American Pravda (AP): Dems Scared In Murtha's Former Fortress of Graft

It's May 18th.

n what was the late U.S. Rep. John Murtha's western Pennsylvania district — reachable through John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport or John P. Murtha Highway — Democrats watch nervously, hoping his former top aide can hold on to the House seat.

Mark Critz, who worked for Murtha for more than a decade in Pennsylvania, including the past three as district director, is in a fierce fight with Republican businessman Tim Burns in the May 18 special election. The national GOP has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to push Burns' candidacy, sensing a legitimate shot of capturing the seat held for 36 years by Murtha, an ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

A loss would unnerve Democrats, who face the backlash against the party in power typical for a midterm election year, and depress the outlook for the party's other candidates in Pennsylvania, which Barack Obama won easily in 2008.

Democrats hold a roughly 2-to-1 registration edge in the socially conservative, blue-collar district filled with bitter dead-enders who cling to their God, guns, and seething hatred at all things brown, or, really, even sorta biege.

I added the last part. It's what American Pravda means. Might as well spell it out.

At Hot Air, the Democrats' health-care reform which was assured to give them a ten point bounce isn't working its magic:

The polling shows a very close race — with Burns in the lead. That has Democrats worried about how other normally-safe districts might turn out in November. That fear has come out in Critz’ campaigning, where he has tried walking a tightrope between opposition to ObamaCare and refusing to commit to overturning it. In a debate yesterday, Burns hammered Critz as to whether his opposition means anything at all if he refuses to take action once elected, a hypocrisy that will not have gone unnoticed by voters watching the debate.

Tim Burns, meanwhile, is summoning Tea Power:

Just got off the phone with Angela Lash of the Tim Burns for Congress campaign and she says they’ve already got teams of volunteers coming in from Virginia, Maryland and Ohio. But it looks like they’ll need all the help they can get....

If Tea Party people want to make a difference — to help write those “Democrat disaster” headlines Cilizza is worried about — then it’s time to visit TimBurnsForCongress.com, or e-mail the campaign or call 814-619-3414.

If you click on his link, he's trying to drum up a paltry $35,000 in campaign donations -- surely he deserves more than that.

Scott Brown will be campaigning for Burns, by the way.

We always talk about these races in terms of their secondary effects -- it will "unnerve the Democrats." It could "force them to spend more money on presumed-safe districts." It would increase conservative enthusiasm even more while depressing Democrats' still further. And all the rest of it.

And that's true, certainly, but let's not get so sophisticated and insider-y we forget the primary effect of a win: We defeat Murtha's bagman and deny him a vote in the US Congress, and instead elect a good guy who will vote our truth* 90% of the time. If we had five or six more votes -- if the Democrats' majority in the House had been five or six less -- we very well could have defeated ObamaCare, and Cap and Tax, and even the Spendulus.

A vote is a vote. There are only 435 of them, and we need 40 to take the House. Might as well get this party started at +1.

* So goofy, "our truth." I didn't know what to write here, thought of that, realized it was stupid and coffee-house-lefty-lesbian-poetry-jam-ish, but decided to use it anyway, because, who cares.

It occurred to me because I occasionally quote Vince Vaughan's hilarious line from Couples Retreat: "I know my truth."

posted by Ace at 05:25 PM

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