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In May 2004 Republican Congressman Henry Hyde was honored at a black tie Marianjoy gala benefit launching a $10 million campaign for a new Marianjoy hospital facility. Yet Congressman Hyde has stood by while congressional Republicans voted for past Bush Administration healthcare budgets that cut healthcare for Americans. This year Congressman Hyde and the GOP face a new test. The 2007 proposed Bush Administration budget will reduce funds for medical research, Medicare, Medicaid and the Centers for Disease Control - harming us all.

According to the Washington Post, the budget “would eliminate federal programs” supporting rehabilitation medicine, the type of medicine Marianjoy practices, including cutting federal funds to

- Centers for traumatic brain injury,
- the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center (where it would cut the entire budget),
- a nationwide registry for the debilitating Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS) and
- an educational campaign about Alzheimer’s disease, which could help prevent injuries that end up requiring rehabilitation.

Additionally, it would cut almost $1 billion in state healthcare grants.

It is in this scenario that Illinois 6th Congressional Candidate Tammy Duckworth and former Senator Max Cleland, both war veterans with amputated limbs marking their service to our country, chose to tour Marianjoy’s top-notch rehabilitation facilities. There, in a press conference at the hospital, they decried the Bush Administration’s proposed drastic cuts to healthcare and rehabilitation services - health services they themselves have required to overcome their injuries. It was not a black tie event. There was no congratulatory dinner during or after the speeches.

Marianjoy is a non-profit, non-political organization, and for entirely understandable reasons they were not expecting a press conference criticizing the Bush budget. They also, understandably, felt the need to proclaim and maintain their political neutrality. It may be that Duckworth’s obviously staged event that put the hospital in an awkward position has bruised some feelings. That is unfortunate, and Tammy holds responsibility for it.

But however staged the event, and however inappropriate for the hospital, it would be a mistake to see the event as a loss for the Duckworth campaign. She bruised feelings, but she battled for healthcare. She got not one series of press stories about championing healthcare - but two, a week apart, with the second set critical, but showing strength. She showed herself to be a “fighting Democrat,” and was shrewd about communicating it.

Campaign victories, alas, are not the same as constituent victories. We need fighting Democrats that will fight to provide all Americans with healthcare - and Duckworth has hedged on whether her battle is for all, or just some. A national healthcare plan may not heal all bruises - but it will heal all bodies. It is a worthy battle for a true fighting Democrat, something America desperately needs. I’m waiting for Tammy to tell us she’s up for the fight.