Mean Jean Just Can't Win

Well, it didn't take long for newly (and barely) elected Jean Schmidt to go from this:

"I pledge to walk in the shoes of my colleagues and refrain from name-calling or the questioning of character," Schmidt said then. "It is easy to quickly sink to the lowest form of political debate. Harsh words often lead to headlines, but walking this path is not a victimless crime. This great House pays the price."

To this:

Yesterday I stood at Arlington National Cemetery attending the funeral of a young marine in my district. He believed in what we were doing is the right thing and had the courage to lay his life on the line to do it.

A few minutes ago I received a call from Colonel Danny Bop, 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.

She was forced to remove her statements from the Senate record, lest she be subject to censure. The video is a must-see. She's a freshman member of Congress, but already immortalized, and not in the good way. In fact, it's so bad that some among her own party are saying this will likely be her only term.

In the interest of fairness, though, I will say that she does appear to know cowardice. She has cancelled several public appearances and, until today, refused to to talk to the press. Which is not the same thing as not getting press coverage, much to her chagrin, I'm sure. She's been rightly castigated across the board and even pilloried on Saturday Night Live.

When she finally did give an interview, she didn't do herself any favors. Despite the almost continuous coverage of Murtha's original statement on Iraq, she apparently had no idea he was even a Marine! And the sordid fun doesn't stop there; the man she claimed to be quoting, Col. Danny Bubp, says that he never explicitly mentioned Murtha during their conversation. So not only is she insipid and daft, but she's apparently a terrible liar to boot.

Schmidt said Tuesday that when she delivered the “cowards cut and run’’ message from Ohio Rep. Danny Bubp, an Adams County Republican who is a Marine Corps Reserve colonel, she did not know that Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, was a retired Marine colonel who earned two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star in Vietnam.

...Schmidt said Tuesday she had not seen any of the news coverage.

“I don’t listen to the news in D.C. because it’s not my news environment,’’ said Schmidt, who conducted the interview with The Enquirer with her chief of staff, Barry Bennett, sitting nearby. “I watch something light-hearted and then I go to bed.’’

Schmidt said she delivered her one-minute floor speech minutes after speaking on the phone to Bubp, who told The Enquirer Monday he did not mention Murtha by name in his talk with Schmidt and would not call a fellow Marine a coward.

Oh, those wacky GOoPers! Not even Delay's TRMPAC money can save her now. Oh Noe! She's melting!




[UPDATE]Those wacky GOoPers, indeed!

Bubp 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."

...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.'

...Asked if she would change anything if she could do it over again, she replied: "I wouldn't have used Congressman Murtha's name."

[UPDATE]Did she know or didn't she?