The “Chicago Tonight” panel had a good laugh over the weekend. The punchline?
Tammy Duckworth’s legislative accomplishments – or lack thereof.
Watch what happened when WTTW anchor Joel Weisman asked his panel to name a single Duckworth accomplishment from her time in Washington:
JOEL WEISMAN: Do you know of some of her accomplishments?
KATE GROSSMAN: I don’t know – I don’t know off the top of my – I know she’s been involved with veterans’ affairs in multiple ways but I don’t know – I can’t list her accomplishments.
MARY WISNIEWSKI: I think for some Democrats, it might be enough that she’s a Democrat and they can, you know – and you have another Democrat in the Senate and she’ll be junior to one of the most powerful Democrats in the Senate and will take directions from him.
With an effectiveness score of zero, Duckworth’s tenure in Washington has literally turned into a joke.
And, as the Chicago Tribune’s Mary Wisniewski explained, Democrats are willing to look past Duckworth’s award-winning ineffectiveness because she would simply “take directions” from Dick Durbin.
Tammy Duckworth’s campaign for U.S. Senate is out today with a new ad, entitled “Granite City.” The 30-second spot features laid-off steelworkers discussing the uncertainty they’re facing as a result of unfair trade practices. Granite City is a Metro East community where the local steel mill began laying off more than 2,000 workers two days after Christmas. Duckworth has visited Granite City several times as a candidate for U.S. Senate, most recently this past Saturday. Earlier this year, she sat down with laid off workers and their families at the United Steel Workers union hall. While the initial announcement indicated the layoffs would be temporary, the plant remains shuttered today.
Last week, in a speech to the City Club of Chicago, Duckworth released her new economic plan to support a strong workforce and create new opportunities for Illinois families, with a special focus on strengthening Illinois’ manufacturing sector. You can find her new plan HERE.
“Tammy is running for Senate to help families like her own — families that have been knocked down but haven’t given up. She supports trade policies that put Illinois workers first, not multinational corporations. Republican Mark Kirk, on the other hand, refers to himself as an ‘ardent free trader’ and has routinely supported bad trade deals and policies that put American workers at a disadvantage, like protecting tax breaks companies use when they ship jobs overseas. Illinois deserves a Senator who will fight for their jobs and that’s Tammy Duckworth,” said Duckworth deputy campaign manager Matt McGrath.
“Granite City” has begun running statewide, in rotation with the Duckworth biographical spot, “Adversity.”
Justin: You didn’t know when you was gonna get laid off, and then, bam, two days after Christmas.
Duckworth: My dad, he was in his late 50’s. He lost his job because the company he was working for was sold, and no one would hire a 50-something-year-old man.
Anthony: The imports are really bad…China, Korea. It’s junk steel.
Duckworth: Mark Kirk describes himself as an ardent free-trader, and that is a fundamental difference between us. I am a fair-trader.
Anthony: He’s not supposed to work for China, he’s supposed to fight for our jobs.
Duckworth: I’m Tammy Duckworth, and I approved this message.
Tammy was one of the first Co-Sponsors of the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Act that is aimed at decreasing the suicide rate of Veterans. That bill passed into law, and hopefully we’ll see the effects of it in the next few years. Not quite a laughing matter.
Her manufacturing ideas are Ok.There is a good read called The Rise and Fall of American growth. When something went overseas in the past it was replaced by something new but we have been in an era of fewer breakthroughs and that has slowed growth.
Tammy Duckworth has done an excellent job of ingratiating herself with the party bosses who have been promoting her nonstop. As an administrator or as a legislator, there is not much of a positive record to tout.
Guess Rich woke up on the Kirk side of the bed today.
I don’t expect a junior member of the minority party to have a storied legislative career. From what I can see though, she’s “accomplished” quite a bit in her lifetime.
@GV, Sen. Kirk was a cosponsor on the Senate version of that bill.
She’s 0 for 32 on legislation she’s introduced. She hasn’t even gotten anything out of committee yet. In that same time, Sen. Kirk has eight bills or resolutions passed by the Senate.
