You know, I almost feel sorry for Ohio Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt. Key word: ALMOST. Remember, this was the woman who called John Murtha (decorated Marine, war hero and military "hawk") a "coward" for saying we should withdraw U.S. troops promptly from Iraq. Turns out, Murtha's doing just fine, thank you. But Schmidt, the right-winger who barely defeated Paul Hackett a few months ago in an overwhelmingly Republican Cincinnatti-area district? According to the Washington Post:
...the Ohio Republican's comments landed with a splat in her own Cincinnati district, where some supporters are backing away as she scrambles to explain what she meant.[...]
Many people are unsympathetic. NBC's "Saturday Night Live" lampooned her, the Cincinnati Enquirer's editorial page -- which endorsed her congressional bid -- said she was "way out of line," and the friend she claimed to be quoting on the House floor last week declared yesterday that he had said no such thing.
Meanwhile, it turns out that the man she claimed to have quoted as first using the "c" word on Murtha , Col. Danny Bubp (a GOP Ohio state legislator who had campaigned for Schmidt), is disowning the remarks. Here's Bubp:
The comments and concerns I shared with Congresswoman Schmidt were never meant as a personal reference to Mr. Murtha. . . . We never discussed anyone by name and there was no intent to ever disparage the congressman or his distinguished record of service for our nation.
As I said, I ALMOST feel sorry for Jean Schmidt (who claims, by the way, to be a victim in this whole incident) for the backlash she's now receiving for calling John Murtha a "coward." About as sorry as I feel for Dick Cheney and his miserable 30 percent approval rating. Or George W. Bush and his almost-as-miserable 34 percent approval rating. You mean, calling everyone a "coward" or claiming they give "aid and comfort to the enemy," while running up huge budget deficits, failing miserably to respond to a vicious Hurricane, and completely botching the "war on terror" doesn't make you super-popular? Who woulda thunk it?
Well, as Tom Friedman writes today in the New York Times (bolding added for emphasis):
We are about to produce the most legitimate government ever in the Arab world, and the Bush-Cheney team - instead of acknowledging its errors on W.M.D., seeking forgiveness and urging the country to unite behind the important effort to defeat the jihadist madness in Iraq - does what? It starts slinging mud at Democrats on Iraq. Sure, some Democrats goaded them with reckless remarks - but they are not in power. Where are the adults? We can't afford this nonsense, while also ignoring our energy crisis, the deficit, health care, climate change and Social Security.[...]
Truly, I hope Mr. Bush rises to the challenge. We do not have three years to waste. To do that, though, Mr. Bush would need to become a very different third-term president, with a much more centrist agenda and style. If he does, he still has time to be a bridge to the future. If he doesn't, the resources he will have squandered and the size of the problems he will have ignored will put him in the running for one of our worst presidents ever.
For the sake of our country, I also hope that George Bush rises to the challenge in his "third term." However, for my own sake, I'm definitely not holding my breath - about Bush, Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, or the Jean Schmidts of the world. By now, I'd have asphyxiated myself, no doubt. Then we'd all be "victims," I suppose. Heh.