In a debate stunt gone wrong on Tuesday night, incumbent Congressman Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) attacked his Democratic challenger, Iraq War veteran Tammy Duckworth, by showing a photo of Duckworth choosing her dress for the 2012 Democratic National Convention, which she neatly turned around by calling attention to her military service.
At the rambunctious debate in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, Walsh accused Duckworth of being a DC-Beltway insider candidate.
According to Talking Points Memo, Wash said, “And I think darn near everybody in this audience is sick and tired — and I’ll say with a smile — of Republicans and Democrats, elected officials, who seem to poll test every syllable of every word that they utter, because they’re so afraid of offending people and losing votes. You’re seeing the perfect example of that up here on this stage. Tammy Duckworth will not say a thing that David Axelrod and her advisers won’t let her say.”
He then held up a photo of Duckworth picking out a dress in order to attack her for the apparent sin of wanting to wear something nice on national television.
“I was marching in a parade in Schaumburg (IL), Sunday, two days before the Democratic convention,” he said, “when Tammy Duckworth was on a stage down in Charlotte (NC) — if you can look at the picture — picking out a dress for her speech Tuesday night.”
Duckworth responded in her own statement, saying, “And yes, I do sometimes look at the clothes that I wear, but for most of my adult life, I’ve worn one color — it’s called camouflage.”
If Joe Walsh is anything, he’s a monument to just how tolerant people can be of assholes when their assholery is framed as “tough talk.” He is a man seemingly without any redeeming qualities. He’s a loudmouth, a bigot, a corporate tool, an intolerant censor, and — most infamously — a deadbeat dad. Take a stroll through his short public history here. Have Maalox handy, because he’s a nauseating man.
A PPP poll fielded in September showed Duckworth up 14-points over this fool. I guess you can only pretend assholery is hardheaded realism for so long.
