Murtha or Schmidt
Who Would You Believe?
Murtha or Schmidt
Congressman Murtha Stands Strong
while
Congresswomen Schmidt Inserts Both Feet In Her Mouth
By: Tom Scott
A colonel in the Marine reserves has taken issue with how his views were represented in a Ohio Republican Congresswoman’s personal attack on War hero and House Representative John Murtha.
Speaking on the House floor recently, Representative Jean Schmidt, Republican of Ohio, asserted that a colonel had "asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message: that cowards cut and run, marines never do." But a spokeswoman for the colonel, Danny R. Bubp, said Ms. Schmidt had misconstrued their conversation.Schmidt narrowly won a special election on August 2, 2005 to replace 12-year incumbent, who was appointed United States Trade Representative.
She was up against Paul Hackett, an Democratic nominee for Congress who attracted national attention to what had always been considered a safe Republican district.The New York Times ran a front-page story on Hackett and articles appeared in USA Today and The Washington Post. USA Today wrote "if Democrats could design a dream candidate to capitalize on national distress about the war in Iraq, he would look a lot like the tall, telegenic Marine Reserve major who finished a seven-month tour of Iraq in March."
Schmidt was criticized by Hackett as a "rubber stamp" for Governor Bob Taft's "failed policies" and rightly claimed she would continue in that role for George W. Bush if elected which was evident to all on by her recent remark.Hackett has correctly observed that "If you think America needs another career politician steeped in a culture of corruption that does as she's told and toes the line on failed policies, then I'm not your candidate."
Boy, did Hackett have that right! It looks like with Schmdit, we have another Tom DeLay in the making.A month before the election, the inspector general of the Ohio General Assembly announced he was investigating three legislators for accepting gifts and failing to report them. Schmidt was implicated in this, but could not be investigated because she was no longer a member of the Ohio house.
Schmidt was so proud to be associated with President Bush, she was sending campaign mail with a photograph of them together in the Oval Office.
Schmidt supported the tax cuts championed by President George W. Bush, professed to be a fiscal conservative but offered no plans for closing the federal deficit other than trimming ' unnecessary pork' and “bureaucratic inefficiency”, endorsed drilling in the Alaska Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and even said that Roe v. Wade was "a flawed law made by activist judges" and would "love to see" it reversed.Schmidt made the Iraq War an issue in the race. She declared that "9/11 was a wake up call stating “We lost our innocence" and praised the Bush foreign policy for tying the 9/11 attack to Iraq and Saddam Hussein "We have toppled a terrorist regime, a terrorist madman who now sits in a prison cell. She's really on top of things isn't she?
Hackett did not mince words about his feelings on Iraq or President Bush. He told The New York Times that Bush was "a chicken hawk" for pursuing the war after having avoided active duty military service in the Vietnam War.
While Mr. Bubp, a Republican member of the Ohio House of Representatives, opposes a quick withdrawal for forces, "he did not mention Congressman Murtha by name nor did he mean to disparage Congressman Murtha," said Karen Tabor, his spokeswoman. "He feels as though the words that Congresswoman Schmidt chose did not represent their conversation."Asked to respond on the congresswoman's statement, her office quickly did a about face and said only, "Mrs. Schmidt's statement was never meant to disparage Congressman Murtha.", which anyone who was watching knows, is a flat out lie.
Schmidt, whose father made his money in the savings and loan industry, then ran an auto racing team which competed in the Indianapolis 500 claims to love the sport has been quoted as saying: "I'd rather smell ethanol than Chanel No. 5".From the sounds of it, she has been sniffing way too much ethanol to challenge a great American like John Murtha with personal attacks and lies.
But this isn't the first time Schmidt has embarrassed herself and America by opening her mouth before she thought. In 1995, she traveled to Russia to offer instruction about political campaigning in a country which had little experience of free elections. On her trip she ran in Moscow's Red Square. "Did I ever feel unsafe?" she said. "No. And would I jog through Central Park in New York? No way."
If it comes down to believing a great hero like John Murtha or a corruptible rubber stamp for the Bush Administration like Schmidt….I know who I’ll believe. It won't be an ethanol sniffing crooked congresswoman from Ohio with two feet in her mouth!Tom Scott is Senior Investigative Reporter for Choice America Network
CHOICE AMERICA NETWORK
