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House Race Update

FL 24: Crazy Clint In The Basement

  Election Watchdog at Human Events pokes fun at two Dem challengers for House seats (Clint Curtis taking on incumbent GOPer Tom Feeney in CD 24, Bob Bowman up against Dave Weldon in CD 15).  "It turns out that the political equivalent of the movie 'Dumb and Dumber' is now 'Crazy and Crazier,'" the Dog writes, "as Democrats have put up some of the wildest and craziest candidates for the U.S. House in years."

  Hyperbole, perhaps?  Dog thinks not.  Referring to Curtis as "zany" and a "conspiracy theorist," Dog says:

Curtis's campaign revolves around accusations that he has made "in dozens of public forums -- and under oath -- that Feeney asked him and his former employer, Yang Enterprises, to create a software program to fix elections in 2000.  Feeney, who served as Yang's corporate counsel before his 2002 election to Congress, has repeatedly denied the accusations. Feeney's staff produced an inch-thick binder filled with documents that contradict Curtis' statements and question his credibility."

As Congressman and former Florida House Speaker Tom Feeney points out, "Both campaigns agree only one of us is competent to serve in Congress.  Either I ought to be in jail or in the gallows, or he ought to be getting serious treatment.  In this case, a debate about the issues is secondary."

  The Watchdog quotes the Orlando Sentinel regarding Curtis' assertions; beyond his claim that he passed a polygraph, there's "no document, e-mail or other evidence to corroborate his allegations against Feeney."

ID 01: Sali-cious Crumb

  Bill Sali, Republican challenger for the open Idaho CD 2 seat, is taking quite a beating these days... from Republicans.

  James L. at Swing State Project reports that Sali, after being mocked by the GOP state House Speaker as "an absolute idiot," is now being targeted by a former opponent who lost to Sali in the primary, Robert Vasquez.  James quotes the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

"I would have no problem working with any other member of Idaho's delegation," Vasquez said. "I cannot in my wildest imaging contemplate any issue that Bill Sali would champion that would be beneficial to Idaho or the United States of America instead of big business corporations."

  James pulls another zinger by Vasquez from the Spokesman-Review blog:

Today, in the Idaho Press-Tribune in Nampa, second-place finisher Robert Vasquez, a Canyon County commissioner, said he’d never vote for GOP primary victor Bill Sali because, “I would not and do not and cannot endorse a liar for Congress.”

  "Ouch," summarizes James.

MN 05: What The Ellison?

  Scott at Power Line has no love for Dem candidate Keith Ellison.  While the New York Times may be hyping him as possibly the first Muslim in Congress, Scott derides him as "Louis Farrakhan's first congressman," based on Ellison's fuzzy explanations for his youthful involvement with the Nation of Islam.

  Scott in particular targets Times writer Neil MacFarquhar "lame take" on candidate Ellison, accusing him of being "uninterested" in picking at Ellison's history, rife with question marks as Scott strongly suggests:

Like so much that has appeard in the mainstream media on Ellison, this story is pathetic.  I summarized my research on Ellison last week in "Louis Farrakhan's first congressman," which I ask interested readers to place side-by-side with the Times article.  The Standard's subhead on my piece asks, "Why was the press so incurious about the past of Keith Ellison?"  It's a question that is also raised by MacFarquhar's article.

NY 24: Arcurious Allegations

  A new ad ripping Dem candidate Mike Arcuri is "getting attention" as much for its content as its background.  Robert B. Bluey at Human Events says the ad "accuses Arcuri of bungling a rape case and failing to protect women."  But what is piquing blogger interest is "its timing in light of the Mark Foley scandal.  ...[B]loggers are questioning the evidence behind the ad."

  Bluey quotes a blogger who can't find documentation on the clip ("...a spokesman for the NRCC ... refused to provide any, though he claimed they have it, a stance I've never experienced before.").  And a blogger who goes by the name of Biggus Dickus expressed his flabbergastedness about not knowing the name of the "rapist Mike Arcuri allegedly let go."

  "I didn't have a chance to call the NRCC's Patru to press him today," Bluey wraps, "but the fact that Democrats aren't squawking tells me that there's probably truth to the ad."

OH 12: Rubberstamp This!

  actapann at MyDD praises bow-tied Dem challenger Bob Shamansky's latest ad that, using JibJab-like Flash animation, mirthfully depicts GOP incumbent Pat Tiberi as a rubber-stamping Bush sycophant.  The ad in full is viewable here.

  "Bob's a former congressman," actapann notes, "who's hoping to return to the people's house some 24 years after being redistricted out."

PA 08: Chickenhawk Soup

  After freshman GOP incumbent Mike Fitzpatrick had the wherewithall to call into question the Iraq service of his Dem challenger, Patrick Murphy, he caught some serious flak... from the original Swiftboatee himself, Sen. John Kerry.

  Taylor Marsh expressed her disgust at Huffington Post: "Where do these people get the nerve?  Because it takes a lot of gall to swiftboat a veteran when you've never served yourself."  She quoted about the incident from the a Murphy press release:

At Fitzpatrick's press conference this morning, he introduced and stood alongside these three veterans, and after they made their attacks on Patrick's service record, he made no comments to the contrary, nor did he denounce their false accusations... "It just seems to me that Patrick Murphy, from what I understand, was not a front-line fighter.  That is how it seems to me his service has been characterized.  It's honorable, but it seems to me that you have front line guys and rear guard guys.  You've got rear-guard guys and front line guys.  You've got front line guys here.  It just seems to me that Patrick Murphy wasn't one of them."

  mcjoan at Daily Kos noted Murphy's credentials: "Just to set the record straight, Murphy served in Bosnia in 2002, and in Iraq during 2003-2004 as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division.  He earned the Bronze Star for his service and his unit earned the Presidential Unit Citation."

  "Patrick Murphy's crime?" posited Marsh.  "He's a veteran who is not standing silently by why his fellow soldiers take the brunt of what has become a disastrous policy in Iraq."

  As if that weren't scathing enough of a counterattack, Kerry then weighed in rather, er, swiftly in a press release:

"I won't stand for the 'swift boating' of Patrick Murphy.  It disgusts me that a congressman who has never worn the uniform of our country stands there in silence as a veteran home from Iraq has his service disparaged.

No one who has ever served would tolerate this kind of slander about a fellow veteran.  In 2000, George Bush stood in silence while John McCain's service was questioned.  It was wrong then, it is wrong now for Mike Fitzpatrick to engage in the same double-speak.  What is it these Republicans who never served have against Democrats who did? ...

"You know why Mike Fitzpatrick is engaged in the lowest form of smear and fear politics?  Because he's afraid of actually debating Patrick Murphy about the disastrous war in Iraq. ... Mike Fitzpatrick should ... find the courage to debate the real issue instead of cowardly having his surrogates try to destroy anyone who speaks truth to power.  It's unacceptable to do this to any leader of any party anywhere in our country."

  Marsh echoes Kerry's sentiments, wrapping forcefully:

Mike Fitzgerald is not only wrong he is a disgrace.  Swiftboating an American soldier is the worst sort of cowardice, but it is also something else.  It is un-American. ... Patrick Murphy served his country honorably and no one has the right to impugn his service.  Certainly not some punk congressman who never had the courage to wear a uniform himself.