Remember the Marine that called Murtha a coward?

[Larry]

Bush seems to be standing up for his as well

Funny. The rapid, unanimous about face (could it be called a "flip flop"?) from the usual, instantantanious smear campaign to the honored respect for my opponent, when it looked like this one time the dirty tricks might result in a voter backlash, sort-of made me think that prehaps some central coordinating authority had changed it's mind and was attempting to deny the very attacks that those same people were shouting into every live microphone they could find, only minutes before.

[twa]

Larry, Did I miss Bush attacking Murtha?

[chomerics]

Larry, Did I miss Bush attacking Murtha?

His Administration did from Asia. . .

Congressman Murtha is a respected veteran and politician who has a record of supporting a strong America. So it is baffling that he is endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic party. The eve of an historic democratic election in Iraq is not the time to surrender to the terrorists. After seeing his statement, we remain baffled -- nowhere does he explain how retreating from Iraq makes America safer.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/11/20051118.html

[@DCGoldPants]

they attacked him for a day or two, then pulled off when a backfire was apparent.

[twa]

Questioning his judgement is a attack?

Ya'll must be easy to get along with

[@DCGoldPants]

puh-leaze.

Saying you don't agree is one thing. But calling him Michael Moore is another.

It didn't work, and what said had a negative reaction, or they wouldn't have flip-flopped on how they are addressing him now.

[BlueTalon]

His Administration did from Asia. . .

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/11/20051118.html

Congressman Murtha is a respected veteran and politician who has a record of supporting a strong America. So it is baffling that he is endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic party. The eve of an historic democratic election in Iraq is not the time to surrender to the terrorists. After seeing his statement, we remain baffled -- nowhere does he explain how retreating from Iraq makes America safer.

That's an attack? Man, compared to Democrat rants against the administration, this doesn't even show up on radar.

[Joe Sick]

During Rep. Jean Schmidt’s (R-OH) shameful attack on Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA) on the House Floor she said she was communicating a message from Marine Colonel Danny Bubp:

A few minutes ago I received a call from Colonel Danny Bubp, Ohio Representative from the 88th district in the House of Representatives. 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. Danny and the rest of America and the world want the assurance from this body – that we will see this through.

Bubp denies he said that:

Danny Bubp, a freshman state representative who is a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve, told The Enquirer that he never mentioned Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., by name when talking with Schmidt…”There was no discussion of him personally being a coward or about any person being a coward,” Bubp said.

[visionary]

Well, then I guess this IS news, and YOU are wrong. . . yet again :doh:

source

BTW, it's not the "National Enquirer", but a local Ohio paper.

Chom you're trying to get something from this that just isn't there...anyone that is trying to make this look like a lie by whatever her name is, is.

This guy's denial is the lousiest one I've heard in some time, if he is trying to say that the lady was lying about his discussion. He never denies saying any of what she said, only what has been interpreted from that statement. I don't much care for this woman or her (former?) Marine, buddy in this case, but no where in that statement of his does he deny saying what she said he said.

Unless he said more than you all are qouting from him, then this is just silly.

He says that he never refered to anyone by name and that he was not talking about any particular person. Well, the congresswoman can make the same exact claim and still look as truthful as him in this case. What IS interesting about this, is that he would make such an odd quasi-denial at all.

[visionary]

Grasping at straws.

No he's not, unless you are misreading the statement the Congressman made. There is no way on Earth that it can be accurately interpreted as him specifically saying that he did not say those words that the lady said he did. Unless there is more to it than this....

Frankly I don't understand how anyone could come to the conclusion that he is denying that he said what he was purported to say, considering the statement that he has made. The only possibly explanation in my mind would be if he added to that somewhere, or said that Schmidt made it up or misinterpreted it. Is there an actual qoute with him saying that or adding to the other statement, by saying something a lot more enlightening?

If not, I think a few people here might want to find something else to complain about.

[visionary]

Questioning his judgement is a attack?

Ya'll must be easy to get along with

Well they said "surrender to the terrorists" which sounds kind of like a bit of a misrepresentation of his call for sending the troops home. Murtha's statement could honestly be interpreted that way by some, but it is sort of a nasty way of putting it out there as a strawman, just to smack it around...and Murtha at the same time, added compliments or no.

(then again it is their job to keep us in the fight in spirit, though they might have done so without using such a grimey interpretation of Murtha's statment as their scapegoat. I suppose if they had explained why in the administration's view his call for withdrawel was akin to surrendering in a tad mroe detail, it might have been less of an attack and more of a debate or at least a proper rebuttal.... Though I also suppose the time may have been limited for that, in which case a gentler and more exact statement might have been more appropriate.

