Re: swift-boating Murtha

[Leigh Meyers <leighcmeyers@xxxxxxxxx>]

Jim Devine wrote:
> Unfortunately, my password no longer works...
.
That's what happens when you exorcise those nasty cookies from of your 
computer.



From the Los Angeles Times

"Swift Boat" Veterans Set Sights on Rep. Murtha

The Iraq war looms over another race, as the group that helped defeat 
John Kerry targets the antiwar lawmaker.

By Noam N. Levey
Times Staff Writer
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-murtha13aug13,1,5478722.story

August 13, 2006

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. â Two years after a cadre of veterans helped sink the 
presidential campaign of Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), they have found a 
new target in the old steel country of southwestern Pennsylvania: 
Democratic Rep. John P. Murtha.

In a fight that organizers say will feature rallies, TV ads and an 
aggressive Internet campaign, these activists are promising to make 
Murtha pay for his criticism of the Iraq war.

"I will do my best to 'Swift boat' John Murtha," retired Navy Capt. 
Larry Bailey said at a recent news conference here, invoking the 2004 
campaign against Kerry that took its name from Vietnam War-era Navy vessels.

Few believe that Murtha, a Vietnam veteran who has represented his 
district since 1974, is in much danger of being driven from office.

But in the wake of Sen. Joe Lieberman's defeat in Connecticut's 
Democratic primary last week, Murtha's showdown with an increasingly 
vocal group of opponents provides more evidence of the prominent role 
the Iraq war is playing in this year's midterm campaign.

Unlike Lieberman, whose support for the war cost him Democratic voters, 
Murtha confronts a challenge sparked by his repeated calls for the 
withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Long among the most hawkish Democrats in Congress, the once media-shy 
Murtha has become a standard bearer for the party's antiwar wing since 
airing his criticism of the Bush administration's commitment in Iraq. 
And on street corners and town squares of this Rust Belt district, a 
small but committed corps of volunteers has joined Bailey, a North 
Carolina resident, in trying to make sure Murtha's constituents remember 
it â and vote against him in November.

Murtha has brushed aside the attacks.

"It's ludicrous," he said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times 
last week. "What they are trying to do is distract from the [Iraq] 
issueâ. There is no one who supports the military more than me."

Murtha's allies, led by a veterans group based in Richmond, Va., held a 
counter-rally in Johnstown that largely overshadowed Bailey's news 
conference. The pro-Murtha event featured former Sen. Max Cleland 
(D-Ga.), who lost three limbs while serving in Vietnam.

The battle over Murtha's opposition to the Iraq war is unfolding in a 
place where support for the military has been an article of faith at 
least since the Civil War. The communities that form Murtha's district 
were among the first to send volunteers for the Union war effort â a 
distinction proudly noted on a memorial in Johnstown's town square.

Today, 15.3% of the district's residents are veterans, slightly above 
the national average of 12.6%, according to the Almanac of American 
Politics.

And when a Pennsylvania National Guard battalion stationed outside 
Johnstown returned in June from a yearlong deployment in Iraq's Anbar 
province, some 1,000 well-wishers turned out to show their support, 
according to a unit spokesman.

For years, Murtha has been the embodiment of that spirit, many locals say.

A decorated Marine wounded in action, Murtha became the first Vietnam 
veteran elected to Congress. He backed the first Persian Gulf War and 
has been a longtime champion of robust defense spending.

Perhaps most critically for Johnstown, the congressman helped bring home 
defense-related jobs. Firms such as Lockheed Martin, DRS Technologies 
and Concurrent Technologies have opened facilities in the new industrial 
park on the hills above the city.

"What you find here is a tradition that goes way back with the 
military," said Robert Layo, president of the Greater Johnstown/Cambria 
County Chamber of Commerce. "His position has always been in line with 
that."

But Murtha, 74, established a new persona on Nov. 17, when he called a 
news conference to declare that, in his view, U.S. troops had become 
"the primary target of the insurgency" in Iraq and that it was "time to 
bring them home."

Murtha almost immediately became an antiwar icon â a role he has 
embraced in the months since.

Now a regular on news talk shows, Murtha made headlines again in May 
when he said that Marines in Iraq had killed more than a dozen civilians 
"in cold blood." His comments caused one Marine under investigation in 
the Haditha killings to file a libel and invasion of privacy lawsuit 
against him last week.

With Congress on its summer break, Murtha is spending much of his time 
crisscrossing the country, headlining the nationwide Democratic push to 
take control of Congress in November's election. And he recently 
contributed an item on the war to the Huffington Post, a leading liberal 
website edited by Brentwood's Arianna Huffington.

Murtha's new identity has made him a prime target in a national 
Republican campaign to portray Democrats as defeatists. Some 
Pennsylvanians in Murtha's 12th Congressional District agree with that 
assessment.



In tiny Charleroi, Pa., Nikki A.C. Sheppick, a 54-year-old housewife who 
served as an Army personnel officer in 1972-73, has made a series of 
dining-table-sized panels with cartoons, text and photos attacking 
Murtha for his comments about the alleged civilian massacre in Iraq.

"You just don't talk about the troops that way," said Sheppick, who 
recalled how hurtful criticism of soldiers was during the Vietnam era.

She is helping organize an effort called "Operation Street Corner," in 
which volunteers are to take the cartoon panels to fairs, shopping 
centers and other public places.

About 75 miles away in Johnstown, Murtha foes are working on plans for a 
rally in October, which they hope will draw thousands.

The organizers stress that theirs is largely a local campaign. But they 
have linked with Bailey, who from his North Carolina home is 
reassembling members of the national team that took on Kerry, including 
a Web expert in Texas and a Georgia developer who is helping bankroll 
the "Boot Murtha" effort.

For fundraising help, Bailey also has joined with an Iowa political 
action committee â Iowa Presidential Watch â that touts its efforts to 
"hold accountable" Democratic presidential candidates.

And he has invited the participation of John O'Neill, the Houston lawyer 
who was a founder of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group that ran 
ads questioning Kerry's military record in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Murtha's Republican challenger, county commissioner Diana 
Irey, is making Murtha's comments on the war a focal point of her 
campaign. "That's the issue that people come up to me and talk about," 
she said in a recent interview.

At Point Stadium in Johnstown, where thousands converge every summer for 
the All American Amateur Baseball Association championships, Jeff 
Katarski said the issue bothers him.

"I think [Murtha's] talking out of both sides of his mouth," said 
Katarski, who served in the Navy for five years in the late 1970s and 
early '80s. "To me, he should know better than to criticize the 
administration and the troops during war, at least openlyâ. It hurts 
morale."

But even Katarski concedes that Murtha's opponents will have a hard sell.



At the VFW post in Uniontown, another aging industrial city that was the 
birthplace of World War II hero Gen. George C. Marshall, retiree Joe 
Hawkins said he doesn't know many people who question Murtha's judgment.

"I think he's doing a hell of a job," Hawkins said.

Murtha may reflect the feelings of a large portion of his constituents, 
said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the polling institute at 
Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, which polls extensively across the 
Northeast.

Opposition to the war "emerged earlier [in the region] than it did in 
other parts of the country," Richards said.

Murtha, who was in San Francisco on Friday visiting House Minority 
Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) after campaigning for Democrats in 
Connecticut and New York, said he is confident the public is with him.

"The average person goes out of their way to tell me they want changeâ. 
What am I supposed to do? Say everything is all right?" Murtha asked 
before flying to Tennessee to attend a dinner for former Democratic 
presidential candidate Al Gore.

"I'm not going to say everything is all right if everything isn't all 
right."

--30--