Republicans Trying to Smear an American Hero

You had to know that when the news started getting bad for Bush the Rove machine would do their best to create news in an attempt to make Democrats look bad. In typical fashion the right has decided to smear a true war hero, Jack Murtha. The two people they march out to smear him are men who lost to Murtha in different elections. I'm sure neither harbors any bitterness. No, really!

Don A. Bailey is a lawyer who promotes himself as an "equal opportunity suer." He served in the US House from 1978 to 1982. He lost to Jack Murtha when their districts were basically combined after redistricting. According to Wikipedia:

In a strongly fought primary, Bailey lost. Interestingly, when the Republican nominee for the seat withdrew the same year, Bailey was seriously considered as a replacement; he came in a very strong second at the Republican nominating convention held that year. This underscores that he was viewed as a conservative Democrat.

Twenty-two years later, Bailey is still so bitter about the end of his political career that he provides an interview with Cybercast News Service quoting conversations that only he can substantiate. After losing to Murtha in 1982 Bailey was elected Auditor General of Pennsylvania in 1984. After that he lost races in 1986, 1988, 1992 and 1998. Do you think the people of Pennsylvania figured something out?

The next guy this "news" service trots out is actually so sick he can't trot. Hell, the man is so sick he can't even talk. That doesn't keep CNS from giving ample quotes from their "source". Harry M. Fox, who once worked for John Saylor (R-PA) is quoted heavily before the "reporter" actually admits that he wasn't able to interview Fox. He digs up old articles and other quotes without being able to substantiate them, because Fox is 81 and too ill to be interviewed. I tried to track down the quotes, but the Uniontown Herald-Standard doesn't have archives online before 1999. How convenient for the CNS "reporter".

I can find absolutely nothing on Harry M. Fox except what the CNS employee has conjured, but his boss, John Saylor, is described as a die-hard Republican. Oh, yes and Saylor died the year before Murtha was elected to Congress. You see when Saylor died Fox tried to replace him. He lost the special election to Jack Murtha. Are you beginning to see a pattern here? Only an absolute moron would say no to that question.

Finally, as if trotting out one man with unsubstantiated conversations and unsubstantiated quotes from a sick man who can no longer speak for himself isn't enough, CNS tries to paint Murtha as being involved in ABSCAM. The fact is he was the ONLY person who walked out of this scandal clean because he didn't do anything wrong. It's reported and discussed here, and here, and here, and here and any number of other places if you care to look.

Dennis Roddy, a real reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said it best:

Soon the Swift Boaters will be afloat, suggesting that Mr. Murtha's Vietnam service was a charade (he won a Bronze Star), and that his Purple Hearts were undeserved. The Purple Heart gambit has been played before, first in 1982, then just last year. The answer to this nonsense will be the one that gave Mr. Murtha such cache as both a candidate and a member of Congress: big wound or small, he got it in Vietnam. He was there. They were not.

The second brick destined to crash through the Murtha family parlor window is Abscam. Mr. Murtha was one of eight members of Congress lured to a Washington townhouse by a team of FBI agents posing as representatives of a fictitious Arab sheik. They handed out briefcases filled with $50,000 in return for helping the sheik gain residency in the United States.

Mr. Murtha is on videotape telling the agents, "Not interested," but inviting the sheik to invest a few million in his struggling hometown, where unemployment reached 25 percent.

The Republicans can call up all the dead, sick, bitter people they want. They can dig up 30-year-old scandals that only show Murtha had the character to walk away from a bribe, not take it. They can do all these things in any combination they want and it won't change one simple fact. Jack Murtha is a true American hero.

UPDATE: The Washington Post picked up the story today 1/14/06. Funny, they don't bother to mention that CNS didn't actually interview Fox. Oh, and Don Bailey says he's not bitter. He just says that Murtha called his injury a scratch on the cheek. Bailey, use your fucking head. Murtha's the type of man who would look at more severe injuries and make that comparison. That doesn't mean he didn't earn the Purple Hearts or that he doesn't deserve them. Not bitter, my ass.