Tammy Duckworth's Amazing Life Story Comes With A Warning Label

CHICAGO — No offense to U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth but the prevailing national news narrative that her compelling life story got her onto Joe Biden's short list for vice presidential running mates understates a notable detail.

Yes, Duckworth has an inspiring personal story that could play well to a national audience as Democrats seek to reclaim the White House. She's an Asian-American woman who grew up poor, served in the military, lost both legs in combat because of a helicopter crash in Iraq and amazingly overcame adversity to serve in the U.S. Senate and have her name considered as a vice presidential candidate.

And to an outsider, say a national columnist at The New York Times, that's apparently enough to declare Duckworth's addition to the Biden ticket a no-brainer.

But here in Illinois, the land of clout lists, kick backs, and quid pro quos, folks know it's foolish to accept at face value the resume of any candidate — even Purple Heart-decorated war hero — without considering her clout.

And that goes double for Chicago politicians, particularly Rahm Emanuel, whose fingerprints are all over Duckworth's political career, including her sudden emergence as top contender to become Biden's running mate.

Emanuel's political relationship with Duckworth goes back 15 years. In 2005, Emanuel was a congressman and the Democratic National Campaign Committee chairman on the hunt for veterans to run for office. He recruited Duckworth to run for Congress in Illinois and was the mastermind behind her campaign. She lost but never left the public eye.

The Chicago Democrat who Emanuel replaced in Congress, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, quickly hired Duckworth to run the state veterans affairs department in what the Tribune called a "surprise move."

In 2008, Duckworth was on Emanuel's short list of clout candidates that would be considered "acceptable" replacements to fill president-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat.

In 2009, with Emanuel serving as President Obama's chief of staff, Duckworth was appointed assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

In 2011, the same year Emanuel left the White House to make a successful run for mayor of Chicago, Duckworth also moved back to Illinois to run for Congress in a district "designed by Illinois Democrats to have a Democratic tilt." She easily defeated rookie Tea Party U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh.

In 2015, while running for the U.S. Senate, Duckworth proved her loyalty to Emanuel. She publicly called for Chicago police Supt. Garry McCarthy's resignation after a judge forced Emanuel's City Hall to publicly release video of the police-involved murder of Black teenager Laquan McDonald. But Duckworth remained mum on whether Emanuel should quit, too, when polling results showed 50 percent of Chicagoans wanted him to resign.

Emanuel ultimately walked away from City Hall as a wildly unpopular mayor before voters got the chance to throw him out.

Since then, Emanuel has engaged in a long con on the American people. He's disguised himself as a journalist, written a book of mayoral non-non-fiction, his own revisionist history. And he scored a gig as a TV pundit, positioning himself for a political comeback.

In March, Emanuel described his future plans to City Hall press corps dean Bill Cameron this way: "I'm not done with politics and politics isn't done with me."

Now, Emanuel is having regular conversations with Biden about economic policy and "the selection of a running mate," among other things, according to the Tribune.

And Emanuel's silence about Duckworth's chances to make the Biden ticket make it pretty clear that he needs Duckworth more than she needs him.

In The New York Times, where Emanuel loves to see his name in print, the only thing Chicago's disgraced former mayor was quoted as saying about the candidate he helped create was, “She is very methodical.” He's left the Duckworth talking points to his buddies, political strategist David Axelrod and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin.

Meanwhile, Emanuel is perfectly positioned behind the scenes to push Duckworth as the Democratic vice president nominee ahead of, say, Sen. Kamala Harris and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, or any of the other women on Biden's short list, as a way to carve out a spot for himself in the Biden administration that might not be there with any other running mate on a winning ticket in November.

No disrespect to Sen. Duckworth, but her clout-connection to Emanuel is part of her story, too.

Emanuel might be a genius political strategist who knows how to elevate candidates and win big elections.

But given his history, the guy has no business being a vice president's clout — particularly during this moment of civil unrest in America.

Emanuel was co-architect of the "three strikes" crime bill that led to the mass incarceration of African Americans.

In 1996, he advised former President Clinton to "claim and achieve record deportations of criminal aliens."

In Chicago, his law department conspired to keep the video of a Black teenager's murder secret in the middle of his hotly contested run-off re-election bid.

And he's whispering in Biden's ear.

Don't say I didn't warn you, America.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series, "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docu-series on CNN, and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary, "16 Shots.

More from Mark Konkol:

• Skeptics Whisper Worries Chicago Top Cop Is Unprepared For Crisis
• Should Companies Pay Up For Using Racially Tinged Brand Mascots?
• Aunt Jemima's Great-Grandson Enraged Her Legacy Will Be Erased
• Democrat Push To License Cops Started By Republican 11 Years Ago
• Pandering Pritzker Should Keep Quiet And Listen To Black Voices
• 'Privileged' Activist Urges Chicago To Stop Shouting, Take A Knee
• Protest Is Personal On South Shore Corner Where Cop Shot 'Snoop'
• More Than A Protest: Chicagoans Fight City's Knee On Their Necks