If you want more of an apples to apples comparison, in Kirk’s last two years in the House Minority, he wrote 13 pieces of legislation that passed the full House.
Either way you crunch the numbers, Rep. Duckworth’s legislative accomplishments are pretty bad.
Her obvious positive is being missed by the “effectiveness” criticisms. She can help bring Democratic control to the Senate. The results with respect to the Supreme Court alone are enormous. Kirk is an obvious roadblock to that result.
Anonymous is exactly correct. Junior members of the minority do not get legislation passed, it is the way it works so it is not really fair to judge her short tenure by those numbers. She has been a positive voice for veterans all her career and that means a great deal.
Slightly off topic, during the DNC, I listened to speakers talking about the need to reform the VA and provide better care to our vets. It was surreal since the Democratic Party has been in charge for eight years.
One of the biggest reason jobs and corporate headquarters are going over seas is the lunacy of our tax policy which has not been changed in decades.
We have the highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world which hirst US companies competitiveness is a global marketplace.
There is bipartisan consensus we need to increase investment in the US. Lowering corporate tax rates, ending loopholes and treating every company fairly would go along way toward ending the mass exodus of capital from our country and promote economic growth here at home.
- Katich Walker, Jr. - Monday, Aug 29, 16 @ 2:38 pm:
I would support Rep Duckworth and other legislators who promote the efforts of groups like wearenotyoursoldiers.org to educate high school students about the broader range of experiences of those who enlist in the armed services.
Applauding for vets at the ball games and listening to recruiters isn’t enough.
It is a non-partisan/ independent organization which labeled TD as ineffective. I don’t think this is a fight they want to have with Kirk who’s been able to pass Infrastructure, Veteran, and National Security legislation throughout his career. Just my two cents…
So Kirk is in the majority party in the Senate–I don’t see a list of accomplishments from his long Congressional career–Senate or House, that shines any brighter than Duckworth’s brief time in the minority party in the House. Someone want to ’splain…
For an encore, next week Joel can ask his panel to name a time Tammy cast a vote against her party, or has questioned a vote made by her party that has since proven to be problematic. Again crickets, I am sure.
It’s not a very good ad.
The Chicago Tonight clip really says it all.
It’s a lot harder to hide in the Senate than the House. I have no idea why she got herself talked into this. She could have kept doing what she’s doing in the House for a long time. That seat was really drawn specifically for her. They had a road map for who exactly supported her. It’s not as Democrat as it was Duckworth.
She is a hero. She’s a lovely person. Her congressional record is completely empty. She voted how she was asked and expected to vote. And that’s all there is to it. She’s among the most undistinguished members of the US House.
- illinois manufacturer - Monday, Aug 29, 16 @ 12:41 pm:
Come on the House is ineffective.Good Ad
- GV - Monday, Aug 29, 16 @ 12:45 pm:
Tammy was one of the first Co-Sponsors of the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Act that is aimed at decreasing the suicide rate of Veterans. That bill passed into law, and hopefully we’ll see the effects of it in the next few years. Not quite a laughing matter.
- illinois manufacturer - Monday, Aug 29, 16 @ 12:51 pm:
Her manufacturing ideas are Ok.There is a good read called The Rise and Fall of American growth. When something went overseas in the past it was replaced by something new but we have been in an era of fewer breakthroughs and that has slowed growth.
- Anonymous - Monday, Aug 29, 16 @ 12:52 pm:
The ineffectiveness methodology is based strictly on bills passed out of committee.
- Anonymous - Monday, Aug 29, 16 @ 1:02 pm:
Tammy Duckworth has done an excellent job of ingratiating herself with the party bosses who have been promoting her nonstop. As an administrator or as a legislator, there is not much of a positive record to tout.
- Anonymous - Monday, Aug 29, 16 @ 1:06 pm:
Guess Rich woke up on the Kirk side of the bed today.
I don’t expect a junior member of the minority party to have a storied legislative career. From what I can see though, she’s “accomplished” quite a bit in her lifetime.
- illinois manufacturer - Monday, Aug 29, 16 @ 1:13 pm:
Her manufacturing plan is a lot like Hillary s.All fine if they crack down on abuses especially China…well mostly China.I like her animal policy too.
