Another Iraq Vet Steps Up To Challenge GOP Rep. Roskam
Roll Call reports that Democrats are lining up another Iraq veteran to challenge freshman Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) — Colonel Jill Morgenthaler, a deputy chief of staff for public safety to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Morgenthaler has yet to make her candidacy official, but reports say that she will likely make the bid.
Democrats hope that they can put Roskam on the defensive in this Democratic-trending district, but it remains to be seen whether Morgenthaler has the right profile to inspire local activists. She was at the center of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal as an army spokeswoman, and a Web journal that she had during her time in Iraq features a good deal of criticism of the media for what she perceived as negative coverage of the war.
One such nugget from her journal: "As people get upset about Abu Ghraib, one thing that should never be forgotten: these are men who have murdered Americans and would continue to murder Americans if given the opportunity."
Speaking of things that should never be forgotten, how about our values as a country? You know, like "We do not torture"? That's what the whole Abu Ghraib thing is about, Colonel. Stop making excuses for reprehensible behavior among people who get represent *me*.
If Abu Ghraib was so honorable, why did it take a whistleblower to expose what was happening there?
If Morgenthaler is just going to act like a Republican torture apologist, why should anyone support her?
October 19, 2007 10:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
Campaign Diaries's full House rankings were just fully updated. Check them out here. IL-06 is rated "Lean retention".
October 19, 2007 11:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
great, a democratic john yoo. just what we need.
i miss my country.
October 19, 2007 11:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is just AWFUL! She doesn't live in the district. She lives just outside, like Duckworth in '06. I was a very involved volunteer in the Duckworth race. She was amazing, but whether I was talking to voters on the phone or in person, it was a very big negative that she didn't live in the district. Yes, you can tell people that there is no residency requirement, but they don't care. They want a neighbor in congress.
October 19, 2007 12:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can't comment on her residence or her local positions but I can on her military job. I would bet $5.00 ( you probably can't buy one for a dollar) to a donut she never saw the inside of Abu Ghraib Prison. Or if she did it wasn't the part the General in charge wasn't allowed to visit. She was a reader of what they handed her with no personal investigation. In the Army you follow orders. Look at the Generals speaking out now who "followed orders." It didn't work at Nurenburg but we were in charge there as we are in Iraq.
October 19, 2007 1:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I live in DuPage though not in her district. Don't know much about her positions and neither does anybody else. I can tell you her home was gerrymandered out of the district in 2002. I hear it was in the severe flood district in Des Plaines this August and she and her family may move.
October 19, 2007 5:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have a positive viewpoint on Jill Morgenthaler:
* She's ex-military, just like Maj. Tammy Duckworth. She's a retired colonel from the U.S. Army Reserve, where she worked as a press contact for the media. This makes her attractive to Republican cross-over voters. Roskam won't be able to use the "cut-and-run" line on "G.I. Jill" or attack her for being weak on terrorism.
* She's been doing PR for 30 years, which means she'll handle the media well.
* She's been on Gov. Blagojevich's staff since Dec. 2005, and was deputy chief of staff for homeland security. This gives her solid democratic credentials.
* She's got an appealing tender side, as her blog account shows when she rescued a starving kitten in Iraq.
* She has credibility in foreign affairs, having worked in Korea, German, Bosnia and Iraq.
See http://www.illinois.gov/PressReleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?SubjectID=3&RecNum=4548 for a press release recounting her background.
As for her residency, she's been gerrymandered out of the 6th District and plans to move into it after the election.
Pay a visit to http://www.actblue.com and find out more.
October 21, 2007 10:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
This woman is a disgrace to the United States. There is not one atom of evidence that most of the prisoners in Abu Ghraib were terrorists, had connections to terrorists, or in any form or fashion were aggrieved against America before American soldiers tormented them.
I would not want such an ignorant thug representing me. Would you?
October 21, 2007 9:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just like Tammy Duckworth....you mean just like the candidate that lost the election last year? Running an election by appealing to republicans is not a winning strategy.
October 21, 2007 10:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
If she wants to run on Abu Ghraib, then shouldn't ALL of the photos and videos that congress promised they would show the American people.
They must have just forgotten that they promised they would come out. Including the video of the rape of a boy in front of his father.
If she wants to run on Abu Ghraib, then LET her run on it all the way.
