If Legless Vet Tammy Duckworth Really Loved Vets, She Would Have Given More Limbs

Pffft, she's still got two arms

Here is a good general rule that has zero exceptions to it. Never mock the military service of Illinois Rep. Tammy Duckworth, the veteran who lost two legs fightin' 'em over there in Iraq so we don't have to fight 'em over here ( ahem , loser deadbeat ex-Rep. Joe Walsh), and definitely never complain that she doesn't "stand up" for veterans. That's a rule the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) learned the hard way:

The NRSC has deleted the tweet but -- all together now, class! -- screenshots are forever. So thanks to Wonkette pal Jesse Berney, we can all shudder in horror together at the mind-numbing, jaw-dropping steaming heap of stupid some jackwad jerkface turd-licker thought was a real good zing on Duckworth, who is running this year, on her robotic legs, for Senate.

We know Republicans are real worried that Duckworth is going to steal Sen. Mark Kirk's seat right out from under him this November. And they are right to worry, because she very well might. And oh, wouldn't that be a shame if the Senate lost a Republican who casually compared President Obama to Hitler, back when they were all wah-wahing and boo-hooing about the president's deal to avoid thermonuclear warfare with Iran?

Duckworth's campaign issued a brief statement that impressively did not invite the NRSC to sit on either or both of her robotic replacement legs and spin forever and ever until it throws up all over itself:

Tasteless and dishonest, just like everything else to do with Mark Kirk's flailingcampaign. Tammy has made fighting for Veterans her life's work, and will continue to do so in the Senate.

Of course the NRSC immediately apologized for its grotesque attack on Duckworth, except of course it didn't. In typical Republican fashion, the committee is blaming the media for noticing:

It would be great if reporters would pay as much attention to a deleted tweet as they should to Tammy Duckworth being sued by VA whistleblowers for ignoring claims of mistreatment and corruption.

Stupid media, noticing the NRSC's attack on Duckworth and then writing about it instead of writing about its other attacks that haven't been deleted.

We would love to give Republicans the benefit of the doubt here and assume this despicable sentiment was just one random mistake that doesn't represent how the GOP really feels about veterans or Democrats. But that's a lie. And it would be pretty stupid of us, because we're old enough to remember when the party's presidential frontrunner declared John McCain isn't a real hero because real heroes don't get captured. Heck, we're even old enough to remember when the GOP attacked former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland, another Democrat who sacrificed several limbs in service to his country, for maybe kinda sorta perhaps loving The Terrorists instead of America.

So yeah, no. Fuck you, NRSC and the Republican Party and the whole damn lot of you.

[ Thanks to Jesse Berney, whom you should be following on the Twitters , obviously. ]