- ChrisB - Monday, Aug 29, 16 @ 1:13 pm:
@GV, Sen. Kirk was a cosponsor on the Senate version of that bill.
She’s 0 for 32 on legislation she’s introduced. She hasn’t even gotten anything out of committee yet. In that same time, Sen. Kirk has eight bills or resolutions passed by the Senate.
If you want more of an apples to apples comparison, in Kirk’s last two years in the House Minority, he wrote 13 pieces of legislation that passed the full House.
Either way you crunch the numbers, Rep. Duckworth’s legislative accomplishments are pretty bad.
Source: Congress.gov
- JackD - Monday, Aug 29, 16 @ 1:18 pm:
Her obvious positive is being missed by the “effectiveness” criticisms. She can help bring Democratic control to the Senate. The results with respect to the Supreme Court alone are enormous. Kirk is an obvious roadblock to that result.
- Morgan County - Monday, Aug 29, 16 @ 1:50 pm:
Name one thing Durbin had done.
- Grandpa - Monday, Aug 29, 16 @ 1:59 pm:
Anonymous is exactly correct. Junior members of the minority do not get legislation passed, it is the way it works so it is not really fair to judge her short tenure by those numbers. She has been a positive voice for veterans all her career and that means a great deal.
- Anonymous - Monday, Aug 29, 16 @ 2:11 pm:
Slightly off topic, during the DNC, I listened to speakers talking about the need to reform the VA and provide better care to our vets. It was surreal since the Democratic Party has been in charge for eight years.
- Lucky Pierre - Monday, Aug 29, 16 @ 2:14 pm:
One of the biggest reason jobs and corporate headquarters are going over seas is the lunacy of our tax policy which has not been changed in decades.
We have the highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world which hirst US companies competitiveness is a global marketplace.
There is bipartisan consensus we need to increase investment in the US. Lowering corporate tax rates, ending loopholes and treating every company fairly would go along way toward ending the mass exodus of capital from our country and promote economic growth here at home.
- Katich Walker, Jr. - Monday, Aug 29, 16 @ 2:38 pm:
I would support Rep Duckworth and other legislators who promote the efforts of groups like wearenotyoursoldiers.org to educate high school students about the broader range of experiences of those who enlist in the armed services.
Applauding for vets at the ball games and listening to recruiters isn’t enough.
- Terrible Towel - Monday, Aug 29, 16 @ 3:01 pm:
It is a non-partisan/ independent organization which labeled TD as ineffective. I don’t think this is a fight they want to have with Kirk who’s been able to pass Infrastructure, Veteran, and National Security legislation throughout his career. Just my two cents…
- D.P. Gumby - Monday, Aug 29, 16 @ 3:29 pm:
So Kirk is in the majority party in the Senate–I don’t see a list of accomplishments from his long Congressional career–Senate or House, that shines any brighter than Duckworth’s brief time in the minority party in the House. Someone want to ’splain…
- Responsa - Monday, Aug 29, 16 @ 4:34 pm:
For an encore, next week Joel can ask his panel to name a time Tammy cast a vote against her party, or has questioned a vote made by her party that has since proven to be problematic. Again crickets, I am sure.
- A guy - Monday, Aug 29, 16 @ 4:40 pm:
It’s not a very good ad.
The Chicago Tonight clip really says it all.
It’s a lot harder to hide in the Senate than the House. I have no idea why she got herself talked into this. She could have kept doing what she’s doing in the House for a long time. That seat was really drawn specifically for her. They had a road map for who exactly supported her. It’s not as Democrat as it was Duckworth.
She is a hero. She’s a lovely person. Her congressional record is completely empty. She voted how she was asked and expected to vote. And that’s all there is to it. She’s among the most undistinguished members of the US House.
- Anonymous - Monday, Aug 29, 16 @ 4:44 pm:
Hey Morgan, Dick Durbin wrote the law that bans smoking on planes.
- GV - Monday, Aug 29, 16 @ 4:55 pm:
Congress.gov shows Kirk being 0-109 on bills he has introduced in the Senate.