Posted on 06/02/2006 5:26:27 AM PDT by Coop
With all the invective it has spewed at the antiwar Jack Murtha, why isn't the GOP helping Diana Irey, his opponent in November?
Pennsylvania congressional candidate Diana Irey meets with reporters at the National Press Club in Washington, May 24, 2006. (Event thread here)
Last winter, Karl Rove promised his fellow Republicans that their party would win the congressional midterm election on the issues of war and national security. Perhaps he will still be proved right. But six months later, the White House political strategist and his party have backed away from confronting the most outspoken and credible Democratic critic of the Iraq war.
Despite all the invective fired at Rep. John Murtha, he is cruising toward reelection in his blue-collar southwestern Pennsylvania district without a serious challenge. (The socially conservative, pro-labor Democrat hasn't even bothered to put up a functioning campaign Web site yet.)
(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...
But the article's point is well taken. Where is the PAC funding? Where are the prominent GOP politicians raising funds and raising her profile? (And for the record, I don't think President Bush should get involved with this one. But Cheney, Ed Gillespie, Tom Ridge, etc. would be wonderful!)
Ms. Irey's grassroots campaign is start to attract national attention. Hundreds of online donations, from 46 states last I heard yesterday, bookings on Laura Ingraham and Alan Colmes' radio shows, an upcoming appearance on FR... If she continues raising her profile and funds, the GOP will eventually have to acknowledge her success. And we can speed this up by leaning heavily on all our GOP representatives.
And to answer the likely question from folks who haven't been following this race closely -- John Kerry won PA's 12th district with a paltry 51% of the vote in 2004. Murtha's electoral success has come from his conservative leanings, which have all but disappeared over the past year or two.
Coop, don't take this the wrong way..but Irey is now auditioning for her role as a viable GOP candidate..a vetting process of sorts..she's got to show she can handle the press, the pressure, the exposure..that she can speak cogently and coherently...IOW that she can walk and chew gum at the same time...also, Murtha's campaign is probably doing oppo research on her. If she comes up clean, that is, they find nothing, then I expect that national support and $$ will come flowing in..
Take it the wrong way? I agree with you. Perhaps I didn't express it well up above. But I'm saying we can all speed up this auditioning process through our grass-roots support.
John Murtha's success has come from the Pork he takes to a hard core Union area. The people of Johnstown have to decide between Pork and National Security. Why the Republicans are not supporting his opponent is interesting.
I respectfully disagree on that one.
But they don't have to go after Murtha. They just have to support his Republican opponent, and let her do the hard work.
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The way to take Murtha is to act like you are not going to challenge him at all. In fact if his district is conservative he may already be in trouble. If he is winning or if he is vulnerable, a smart strategest would wait until the final days of the campaign and then hit hard with a very good spot campaign to turn out the anti Murtha vote. A man like Murtha will not be defeated by people voting for his opponent, he will be defeated by people voting against him.
The only thing needed would be a campaign late in the race that showed people Murtha is on the verge of being defeated. If money is spent right now to take Murtha down, it would only bring huge dollars into play to win it for him. They would protect Murtha by attacking his opponent. They would find issues to make Murtha's opponent seem as bad as Murtha.
There is no need to paint Murtha as a bad apple or to get into a fight defending the challenger. All that is required is to get out the anti Murtha vote. All that requires is a showing that if the anti Murtha turn out is big he will be defeated.
BTTT
I agree on the timing and motivation. Anger is a powerful motivator, and Murtha has a bunch of angry veterans organizing against him.
The campaigns don't really start uintil 9/15. I saw Irey and she's good. A RINO, maybe. Murtha must be in hog heaven. 30 years oor more of anonymous service to the country and now he's a regular on Meeet the Press.
What's your definition of RINO?
Thank you for that website. Passing that info on to some interested parties.
Proofreading is our friend.
Good work! :-)
I'd like to add to your analysis that Murtha is doing a good job of alienating his district all by his lonesome. When your enemy is making a mistake, don't interrupt him.
Murtha has to escalate his rhetoric to keep the attention on him. The risk is that the facts, when they come out, will not support his most outlandish claims against the Marines & the Marine Corps. All those quotes are going to come home to roost this Fall.
I think the grassroots at this point is MUCH more important than the GOP bigs. She looks a bit like Jodie Foster in that pic BTW.
perhaps an "October surprise" in the form of Vets gathering in the district could be arranged.
Murtha MUST be turned out to pasture, otherwise the kerry-fonda legacy will continue. Murtha's incessant public denigration of the troops and their mission can only be countered with making him the example of what can happen when such treachery is comitted for partisan and idealogical purposes. Murtha's attacks are very carefully designed to directly target military espirit-de-corps and at the same time pretend to "support" the troops, which for him is little more than his own tales of visiting wounded troops in WRAMC.
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