OCTOBER 27, 2008
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It takes terrible luck or astonishing talent for a congressional Democrat to be endangered this year. Still, there are a half-dozen Democrats who really could lose their seats a week from tomorrow.
On the bad-luck end, there's Nick Lampson, the Texan who replaced Tom DeLay in 2006 and who'll probably get bumped out again thanks to the district's deep-rooted conservatism. There's Louisiana's Don Cazayoux, a conservative Democrat who won a special election only to see another Democrat enter the November race as an independent spoiler. There's New Hampshire freshman Carol Shea-Porter, whose generally likable Republican opponent from last cycle is returning for a rematch. And there's Pennsylvania's Paul Kanjorski, an unremarkable Democrat who has the misfortune of being challenged by a rock star of the anti-amnesty movement.
On the talent side, nobody tops Palm Beach freshman Tim Mahoney, who's so unbelievably self-sabotaging he deserves a Darwin Award. Fellow freshman Steve Kagen also helped put his moderate Wisconsin seat up for grabs with his cringe-inducing -- and probably exaggerated -- boasts of bullying Karl Rove in a White House bathroom. ("You’re in the White House and think you’re safe, huh?” he claimed he said, although Rove denied it. “You recognize me?... I kicked your ass.”) But perhaps the Democrat who's most surprisingly dragged his own seat into play is John Murtha.
Could Murtha -- a 34-year House veteran who's weathered endless political storms -- actually lose? Absolutely. After telling the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that his district was "a racist area," he gave a disastrous apology in which he called his constituents "rednecks." A subsequent poll showed him ahead of his unknown GOP challenger by a mere 5 points.
The better question is, if John Murtha loses his race, do we really care? I say no.
Okay, if Murtha is defeated, Republicans -- looking for any source of pride amid the grim ruins of their rule -- will do endless irritating victory marches with his head on a stake. But not everybody with a (D) next to his name deserves a seat in Congress merely to deny the GOP a scrap of pleasure. And Murtha has always been a sore spot in Democrats' efforts to claim they want a cleaner Washington -- a shameless porker in the Don Young tradition and one of only three Democrats to make Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's "Most Corrupt" list every year. (The other two are Bill "Cash In My Freezer" Jefferson and Alan "Too Crooked To Sit On the Ethics Committee" Mollohan. Fine company!) Even if you forgive Murtha for the long-ago sins of ABSCAM, the CREW complaint details many more recent abuses, like leveraging his Defense Appropriations Subcommittee chairmanship to "benefit the lobbying firm of a former long-term staffer and ... threatening to block earmarks of other members for political purposes."
Murtha's courage on Iraq used to counterweigh his ethical shadiness for a lot of Democrats: It's easy to forget how tough it was for a congressman who was also a veteran to be as critical of the war as he was in November 2005. But the party has plenty of strong military voices on Iraq now, people like Representative Patrick Murphy and Senator Jim Webb. Murtha's just not as crucial a dissenting veteran voice he once was.
And, to my mind, Murtha's denigration of his constituents as racists and rednecks wasn't merely an awkward gaffe. The concept of an existential, cultural, and unbridgeable rural-urban divide has been one of this election's lamest themes. That concept can be invoked pejoratively, as Murtha did, but it can also be invoked as an anti-liberal bludgeon (see "real Virginia"), which is even more infuriating. It'll be a pleasure if voters reject that idea and its proponents on Election Day. If poll-goers vote down a Democrat who touted this insulting concept as well as the Republicans who demagogued it, I can't say I'll be that sorry.
16 comments
No.
(we don't care)
- vanwurs
October 27, 2008 at 11:49am
This is the right answer, and needn't be stated so tentatively.
- Androscoggin
October 27, 2008 at 11:51am
Can I add my own congressman, Jim Moran, to the list of Democrats we wouldn't miss if they lost? I've been voting in the Republican congressional primary every even-numbered year for a long time in hopes that an electable, acceptable moderate Republican could be nominated to replace Moran. Never works; the stupid local GOP always nominates a hardcore social conservative nitwit, and so I have to hold my nose and vote for Moran in the general.
(Bonus this year: The GOP congressional primary was on a different day than the Democratic presidential primary, so I was able to vote for the brown-skinned, foreign-named guy in both parties. Sadly, Amit Singh did not win the GOP congressional nomination. Plus, I'm on both parties' lists, so I get all the robocalls. Tom Ridge and Michelle Obama are having an argument on my answering machine right now.)
- rhubarbs
October 27, 2008 at 12:01pm
Murtha's foolishness on Iraq used to add his ethical shadiness for a lot of Democrats
- jacobt1
October 27, 2008 at 12:05pm
Oh, Eve, don't tease us! You know that polling five points ahead of his Republican opponent is eight points better than John Murtha needs in the current climate. But the man is poison to the Democratic Party, and I can't think of anyone, Republican or Democrat, who would weep to see him go. Nancy Pelosi achieved a career low when she pushed Murtha as House Majority leader, and we got worthless Blue Dog Steny Hoyer as a result. For Murtha to lose his job in this landslide Democratic year would be a true moment of heartwarming bipartisan comedy; something we could all laugh about together while we roast rats over burning trash cans in the terrible economic days to come.
