Schmidtwatch

Back in August I made this inaccurate prediction about Ohio Rep. Jean Schmidt: Speaking of the Marines and Ohio, Iraq vet Paul Hackett lost the race to succeed Ohio congressman Rob Portman. One more already-anonymous GOP talking head will join the House, and her only claim to fame will probably be that she delayed Congress from having an Iraq vet as a member until January, 2007.

Looks like I was wrong -- Her first claim to fame is that she tried to pwn D-PA Rep. John Murtha. Sun-Times excerpt: At one point in the emotional debate, Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) told of a phone call from a Marine colonel. ''He asked me to send Congress a message -- stay the course. He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message -- that cowards cut and run, Marines never do,'' Schmidt said. Murtha is a 37-year Marine veteran. Democrats booed and shouted her down.

Real good post on the whole thing, plus Friday's lefty-baiting GOP House proposal over at The Moderate Voice. Excerpt: The problem the White House and GOPers now face is that there is an erosion in support of people who back the war and believe the establishment. So what NEW ARGUMENTS did the GOPers offer in this debate? Stay the course? And what could the Democrats offer? An expanded national news forum for Murtha, and a stage on which he could be labeled a coward by a Congresswoman who later had to back off from those comments. The irony: most Democratic lawmakers do NOT go as far as Murtha in calling for an immediate pullout. They are defending him in the face of GOP/White House rhetorical overkill. Murtha is what Hollywood calls "high concept:" he has a colorful, easy-to-grasp-quickly life narrative and, to all but conservative partisans who now suddenly hate him due to him coming out against the war, he oozes sincerity when he speaks.