Duckworth and Durbin
C-Span replayed their March 2005 interview with Major Duckworth yesterday and followed up with a phone interview with her from a few days ago.
She talked a lot about Sen Durbin in March. When asked in the phone interview who first approached her to run, she answered Durbin. Duckworth never mentioned Rep Emanuel at all.
So someone please explain why Emanuel takes the flak for recruiting her and not Durbin. She's awfully impressive to watch and hear so why either should get criticism baffles me.
Eric Krol wrote the major issue will be the War. I fear Krol's right about war, but think he has the wrong one in mind.
Read Fascism, Islamism, and Anti-Semitism by Joseph Loconte about what's brewing with Iranian President Ahmadinejad.
Then read yesterday's Editorial in The Christian Century telling us the calculus for war with Iran should be: Is there an overriding and demonstrable threat to the safety of the American people?
The next Representative from Illinois 6th district will have to weigh how narrowly to interpret the American people's interests. We've judged our interests short sightedly in the past. Loconte gave a brief history. I'd argue the last century was a lousy one because of it.
UPDATE: Those of you who seeing Bush fear mongering please read The Outrageous Silence of George W. Bush By Teresa Heinz Kerry; who writes,
It is time for Iran to be confronted by a unified, outraged and outspoken Bush administration, an administration that feels and dispenses the cleansing heat that such virulent words deserve.
posted at Bill Baar's West Side
13 comments:
Ah yes, the "be afraid" sirens are ramping up just in time for election season. We should start seeing those Teror Alerts again. Boogey men, everywhere!
The next Representative from Illinois 6th district will have to have a pair big enough to stand up to the fear-mongering crowd at the Weekly Standard.
Anon, you think Republicans cooridnate with Ahmadinejad speeches about wiping out Isreal to help with elections?
The Mullahs are talking about Iran's ability to withstand a Nuke First Strike and hit back with their own Nukes?
And to comment about a "pair big enough to stand on" is a pretty crude comment to make in this context.
Anon, what would you have said if on September 10, 2001 the government had issued a warning against airline travel because of non-specific “chatter” regarding hijackings by terrorists? Would that have been fear-mongering? I find it ironic – if not infuriating – that the same partisans who blasted Bush for being asleep at the switch on 9/11 are the same ones who are now crying foul over him being too vigilant and pro-active in thwarting terror attacks. When you have a moment, why don’t you take a break from bemoaning the “be afraid sirens” and explain how – if you were in charge – you would balance your responsibilities of being honest and open about threats and warning, and not causing undue panic……I’d love to hear your thoughts. And please, be as specific as you want/can. Because unless you have some constructive suggestions, maybe you should stop attacking the only “crowd” that has some sort of comprehensive agenda or plan for dealing with the very real threat of terrorism.
GOP it would be more correct to say anon was attacking the only "crowd" that has the authority to determine when alert levels are raised. The argument that only republicans have "some sort of comprehensive agenda or plan" is ridiculous.
Name the democrat that has the authority/power to implement a plan/agenda?
At least you didn't make the lame argument that "we haven't been attacked sinced 9/11" as evidence of how great a job Bush is doing.
bill, i, too, saw the replay of the duckworth interview. i didn't really think it covered the machinations around her (especially given the date).
there is no question that durbin was an early supporter of duckworth and encouraged her to run for congress. but that's as far as it goes. where rahm comes in is by convincing her to run for the 6th cd, as opposed to the 8th cd (her home congressional district) or the 10th cd (which she apparently discussed with the tenth dems; they announced her candidacy for the 10th cd at a meeting i attended).
but that's not all there is to it. rahm emanual has a pattern of dropping in these kinds of candidates into contested primaries. specifically, he deserves a great deal of flak for lining up republicans to run as democrats (eg, florida 16th cd). convincing duckworth to run in the 6th feels the same as rahm's convincing tim mahoney to run in florida's 16th. talk about republican-lite candidates! you'd be hard-pressed to explain the difference between rahm's handpicked candidates and the republicans they seek to run against!
what bothers me about the duckworth and rahm connection is that it leaves nothing behind. the democratic party of dupage would continue to be as paralyzed as it is now if duckworth wins the nomination. she will continue to require a huge amount of funds to run in 2008 and thereafter. indigenous candidates (such as cegelis or scott) help build the party, help other partisans contest other offices, build party infrastructure, etc. rahm's interference circumvents this (natural) process. durbin's has no effect.
