a quick comparison of two members of congress: one deserves respect, the other deserves a full-service stay at the guantanamo hilton.
rep. jean schmidt, (r-ohio) is the least experienced member of the house. in a prohibitively republican district she squeaked out an election win over democrat paul hackett. during the campaign, ethics questions swirled around schmidt and her campaign:
Controversy arose over whether Schmidt had failed to list gifts received when she was in the Ohio General Assembly on her financial disclosure statements. Another controversy was her ties to Tom Noe, a major player in the Coingate scandal. Schmidt initially denied ever meeting Noe, but Hackett produced minutes of a 2002 Ohio Board of Regents meeting attended by Schmidt. Noe was a member of the board at the time.schmidt, obviously a student of the republican school of ethics, recently ran her mouth on the subject of rep. john murtha (d-penn).
on the floor of the house, schmidt recounted a conversation she allegedly had with a marine colonel:
"He asked me to send Congress a message: stay the course," Ms. Schmidt said. "He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message: that cowards cut and run, Marines never do."schmidt, incidently, never served in the military.
murtha's record in that regard is more substantial:
Marine Corps 1952 - 1955
USMC Reserve 1955 - 1966
Marine Corps 1966 - 1967
USMC Reserve 1967 - 1990
Combat Service: Korean War, Vietnam
Awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal
murtha, for better or worse, has been called a "valued ally" by the likes of dick cheney, "one of the pentagon's best friends", and "one of the most hawkish senior Democrats."
what did he do to incite the outburst from schmidt? he dissented from the bush administration policy in iraq. he called for pulling out american troops within six months, saying they had become a target for continuing violence in Iraq.
for that he is labeled a coward.
end of comparison.
1 comment:
Ah yes - Liberal Murtha - the guy that turned down the $50,000 in the Abscam sting but tried instead to get the Arab Sheiks (actually FBI agents) to invest in his little town.
Ah yes - Liberal Murtha - the guy that was confronted by a real military hero in a town hall meeting in January. I think Murtha will be filtering any future audiences. Behold, the real Murtha:
Murtha had just finished his presentation during the Virginia townhall meeting, in which he added that he feared a slow withdrawal may give people the impression the US achieved victory (God forbid Americans think we're victorious), when he opened the meeting for a question and answer session.
At that point a man stood and spoke:
"Yes sir my name is Mark Seavey and I just want to thank you for coming up here. Until about a month ago I was Sergeant Mark Seavey infantry squad leader, I returned from Afghanistan. My question to you, (applause)
"Like yourself I dropped out of college two years ago to volunteer to go to Afghanistan, and I went and I came back. If I didn't have a herniated disk now I would volunteer to go to Iraq in a second with my troops, three of which have already volunteered to go to Iraq. I keep hearing you say how you talk to the troops and the troops are demoralized, and I really resent that characterization. (applause) The morale of the troops that I talk to is phenomenal, which is why my troops are volunteering to go back, despite the hardships they had to endure in Afghanistan.
"And Congressman Moran, 200 of your constituents just returned from Afghanistan. We never got a letter from you; we never got a visit from you. You didn't come to our homecoming. The only thing we got from any of our elected officials was one letter from the governor of this state thanking us for our service in Iraq, when we were in Afghanistan. That's reprehensible. I don't know who you two are talking to but the morale of the troops is very high."
The only response from Murtha and Moran was Moran saying, "That's a comment not a question."
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