[BlueTalon]

No he's not, unless you are misreading the statement the Congressman made. There is no way on Earth that it can be accurately interpreted as him specifically saying that he did not say those words that the lady said he did. Unless there is more to it than this....

Frankly I don't understand how anyone could come to the conclusion that he is denying that he said what he was purported to say, considering the statement that he has made. The only possibly explanation in my mind would be if he added to that somewhere, or said that Schmidt made it up or misinterpreted it. Is there an actual qoute with him saying that or adding to the other statement, by saying something a lot more enlightening?

If not, I think a few people here might want to find something else to complain about.

Finally! Somebody gets it!

For what it's worth, I'll be more than willing to abandon my position if anyone can show a quote (from another article or interview that hasn't been addressed here) that Bubp explicitly denied saying "cowards cut and run, Marines never do." Up until now, all there have been are interpretations and extrapolations and other semantic games.

[JimboDaMan]

Oh, I don't think he's denying having said those words. It sounds like he's denying the part where she claims he asked her to tell Murtha this. She took his statement, tweaked it to make it directed at Murtha, then left the poor sap with all the "credit".

[@DCGoldPants]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10169562/

Freshman Republican weathers backlash

Schmidt says she meant no insult to Murtha

By Charles Babington

The Washington Post

Updated: 6:42 a.m. ET Nov. 23, 2005

Rep. Jean Schmidt flung the word "coward" at a decorated war veteran from Pennsylvania last week, but 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.

Judging by her words yesterday -- the first after avoiding the public for three days -- Schmidt doesn't understand what the fuss is about, and sees herself more as victim than villain. "I am amazed at what a national story this has become," she said in a statement. "I have been attacked very personally, continuously since Friday evening."

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.

Schmidt, Congress's newest member, vaulted from obscurity with inflammatory comments during a House debate over whether to promptly withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq, as has been proposed by Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.). Murtha is a 31-year House veteran and longtime military hawk who fought in Vietnam and Korea as a Marine.

Schmidt said in her brief speech: "A few minutes ago, I received a call from Colonel Danny Bubp. 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."

The chamber exploded in boos and catcalls from Democrats, and within minutes Schmidt had withdrawn her words and sent a note of apology to Murtha. But waters were still roiling when she went home Saturday to start a two-week congressional recess.

Schmidt stayed largely out of sight until yesterday, when she issued her statement and spoke with reporters. "There's no way that I remotely tried to impugn his character," she said in a telephone interview. She said she was simply trying to register her strong belief that U.S. troops must stay in Iraq until their mission is completed.

‘Hateful words’

Noting that criticism has poured in via phone calls, e-mails and TV reports, she said in her statement: "I am quite willing to suffer those attacks if in the end that policy I so strongly oppose is exposed as unsound. First and foremost, I support the troops. They dodge bullets and bombs while I duck only hateful words."

Bubp, a GOP state legislator and Marine Corps Reserve officer, had campaigned for Schmidt. He put out his own statement yesterday: "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." Bubp, through a spokeswoman, declined an interview request.

Schmidt recalls their Friday phone conversation somewhat differently. "I wrote down what he was saying," she said in the interview. "He did ask me to send a message to Congress, and he also said send a message to 'that congressman.' He did not know that congressman's name, but I did. Neither one of us knew he was a Marine."

Schmidt said she had not noticed the numerous references to Murtha's military background in the newspaper, radio and TV accounts of his troop-withdrawal proposal, made Thursday. "They keep us pretty busy," she said.

‘Mean Jean’

Paul Hackett, a veteran of the Iraq war who lost the August special election to Schmidt, said her comments on the House floor "were at best irresponsible and at worst grossly unpatriotic." Hackett, who has sharply criticized President Bush's Iraq war policy, is running for the U.S. Senate in Ohio, but some Democrats are trying to talk him into a rematch against Schmidt.

Opponents had dubbed her "Mean Jean" for the sharp tongue she wielded in the August campaign to replace Rob Portman ®, the new U.S. trade representative. Bubp campaigned for her in his Marine dress uniform, rebuking Hackett for criticizing "their commander in chief."

Yesterday, Schmidt said she hoped the hubbub will have faded by the time Congress reconvenes next month. Asked if she would change anything if she could do it over again, she replied: "I wouldn't have used Congressman Murtha's name."

If she's a 1-Termer because of this.....I wouldn't be shocked at all. Whoever runs against her in 06 is going to have clips of her screaming. Then her saying she's didn't know he was a Marine after it was talked about for 1 or 2 days. Then maybe a question like "What does she know?"

[Chief skin]

That broad is an embarassment, I am glad she is not my Representative in Congress