Playing Tucker Like a Fiddle

In the latest round in the feud between Sen. Tammy Duckworth and Tucker Carlson, Tammy wrote an op-ed in the New York Times on this past Thursday, defending all Americans’ right to freedom of speech and opinion, including Carlson’s. As my old classmate is stating, even an idiot has a right to free speech, as long as it does not bring about incitement to violence. Donald Trump is another matter, but she may be addressing that later.

Again, I believe (and I think that all the events illustrate this) that Tammy is the #1 in the race for Biden’s #2, if not by design, then by default. Like any good soldier walking “point” (infantry parlance for the poor SOB at the tip of the spear), Tammy is taking fire first and effectively for Biden. How effectively the Democratic #1 will take advantage of this is to be seen.

However, any reservations about Tammy’s relative youth and inexperience in government appear to be disappearing. I even saw a Democratic pundit in a Chicago Sun Times piece who lauded her patriotism and sacrifices but also noted her rather lackluster performance in the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the US Veterans’ Administration, as a US Representative from Illinois and now as a junior senator.

Let’s remember Tammy is not unique.  There have been many previous lackluster or unproven junior US Senators from Illinois. Carol Mosley Braun (D) and Peter Fitzgerald (R) were frankly disasters.

In general, the people of Illinois are not well served by their politicians in general.  This can be seen in the case of two previous recent governors from Illinois, Republican Paul Ryan and Democrat Rod Blagojevich who were removed on corruption charges. In the case of Ryan, it was for selling drivers’ licenses while he was Secretary of State and in the case of Blago it was his attempt to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder (only Donald Trump helped Blago out by pardoning the scum bucket). In contrast, Tammy only caused a minor scandal at the Illinois Department of Veterans’ affairs for the inadvertent use of a state vehicle for unauthorized purposes. She later reimbursed the State of Illinois for this.

I agree with the pundit whose article I read that based upon her recent actions, she could very will grow into the job of vice president. I would argue that she is also growing into her job as Senator, albeit slowly.

Basically, Tammy not only has titanium legs. She also has titanium armor. While the 2020 presidential election is too close to call and Trump has a lot of Jedi mind tricks up his sleeve for his stupid base, I think that she is the great woman behind the lackluster man named Joe Biden.