Posted on 08/06/2006 1:52:57 PM PDT by Coop
We cannot recall when, if ever, a congressional race in our corner of the world developed a national focus, but such was the case last week. Unfortunately, it was characterized by the kind of overheated rhetoric that plagues today's politics.
A group of veterans announced it would sponsor a national veterans rally in October to protest Rep. John Murtha's opposition to the Iraq war. "Vets for the Truth" is a successor to one of the organizations that worked against John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election.
But the group does not simply disagree with Murtha that the United States should pull out of Iraq; it claims that things he has said were "treasonous." His position actually is that the U.S. and its coalition troops have done all they can do and that the war can not be won militarily, which is not only a far cry from treason, it's probably a realistic assessment of the situation in Iraq.
Murtha, of course, is a big boy and an old political pro. (When he came out against the war last November, he coupled it with a personal attack on Vice President Dick Cheney.) He also has deep connections to the military establishment and to veterans groups. Last week, the Murtha camp countered the veterans group by producing former U.S. Sen. Max Clelland, who lost three limbs in Vietnam, to counter what he called "the right wing smears against a good man." A news conference held by his opponents in downtown Johnstown Thursday was dwarfed by a pro-Murtha rally at which Cleland was featured, although Murtha wasn't there; he was busy campaigning for a Democrat congressional candidate in Eastern Pennsylvania.)
There were complaints that Murtha, who was also wounded in Vietnam, was being "Swift-boated," a reference to the Navy veterans who hounded Kerry two years ago. The Swift boat controversy was about things that happened better than 30 years before and was a response to Kerry's foolishly making Vietnam the centerpiece of his campaign. The Murtha dispute is at least about what's going on today.
Murtha's Republican challenger, Washington County Commissioner Diana Irey, appeared to be making the most of the situation without joining the protesters. She earlier charged, correctly, that Murtha had unfairly declared that a Marine squad had killed two dozen civilians "in cold blood" in Haditha, even though the accusation was still being investigated.
Also, last week, a Marine Corps sergeant under investigation in connection with Haditha, filed a defamation suit accusing Murtha of spreading "false and malicious lies." There was a curious footnote to Murtha's response to the suit.
A news release from Murtha's office received in our newsroom Wednesday called the plaintiff "a Marine Corps staff sergeant charged in the incident at Haditha." The fact is that, while the initial Pentagon investigation reportedly supports the general accusation, nobody has been charged in the case.
When we double-checked Murtha's Web site on Thursday, the first sentence of the news release had been re-written to remove the word "charged." The original claim had been dropped down the memory hole without explanation.
While all this makes good political theater, its effect in November is questionable. Murtha's party has a huge voter registration majority in the district, he is a master at dispensing pork, and few people in his home area of Johnstown speak ill of him, including the Republican leadership. Even if the insurgency in Iraq were to suddenly collapse, it probably wouldn't hurt him at all.
While all this makes good political theater, its effect in November is questionable.
ROTFLMAO!! Okay, so then why all the media interest? And all the Murtha attacks?
FReepmail me if you'd like on or off the Irey/Murtha ping list.
Her total is just a few dollars shy of $7,000, and the site hasn't even been around a week yet.
Stopped reading right there. Continuing the propoganda that Cleland is some sort of a hero.
Is rightroots.com solely for Republicans challenging RATs? Or does/will it include conservative incumbents? Just wondering.
Rightroots elected not to support incumbents, since they generally have a much easier time (understandably) raising money.
The this the same Max Cleland who blew himself up playing with a grenade?
Of course they're furthering the propoganda that Cleland is some sort of hero. That's supposed to give Jack Murtha some sort of credibility. They must think the voter's in this district are majorly stupid.
Read on. But slip your tootsies into your boots. It gets pretty deep.
Diana Irey bump!
Old traitors never die, they just Murtha way....
Furthermore, we want to wish Lamont luck in his bid to take Leiberman's seat...
ROTFL...Were they misrepresenting the facts, just inept or avoiding another lawsuit? We'll never know because Murtha's minders won't write a script for him to explain.
>>His position actually is that the U.S. and its coalition troops have done all they can do and that the war can not be won militarily<<
I don't believe that's quite what Murtha said... I remember it being significantly worse than that.
Lets be kind. Call it a "work accident".
jeez , you'd think by now, I'd learn to "preview" my posts
Hi, a new guy here.. but I seem to recall that there is more to Murtha than meets the eye:
From The Washington Times:
Last June, the Los Angeles Times reported how the ranking member on the defense appropriations subcommittee has a brother, Robert Murtha, whose lobbying firm represents 10 companies that received more than $20 million from last year's defense spending bill. "Clients of the lobbying firm KSA Consulting -- whose top officials also include former congressional aide Carmen V. Scialabba, who worked for Rep. Murtha as a congressional aide for 27 years -- received a total of $20.8 million from the bill," the L.A. Times reported.
In early 2004, according to Roll Call, Mr. Murtha "reportedly leaned on U.S. Navy officials to sign a contract to transfer the Hunters Point Shipyard to the city of San Francisco." Laurence Pelosi, nephew of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, at the time was an executive of the company which owned the rights to the land. The same article also reported how Mr. Murtha has been behind millions of dollars worth of earmarks in defense appropriations bills that went to companies owned by the children of fellow Pennsylvania Democrat, Rep. Paul Kanjorski. Meanwhile, the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan campaign-finance watchdog group, lists Mr. Murtha as the top recipient of defense industry dollars in the current 2006 election cycle.
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20060620-083859-8753r.htm
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