Vets' Surprising Political Battles

Paul Hackett One Of Several Iraq War Veterans Running For Office

(CBS)  In Columbus, Ohio, the capital of America's red versus blue political divide, U.S. Senate candidate Paul Hackett is recruiting support.

CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod reports that as a Democrat and a trial lawyer, it's no surprise Hackett's a big critic of the president, especially when it comes to the war.

"What's going on in Iraq is part of what's wrong with this administration," Hackett says. "And it's part of the misdirection of our country."

The surprise is that just 10 months ago, candidate Paul Hackett was fighting in Fallujah as Marine Corps Maj. Paul Hackett. No longer on active duty, he's still a reservist.

"When I'm on active duty wearing the uniform, I don't criticize, but, uh, again, I didn't sign up to serve my country and fight for my country to be told what I can and can't say," Hackett says.

Hackett is in the first wave of post Sept. 11 veterans running for congress, and of a dozen signed up so far, 10 of them are Democrats running against the war.

It is one of America's oldest political traditions. Veterans come home from war and run for office, but never, never — say the people who study these things — have so many vets come home so soon to run against the war they were just fighting, not even after Vietnam.

"I think probably what we all share is, we share the belief that the military's being misused in Iraq," Hackett says.

If Paul Hackett represents this fundamental change, then republican Van Taylor marches in the tradition of vets who run to support the commander in chief.

"I think that we're doing … we're doing a phenomenal job in Iraq," Taylor says.

Taylor also served in Iraq as an officer in the Marine Corps reserves and is running in the conservative Texas district that includes the president's ranch. It's no surprise he doesn't share the anti-war positions of some of his fellow veterans.

"That's their choice. I know why I am running and I know what I believe in," he says

So as the midterm elections approach, seeing who wins these battles may tell us more than the polls about how Americans really feel about the war.