- bdgreen
October 27, 2008 at 12:18pm
I think bigger reasons his dissenting voice is less important are because Iraq isn't doing as poorly as it was and the next CiC is very likely a Dem.
- Simon Greenwood
October 27, 2008 at 12:26pm
Lampson was relatively safe when most of his district consisted of more downscale voters in Texas oil country---Baytown, Beaumont, etc. His old district doesn't exist any more in any recognizable fashion. He literally has to compete in the district DeLay carved out for himself. 22 is one of the most misshaped districts I've ever seen---it looks like an amoeba with a leg. I used to live near the border between his district and DeLay's---DeLay had the more middle and upper-middle class suburbs, Lampson's district stretched into what you might call the crappier suburbs. And Pearland, where much of 22 is concentrated, is really a trifecta: guns, bibles, and suburbs.
- guyminuslife
October 27, 2008 at 1:51pm
What better time than a year where we're going to win a sweeping majority to cull some of the party's crap and dead weight? Let the bastard sink, he has long been a plague on our house.
If only we could spare the numbers in the Senate, I'd love to see that bum Baucus out too.
- ackyri
October 27, 2008 at 2:40pm
I won't disagree with much that others say about John Murtha, but this I do know. He used a lot of his personal and political capital to give inner city and otherwise impoverished youths (mostly African American) a chance at better lives by giving them jobs and chances for better education. Since his history of doing this goes back over thirty years, he's got the right to identify his voters in what ever way he wants - because he knows the truth first hand. My wife is from Pittsburgh and several of her friends from college were beneficiaries of Murtha's 'doing the right thing'. I've heard them speak about him, saying how he came to this one's graduation or that one's wedding. He light years away from being your typical corrupt Republican or sex fiend Democrat pol.
- WaltB
October 27, 2008 at 2:57pm
Well, that does it for me: with no uncertainty, I offer my nomination and vote for jacobt1's very own blog at TNR. That is some undeniably expensive net real estate, and jabobt1's unflinching attention to this site is undeniable proof of this claim. The rest of us plebians would do what we always do when we approach a fancy neighborhood: steer clear because we know we're not worth much and, you know, wouldn't want to be causin' any folks problems. No siree, we suuuure wouldn't.
I mean, c'mon people, s-o-l-u-t-i-o-n-s. You can spell it now so you can understand it. This is the only way for we mortals to have advanced knowledge of divine... well, let's call them "nuggets", of wisdom before they drop from the sky.
- dylanposer
October 27, 2008 at 3:22pm
Considering what WaltB said, Eve, did you even think to find out what people in Murtha's district thought of what he said? Maybe they know his sense of humor and those who consistently vote him in don't take offense to that? This post makes some big assumptions.
- MichLib
October 27, 2008 at 9:33pm
Good idea, dylanposer. Jacob's blog could be titled, "The Idiot".
- JEFF FREY
October 27, 2008 at 10:29pm
"The concept of an existential, cultural, and unbridgeable rural-urban divide has been one of this election's lamest themes. That concept can be invoked pejoratively, as Murtha did, but it can also be invoked as an anti-liberal bludgeon (see "real Virginia"), which is even more infuriating. It'll be a pleasure if voters reject that idea and its proponents on Election Day."
"One of this election's lamest themes"?
Are you a goddamned idiot? Have you been paying attention to the past 35 years of Republican strategy? They will fight a culture war any way they can, regardless of what Murtha does or doesn't say.
Dumbass, they'll make your SALAD PREFERENCES into an election issue if they can. They'll make up stories about you, spread rumors about your secret underground terrorist-loving religious practices, etc.
Murtha opposed Bush's most awful policies. That should be enough to want him to win. Anyone with a brain, who has observed what the Republicans have done to this country over the past eight years, would want Murtha to hold onto his seat for dear life, would want every damned Republican run out of this country, would want them electorally destroyed and licking their wounds for a generation.
Seriously. Fuck you and your "I don't like the tone of that person's voice." If we really have many more people like you, then we deserve to lose.
- huntlib
October 28, 2008 at 9:13am
Hi Michlib, Waltb's point was really interesting to read - on what Murtha's constituents think of his comments, though, I think the fact that Murtha's race has gone from a sure thing to a tight contest is some evidence. in the same poll only 35% of those polled said they wanted to see him reelected. EF
- Eve Fairbanks
October 28, 2008 at 10:35am
Huntlib - You could not be more correct. I couldn't have said it better myself.
- tleinenweber
October 28, 2008 at 3:54pm
Interesting (dead thread, I know) to note that Murtha has now turned to a MoveOn mailer to appeal for support against a "last-minute threat" to his re-election.
- cspencef
October 29, 2008 at 2:51pm