October 21, 2007 10:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
If she wants to run on Abu Ghraib, then shouldn't she run on the entire episode? What about all of those other pictures and videos that Congress promised to reveal to the American people. The Pentagon still has those photos and videos, including the rape of a boy in front of his father.
Let her run on it, but demand the WHOLE truth. Demand all of the evidence.
October 21, 2007 10:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Running an election by appealing to republicans is not a winning strategy."
No matter how often it is said,somehow it needs to be said again.
October 21, 2007 10:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Larry Bodine wrote "(Jill Morgenthaler)'s got an appealing tender side, as her blog account shows when she rescued a starving kitten in Iraq."
Jill Morgenthaler wrote: "As people get upset about Abu Ghraib, one thing that should never be forgotten: these are men who have murdered Americans and would continue to murder Americans if given the opportunity."
I have nothing to add.
October 22, 2007 12:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Roskam won't be able to use the "cut-and-run" line on "G.I. Jill" or attack her for being weak on terrorism.
Oh yes they will. Why can't you people ever get it through your thick heads that the Republicans are going to attack you regardless? Haven't you been paying attention the past 7 years?
Running an ex-military candidate thinking that it's going to placate these boneheads and insulate you from accusations of disloyalty, incompetence or softness is not going to work, because when it's all said and done, the Repubs will still vote for a Republican over a Republican-lite.
As long as she runs as a Democrat who disagrees with the direction of the current administration, she will be attacked. Period.
And if she doesn't disagree with it, well, then why the hell should we support her?
October 22, 2007 12:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Unless you live in Connecticut
October 22, 2007 8:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
"As people get upset about Abu Ghraib, one thing that should never be forgotten: these are men who have murdered Americans and would continue to murder Americans if given the opportunity."
Invading soldiers who are killed by local resistance forces are not "murdered", since these deaths are combat deaths and under the laws of war these are not treated as murder -- unless you also want to argue that all the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis we've killed in their homeland have been murdered by us. Would she say, for example, that the British Army soldiers killed by the Minutemen at Lexington and Concord were "murdered"?
October 22, 2007 10:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Why are the Democrats running someone like this? It's as if the Party endorses torture. Sure, that appeals to your average Republican voter - but a Republican voter won't vote for a Democrat. Meanwhile, actual Democrats won't want to vote for an apologist for Abu Graib - an apparent loyal Bushie to the end.
Sounds like it's time for Democrats to re-take the Democratic Party in Illinois.
October 22, 2007 11:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
There is another Democrat running for the IL-6 seat. Stan Jagla.
October 22, 2007 11:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Rahm desperately wants Military Woman to be the challenger in IL-06. If Lynndie England lived just outside the district, she'd have a shot at being the establishment pick.
October 22, 2007 12:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
"As people get upset about Abu Ghraib, one thing that should never be forgotten: these are men who have murdered Americans and would continue to murder Americans if given the opportunity."
Really? Does she know that? Do we have evidence of that? And if we had enough evidence, what were they being tortured for? Finally, when we were fighting the Germans in WWII, we did not torture German prisoners, though many of them had "murdered" Americans as well.
It's such a specious argument, but rhetorically, it's brilliant. It makes a person who stands up for the rule of law look as if he's complicit in killing Americans.
OK - one more thing - if we torture these guys and then, presumably, release them from prison at some point, do you think he's going to be more motivated to kill Americans? Or less?
It just doesn't make any sense. But as I said: rhetorically, it's a stroke of genius.
October 22, 2007 1:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jill M. is carrying baggage. She was brought into the Blagojevich fold by Mike Chalmness, who wanted to make his Terrorism Task Force more "forceful" by getting a real, live colonel to associate with. The problem was that her experience is in media and she was put in charge of Homeland Security.
She was also part of the group that has mostly disseminated the old IL Dept. of Nuclear Safety by allowing lots of valuable brain power to leave by making their lives miserable.
I will now sit back and wait for the IEMA sycophants try to convince everyone that it's all sweetness and light at IEMA. And no, I've never worked for either Nuclear Safety or IEMA. I just listen to those who do.
October 22, 2007 9:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think the Dems should have a candidate who will stand up to BushCo and the Iraq War, and not be someone who is/was a defender of the tactics used in it. Not living in the district is her final nail in her coffin...
October 23, 2007 2:52 PM | Reply | Permalink