Hackett takes on Kucinich

Paul Hackett is back in congressional politics, but not as a candidate.



This time around, he is helping Democrat Rosemary Palmer, a former journalist and mother of a Marine killed in Iraq, who is taking on Rep. Dennis Kucinich in Ohio's 10th Congressional District.



Palmer, like Kucinich, wants to see the war in Iraq end now, but she is challenging the former Cleveland mayor in the Democratic congressional primary because she believes Kucinich has spent too much time running around the country in a Don Quixote-like run for the presidency, instead of tending to his congressional duties.



Apparently Hackett agrees, because he is joining Palmer in a telephone press conference Wednesday to talk about Palmer's plans for reforming the Department of Veterans Affairs.



Hackett, of course, is a Marine Corps veteran of Iraq himself - a fact that shot him into the national spotlight two summers ago when he took on Jean Schmidt in the 2nd District special congressional election.