“Name the democrat that has the authority/power to implement a plan/agenda?”
- None of them do right now, but in 10 months they will be asking the American public to give them control of Congress….shouldn’t they be expected to come up with a comprehensive plan/agenda to deal with on of the nation’s most important issues before we entrust them with the power to implement it?
GOP, just because you don't like their plan doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Remember W's plan to fight those who attacked us was to take down a dictator that had nothing to do with it.
Before you start telling me how horrible Saddam is don't bother. That argument doesn't hold water. There are several dictators as wicked and evil as him.
Iran now has as it's President a certified "nut" who happens to be viciously anti-semetic, and denies the holocaust ever existed!
Something has to be done and it looks like diplomacy is dead in the water.
Israel has never hesitated to act preemptively in it's own defense, and should do so again. They have a much bigger stake in this than we do.
I expect very shortly we will be reading about an Israeli military strike. We should give them support but not get directly involved.
That way the threat of US direct involvement can be a deterrent to any country that might get antsy.
I wouldn't call it fear mongering (re: an attack on Iran).
Our armies are occupying the countries on either side of Iran, the people around our elected leader in the White House have made it clear we intend to exert boundless amounts of capital in the Middle East in order to exercise our position as the world's only superpower, control it and turn its theocracies and dictatorships into Democracies.
If they stick with their theories, at least as much as bin laden does, I think the Iran war is as likely as al qaeda attacking in the US again.
This is one of the more ridiculous things I have read in a while "maybe you should stop attacking the only “crowd” that has some sort of comprehensive agenda or plan for dealing with the very real threat of terrorism."
Maybe you missed the 911 Commission's grades on that plan - F's and D's bro.
Was this part of the plan too: a knee-jerk reaction WAR for which we were not at all prepared, creating a new haven for terorists in Iraq while ignoring other terrorist havens, destabilizing Iraq and the entire Middle East, ignoring real threats — N. Korea, the weirdo Russians and the Chinese, not to mention I guess BushCo is just ignoring Venezuela right now — spending out the 'a' while cutting taxes, destroying our international reputation, distancing our country from the UN and placing restrictions on our rights --- some plan. Wake up man.
I saw the re-run of the March 2005 interview as well, and one thing that jumped out at me was that it was noted that Durbin invited ALL Illinois vets in Walter Reed to the State of the Union, not specifically just Duckworth. Up until this, all I had heard is that Duckworth "so impressed" Durbin that he invited her specifically. This C-Span report brings into question this claim and the amount of spinning the people behind Duckworth have been doing.
And BTW Bill, the reason Emanuel gets the flak is that every published report names him as actively recruiting Duckworth, orchestrating her campaign roll out, and the one behind the unprecidented involvement in IL-06 by the DCCC. This has been published in The Hill, The Sun Times, Roll Call, etc. He's earned every bit of the critisism.
Bored Now, I'm curious. Besides FL-16, which other races were you thinking of where Rahm has recruited candidates whom you see as virtually indistinguishable from Republicans?
(Incidentally, without speaking at all to the merits of Tim Mahoney, I think it's fair to say that there's no way in heck I'd want David Lutrin as the Dem candidate in that district. Whether Mahoney was the right choice to try and preclude that is a different question entirely, of course).
-Mark
cbm - please tell me the plan.
I don't have a plan. You see, I am not in a position to make a plan. I suppose I could recite the plan of any number of democratic candidates/office holders.
Do you really believe none of them have a plan? You are smarter than that.
Your strategy is simple. You cannot defend the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz debacle so you attack those with no power implement an alternative.
Eight years passed between attacks on the World Trade Center. All the Clinton administration did was find, prosecute, and convict those responsible for the '93 bombing.
Perhaps they should have played right into Bin Laden's hands by invading an Arab nation (Iraq), the exact thing Bin Laden has been telling Arabs the United States would do.
Post a Comment