I was never wild about the Band of Brothers idea, as Ari notes, and not just because it is such a male (and white) bunch of tired and dreary no-idea candidates. It’s a gimmick. A militaristic gimmick. It says Daddy’s back and he hates those commie pinko peaceniks just as much as you, patriotic red-blooded red-state America! What’s next, Band of Preachers?

Tammy Duckworth is a great human-interest story, but that’s not a reason to support her candidacy. Running her is an act of considerable cynicism– but it seems to be working. Ari, I’m guessing you’d barely heard of her before a few weeks ago, and you’re practically ready to support her. The centrist mantra is working it’s magic: Already you’re having trouble telling the difference between the candidate who walks the walk and has grassroots support, and the candidate who is basically a photo-op. Who says Duckworth is the more electable of the two, besides the pols who recruited her to run?

Duckworth wants to stay in Iraq, she’s allied with the more conservative wing of the party, and she seems to have very little substantive to say about most issues. She’ s trying to push out of the way a candidate who has a lot of support, more local roots, who ran an incredible race last time, and who has much better politics. I would trust Cegelis a thousand times over Duckworth to take progressive stands once elected, including on women’s rights and abortion rights. Duckworth told the Washington Post she thinks abortion shouldn’t be a federal issue. That’s not exactly a ringing defense of abortion rights, since unfortunately it IS a federal issue.

If it’s all the same to you whether the US stays in Iraq or not, if you think women candidates are fungible and it makes no difference that one has been part of progressive politics in the district for years while the other was trying to get into active combat because (according to the WashPost) she thought flying helicopters was cool, by all means, support Duckworth.