[Jeff Higgins]

From the article:

"I can't avoid the interest in the fact that I'm an injured female soldier," Duckworth, 37, says in an interview at her campaign headquarters in Lombard, west of Chicago. "Understand that I'm going to use this as a platform."

"That is just what a pair of influential Illinois Democrats expected when they recruited her to seek the seat surrendered after 32 years by Republican stalwart..."

"Sen. Richard J. Durbin and Rep. Rahm Emanuel appealed to Duckworth when she was still recovering from her injuries, dissing the up-and-running campaign of fellow Democrat Christine Cegelis, who took 44 percent of the vote against Hyde in 2004."

How could all of you have missed this? She was recruited by a Democratic Senator and Representative even during an up-and-running campaign of a fellow Democrat. They dropped their old candidate like yesterday's news when they decided to recruit their anti-war poster child. How utterly, hopelessly pathetic. Durbin and Emanual clearly could give a ***** about Duckworth. She is no more than a more sellable commodity to them. She deserves far better than to be snatched up into the heartless political machine that is the Democratic Party; a machine with a long, shamefull history of exploiting the dissadvantaged in their quest for power. They have never displayed this kind of audacity before; I'm simply stunned. I feel for Duckworth. They'll chew her up and drop her just as fast as they dropped Cegelis when she is no longer of any use to them. Pathetic.