Schwartz, Murtha Say "Bah Humbug"

John Murtha Showing His Joy at Seeing Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco Oufit

This weekend I'll be writing about political guru Lee Atwater and his political tactics as outlined in John Brady's book Bad Boy. Atwater knew how to get the extra 3-5% that makes the difference between winning and losing an election.

Lee has a way with words. As George H. W. Bush's campaign head in 1988, Atwater said of Michael Dukakis, "I'm going to strip the bark off him." About Dukakis' "furloughing" of a murderer and rapist, Atwater promised, "I'm going to make Willie Horton [the rapist] his running mate."

But my emphasis is going to be on the practical side of Atwater's campaigns. In his early career, Atwater emphasized the use of billboards and, especially, radio spots during drive time. Those are favorites of mine also.

Winning campaigns is not a matter of spending huge amounts of money. If it were, Rick Santorum (who spent $27 million in 2006) would still be the Senator from Pennsylvania. Rick probably spent around $12 million on TV ads, and he might as well have saved his money.

If you're going to one political good deed this December, I suggest that you contribute to William Russell's campaign.

What Do Allyson Schwartz [and John Murtha] have against Christmas?
Posted by Brett Lieberman/The Patriot-News December 12, 2007 16:22PM
Categories: Federal government, Murtha, Schwartz, U.S. House

The Philadelphia Democrat was one of a handful of House members and one of two from Pennsylvania who didn't vote Tuesday night for a resolution that recognized the importance of Christmas, the Christian faith and condemning Christian persecution.

"Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz decided to simply vote 'present' rather than take a stand on such a controversial issue as Christmas," noted Diane Gramley, president of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania.

Speaking of presents, we're wondering why Schwartz was even in the House chamber last night rather than spending time at home with her family spinning the dreidel, eating potato latkes with sour cream and applesauce, and opening gifts during the last night of the Jewish Festival of Lights, aka Hanukkah.

Schwartz is the only Jewish member of the state's House congressional delegation.

Even without Schwartz' vote, the non-binding resolution narrowly passed 372 to 9.

That distinction, or religious tolerance for that matter, didn't matter much to Gramley, who noted all nineteen Pennsylvania House members voted for an equally non-binding resolution in October supporting the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

"Apparently on that day Congresswoman Schwartz did not hesitate to vote for a resolution supporting the religion of the nineteen hijackers of 9/11 who brought down the World Trade Center, flew their airliner/missile into the Pentagon, and caused the death of the crew and passengers of Flight 93 as it crashed into a field outside Shanksville, PA," said a statement from the conservative group.

"I believe there are more Christians in her district than Muslims and they deserve an explanation for her vote last night," said Gramley.

Schwartz's office had no comment this afternoon.

U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, was the only other Pennsylvanian not to support the Christmas measure and was among 40 members who did not cast votes.