WH Leaves "Mean Jean" Flailing in the Wind
by Jonathan Singer, Sun Nov 20, 2005 at 11:22:42 AM EST
So when Representative Jean Schmidt, an Ohio Republican, created a furor on her 75th day in Congress by lobbing the word "coward" toward a Democratic war hero, those who know her best were anything but surprised.
Just this week, a profile in The Hill newspaper, which covers Congress, labeled her "gloriously uncensored." Back home in her suburban Cincinnati district, the Whistleblower, an online newsletter that tracks local politics, rushed out a special I-told-you-so issue calling the speech "vintage Jean Schmidt."
"We have said innumerable times that she would go to Washington and open her mouth and create an embarrassment," said Jim Schifrin, the newsletter's publisher. "She will say things that turn people off like nothing you've ever seen."
[...]
In scheduling the vote, Republicans were trying to embarrass Democratic critics of the war, forcing them to dissociate themselves from a call earlier in the week for a slower but still definite withdrawal. That call came from Representative John P. Murtha, Democrat of Pennsylvania, a Vietnam combat veteran who spent 37 years in the Marines and is one of the most respected military authorities in the House.
In attacking the Democrats' position, Ms. Schmidt, the newest member of Congress, said she had received a call from a Marine colonel, who "asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message: that cowards cut and run, Marines never do."
Not 48 hours after Schmidt was forced to withdraw these ignominious comments from the Congressional Record, President Bush took a few steps back from the attacks made by his own party. Terence Hunt has the story for the AP.After fiercely defending his Iraq policy across Asia, President Bush abruptly toned down his attack on war critics Sunday and said there was nothing unpatriotic about opposing his strategy."People should feel comfortable about expressing their opinions about Iraq," Bush said, three days after agreeing with Vice President Dick Cheney that the critics were "reprehensible."
The president also praised Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., as "a fine man" and a strong supporter of the military despite the congressman's call for troop withdrawal as soon as possible.
[...]
"I heard somebody say, `Well, maybe so-and-so is not patriotic because they disagree with my position.' I totally reject that thought," Bush said.
"This is not an issue of who's patriotic and who's not patriotic," he said. "It's an issue of an honest, open debate about the way forward in Iraq."
It took Jean Schmidt only three months in office to get publicly upbraided by the President, quite a feat even for a woman of her reputation. The Democrats ought not give her a pass next fall, especially in light of Friday's developments. It might take a candidate as strong as Paul Hackett to knock her off (or perhaps even Hackett himself [this is not intended to insinuate that Hackett should withdraw from the race for the Democratic Senatorial nomination to run again for the House]), but that should not stop the Ohio Democratic Party or the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee from investing the time and resources to pick off this low-lying fruit.Tags: Republicans (all tags)
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