-By Warner Todd Huston
On October 17, about 30 some supporters of incumbent Congressman Joe Walsh gathered outside Democrat opponent Tammy Duckworth’s suburban campaign office to protest what they say is her outright lies about her part in the firing of a pair of whistleblowers when she headed the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA).
Duckworth essentially caused this controversy herself during the October 9 debate. At the debate, Walsh quizzed Duckworth about her time at the DVA, a tenure that included 12 violations from the Inspector General and charges of the illegal use of a government vehicle.
Walsh also confronted Duckworth on the lawsuit filed against her by several fired DVA employees who have charged the former Army Major with wrongful termination and public humiliation.
As Walsh explains the case, “the Plaintiff filed a complaint against a supervisor for allowing political campaigning on VA property. Duckworth received the complaint and subsequently terminated the employee who made the complaint and allegedly instructed the other Plaintiff to “keep her mouth shut” and she could keep job.”
During the debate, Duckworth flat out denied she is currently being sued.
In a post debate press release, Walsh said, “I was truly hoping we could have a serious debate where we could discuss all the issues. While Ms. Duckworth stuck to her talking points, I tried to make clear to voters how I would get us back on a fiscally responsible path and get Americans back to work.”
However what really concerned me is that tonight Ms. Duckworth lied to every voter in the 8th district. When I asked if she was being sued for terminating and humiliating employees that tried to expose political corruption, she said that was not true. Unfortunately for Ms. Duckworth and the taxpayer, who is footing her legal bill for the past three years, she is currently being sued and she should come clean about what happened during her time at the Illinois VA.
The protest on October 17 was mostly peaceful. In fact, the only little incident was perpetrated by a Duckworth campaign worker who came out of the offices and began to curse and scream at the protesters. He began screaming that Walsh was a “loudmouth.” Not only did this fellow use some rather rude language, but he did so with a few small children only feet away from him.
Interestingly, as he was yelling calling Walsh a “loudmouth” the Duckworth staffer’s voice could easily have been heard for blocks. Introspection was obviously not that campaign worker’s forté.
Scenes at the protest…
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.
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