, trotting out depressing candidates and depressing stories to convince us that life in the wealthiest country is just plain awful, which is all the Republican party�s fault of course.
As an authentic war hero, the political realities have surely come as a shock to Duckworth. A portion of her heart must go out to her fellow veterans, who have battled so bravely against terrorism in Iraq.
Another part must bleed for the vast majority of Iraqi people, when the vast majority of them, as the vast majority of veterans have told us, strongly support our attempts to restore order in their nation.
Duckworth�s party demands depression. She must question our efforts in Iraq. She must ignore the booming economy. She has to ride the fence on immigration issues. Her party, quite consciously, has adopted a singular strategy: find candidates with backgrounds that will appeal to the right, but who are not strong enough to vote that way.
Duckworth is in a unenviable position. In a conservative district, she has to at least appear to be right at center, but she can not actually be right at center. If she plays it right, she�ll get enough conservative votes, along with enough Democrats, to get elected.
After that, she�ll have to decide what she actually stands for. The party that has hand-picked her knows what vote it expects. She might have other ideas, but how can she go against the power brokers? It�s no wonder that she seems so depressed. Even if she wins, she can�t win.
With a national backlash against Republicans, Democrats are going for the home run. The math is easy to understand. Democrats figure they can deliver their base. Unions, special interest groups and everyone who makes a living on big government will see to that. All they need to tip this election is to appeal to enough right-of-center voters and they�re in.
It�s tacit admission, odd sort of way, that the extremists in their own party are way, way out there. Candidates like Melissa Bean and Tammy Duckworth are the future of the party, non-entitites who can be conservative enough to chip away at the center.
And what of those shrill conspiracy-theorists who spend their evenings blogging and their afternoons listening to Al Franken? Who cares? They�re not going to vote Republican and, in the party�s analysis, they are not worth the effort. Better to at least appear to lean toward the middle then blow your chances by courting the left.
The difference between Duckworth and her opponent, Peter Roskam, is nowhere so apparent as it is listening to them speak. Duckworth is depressingly, fatalistic and utterly humorless. She sounds, for all the world, like a candidate who would rather be having a root canal than being in a race.
Nowhere was her misery more apparent than in the television ad she cut to defend her stance on immigration issues. Knowing that her district would not tolerate the classic liberal view on illegal immigration, she tried to find the right things to say to chip away at that center.
She is in favor of more border guards. (A Democrat in favor of a massive hiring program? Go figure.) But she was silent on the issues of driver�s licenses, tax breaks and government spending on illegals. She said nothing about enforcing employment laws. In truth, she was willing to try shutting the door now that millions have snuck through it.
And that, she said, was �the truth.� Not since the hey-day of Bill Clinton has a politician declared his or her position in a more apologetic, depressed manner. She said that she was telling the truth, but the tone of her voice and her body language said that �the truth�
was causing her enormous pain.
Its hard not to feel sorry for Tammy Duckworth. She lost limbs in Iraq and now she is losing her integrity in the northwest suburbs. One can only wonder which is more troubling.