It's in the Details !

Note from Steve, the following story below is a prime example of the talk radio bias found in Brownwood Texas. This story was mentioned several times on this mornings program at KXYL and not a mention that this candidate was running as a Democrat. Paired with their coverage of the three former Brown County Democrats who are changing to the Republican party (political survival?) it's not really surprising that they would avoid informing their listeners that Tammy Duckworth was running as a Democrat. I believe this is a prime example of Media Bias starting at the local level. Regarding the three former Democrats who are running as Republicans, I believe they know that the majority of Brown County Voters get their "Corn Pone" from Brownwood Talk Radio, Fox News, and Politically Driven Pulpits !
----------------
Iraq vets making a run for Congress
Democrats see hopes in GOP strongholds

By John Biemer
Tribune staff reporter
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."
In formally announcing her campaign this weekend, Duckworth, 37, joins two Democrats in the March 21 primary--Rolling Meadows software engineer Christine Cegelis and Wheaton College professor Lindy Scott. Republican state Sen. Peter Roskam of Wheaton is the odds-on favorite in the traditionally GOP-dominated district, which Hyde has held for 16 terms.
Her candidacy has already drawn attention and controversy.
The effort to get her to run, spurred by North and Northwest Side Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, has drawn fire from some local Democrats who accuse him of meddling from Washington.
At the same time, Emanuel's vaunted public-relations skills, honed during his tenure in the Clinton White House, have pushed Duckworth to the national stage. Despite being a political novice, on Sunday she will gain a prized spot on a Washington-based network news show typically reserved for lawmakers and policy experts.
The show is ABC's `This Week' with George Stephanopoulos, who once worked with Emanuel for Clinton.
Republicans contend the Duckworth candidacy is an effort by Emanuel to boost his own standing nationally among his colleagues by trying to make a strong showing in the back yard of the nation's top congressional Republican, U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Oswego.
The sprawling 6th Congressional District, which encompasses much of eastern and central DuPage County, sits between the districts of Hastert and Emanuel.
Duckworth, a resident of Hoffman Estates, lives outside the district. That has caused consternation among some local Democrats, particularly those backing Cegelis, who got 44 percent of the vote last year against Hyde--the best showing for a Democrat in three decades.
For her part, Duckworth denied that she was drafted to run for the seat and said she's ready for whatever is thrown at her.
"I know about hard years," she said Friday. "I've already survived what is probably the hardest year in my life. After you've had an RPG blow up in your lap, everything else isn't that tough. I'm not going to shirk away from what I think is right. I'm going to fight aggressively."
At least 10 other veterans who served in the military after the Sept. 11 attacks now are running for Congress as Democrats.
Duckworth said she wants the Pentagon to implement a system of aggressive benchmarks to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.
She said the war was a misguided response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"We should've been going after the enemies that attacked us on our soil," she said. "We should've been going after Osama bin Laden."
The model for Duckworth's candidacy, and of the campaigns of other vets, was the candidacy this summer of Paul Hackett, a former Marine Corps major. Hackett came close to winning a special election for an Ohio congressional seat that had been held by the GOP for decades.
Hastert contended Democratic leaders are focusing too singularly on turning anxiety over the war into a popularity contest featuring a war veteran.
"I have a great deal of respect for Tammy Duckworth," Hastert said recently. "I think she's given a great contribution to her country, obviously, and she's a great patriot.
"But you know, just to bring those people in wholesale to run in districts because of the popularity issue, I wish the Democratic Party would rethink that."
Pat Durante, a longtime Hyde aide and chairman of the Addison Township Republican Party, conceded that, "one has to tread very carefully in this kind of a campaign." But the way to do that, he advised, is to "run on the issues."
"In the 6th District it is still leaning the Hyde way. It is still Republican," he said. "She has this handicap, this problem from the war, but is she going to be a one-issue candidate? You don't just vote for the war every day when you show up in Congress."
----------
jbiemer@tribune.com
source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0512170054dec17,1,7037576.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed