An Illinois congressman under fire for saying that his opponent, an Iraq war double amputee, talks too much about her military service told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer yesterday that he stands by his comments.
“Look, I’ve called Tammy Duckworth a hero probably hundreds of times. Any man and woman, and I’ve been on the record, any man or woman who wears the uniform and serves this country is a hero. I’ve said that repeatedly at all the town halls I’ve had. I don’t know what the story is here. I think the other side is trying to manufacture a story,” Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) said.
“And let’s be honest, everywhere I go, Tammy Duckworth’s campaign tapes me. I’m out all the time. I probably hold more town halls than any member of Congress. Tammy Duckworth doesn’t get out. All she does is film me, and a couple liberal blogs put this out, and they spread it around. I don’t see at all what the story is here.”
Walsh said the fact that Duckworth, a former Veterans Affairs official and the Democratic nominee challenging Walsh, is a war hero “demands our respect, but it doesn’t demand our vote.”
He said he’s talked to veterans who are likewise proud of their military service, like Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), but “they don’t throw it in your face.”
The day before, on MSNBC, Duckworth said Walsh is “just trying to shift the focus away from the fact that he’s done nothing in his two years in Congress other than be an extremist loud mouth for the Tea Party.”
“I’m proud that I have lived up to my responsibilities to this nation in uniform, that I lived up to my responsibilities as a public servant. And I hope that I get a chance in November to continue to serve my nation and my district,” Duckworth said.
“I don’t think Mr. Walsh remembers how much others have sacrificed so that he can say whatever he needs to say, no matter how irresponsible and vile it is.”
Tammy, if you are so patriotic,how do you account, for your membership in a political party, that for all accounts and purposes, is seeding the distruction. Of the country,you fought for. I will never be able to square that contradiction. like all my supposedly pro-life Catholic relatives, voting for Obama, which they did. I,v never understood it and I never will.
Gus, its because sadly they chose to put ideology ahead of principles and integrity. I too am a disabled combat veteran, just like thousands of others, that suffers from my wounds. The fact that Tammy is a veteran but worked at the VA and is a democrat said everything I needed to know. The VA is the biggest disgrace and shame this country will ever have, yes, even more so than slavery, but the country is still in the dark and has no clue what the VA does (and does not do)to our veterans. About 7-8 years ago there was a brief moment in time (about 2 weeks) when the country was all up in arms about how terrible our veterans were being treated when they came home…..then it just went away. The VA is simply an affirmative action jobs program that lies to the nation and kills veterans every year with incompetent health care standards and doctors and nurses that have been kicked out of other hospitals and cannot get a job anywhere else. Thousands of disabled veterans live in abject poverty because the VA refuses to honor the contract the U.S. government made with every patriot that served our nation honorably.
I didn’t mean to get into all that….Tammy is a two-faced opportunist trying to use her disability and service for political expediency. What do you expect from a democrat today?