Republican Iraq Vets Seek 17 House Seats
Imagine the “man” part of “Congressman” actually being accurate…
From tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal:
Seventeen Iraq combat veterans are running for House seats as Republicans, pledging to continue the war once in Congress and linking themselves to Sen. John McCain’s candidacy for president.
As Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, prepares to go to Capitol Hill Tuesday to discuss his record there, some of the vets also came to Washington to link themselves to the general whose 2007 troop surge they believe has improved America’s prospects for victory.
In 2006, the Democrats had some success with a slate of veterans who used their military credentials to argue against the war. The Republican veterans argue that such antiwar vets are the exception and, even though the public is still against the war, they will be able to make the case that the country is succeeding and should commit the resources to achieve victory.
“Iraq’s going to be a tough issue for everybody, but we’re going to be uniquely positioned to deal with it,” says former Marine Cpl. Keiran Lalor, a Republican running in the Hudson Valley of New York. “The Democrats went around and found the exception to the rule: They found the Iraq vets against the war.”
The Republican vets have linked themselves to Sen. McCain’s presidential bid and hope to ride to victory on his coattails. They hope that if independents decide to support Sen. McCain and his commitment to finish the job in Iraq, they will vote that way down-ballot as well.
While most of the group, calling themselves Iraq Veterans for Congress, are running against incumbent Democrats, four are in primary contests for seats currently held by Republicans. In two of these races, the veterans are challenging incumbents the national party would prefer to run again. An additional vet has already won the primary for an open Republican seat.
Several members of Iraq Veterans for Congress, founded by Mr. Lalor, are running in districts considered safe for Democratic incumbents, making their candidacies largely symbolic. Mr. Lalor faces Democratic freshman Rep. John Hall, a former rock singer with the 1970s group Orleans.
Mr. Lalor says he is running to represent Gen. Petraeus, who was born in Cornwall, N.Y., a town in the 19th district, and whose alma mater, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, is also in the district.
Even symbolic candidacies could influence the debate in swing states. Former Army Lt. Col. William Russell is running against Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha, one of the top Democrats in the House. Mr. Russell says Rep. Murtha has “emboldened the enemy” with remarks about the Marines accused of killing civilians in Haditha, Iraq. At an event with other members of the group Monday, he called Gen. Petraeus “a consummate warrior” and said he would stake his own life on the general’s integrity.
In two districts in Ohio and New Jersey, Iraq veterans are running for seats being vacated by Republicans. Democrats almost won both two years ago, and this time both Democratic challengers, boasting more name recognition and money, are gunning for a rematch.
The Iraq vets’ efforts have gained the most headway in Ohio’s 15th district, where the first of the 17 members of the organization to win a primary race is State Sen. Steve Stivers. While he says he admires both Sen. McCain and Gen. Petraeus, he isn’t making Iraq policy the centerpiece of his campaign. “I’ll talk about Iraq with anyone who asks me, but now it’s not the first issue on people’s minds,” the 43-year-old Ohio native says. “Jobs and the economy are where my focus is.”
After several prominent Republicans declined to run this year, Mr. Stivers threw his hat into the ring to succeed retiring Rep. Deborah Pryce. He won the March 4 primary with 66% of the vote, but his prospects in November are dicey. Sen. Barack Obama, who has trumpeted his antiwar record, carried the counties that compose most of Mr. Stivers’s district, including the Columbus suburbs, where Sen. Obama beat Sen. Hillary Clinton by 14 points. The district is also home to the main campus of Ohio State University, where a Republican candidate’s call to “complete the mission” in Iraq is more likely to drive turnout for the Democrats than for Mr. Stivers.
Other primary races could cause problems for the national Republican party. Two veterans are challenging sitting congressmen — Bill Sali in Idaho’s First District, and Doug Lamborn in Colorado’s Fifth. Mr. Sali angered party loyalists by winning what many called a nasty campaign in 2006, and his malapropisms, once he was in office, became frequent fodder for Boise newspaper columnists.
Doug Lamborn engendered such rancor in his 2006 Colorado primary that Joel Hefley, the outgoing Republican congressman, refused to endorse him. Mr. Lamborn’s district includes Fort Carson, an Army post that has suffered hundreds of casualties in Iraq. He is being challenged in his party’s primary by retired Air Force Gen. Bentley Rayburn, who served in two Iraq wars.
In a normal year, both Messrs. Sali and Lamborn could feel safe, even though both are House freshmen who embittered local Republicans on the way to winning their seats. But challenges by Iraq veterans may swing hard-core Republicans against both men in this year’s primaries. That would leave the national party with a dilemma: no incumbent to support in the November election.
In New Jersey, Tom Roughneen is running in the primary in the Seventh District, which retiring Rep. Mike Ferguson barely held in 2006 against Democrat Linda Stender. Mr. Roughneen, a civil-affairs captain in Iraq and Essex County assistant prosecutor, knows he is a dark horse in a field that includes Kate Whitman, the daughter of former New Jersey governor and Bush cabinet member Christie Todd Whitman. But as the only Iraq veteran in the race, he says he is best equipped to fend off Democrats’ charges that the Iraq war has been a mistake.
“The way for the party to hold this district is for a veteran to represent the party,” says the 38-year-old New Jersey native. “Against a veteran, Linda Stender will look foolish trying to convince voters the success we’ve had in Iraq has been a waste of lives.”
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Good luck to all of them. =D
April 7th, 2008 at 9:32 pmVery awesome
April 7th, 2008 at 9:37 pmI checked with him and Bellavia is almost certain to take a run in NY. If his MOH comes through, it will be interesting indeed.
April 7th, 2008 at 9:40 pmAww gee whiz, I thought the action line was that Iraq vets ran as Democrats…
Here’s to better Congress, with better, more patriotic Representatives.
April 7th, 2008 at 9:41 pmI think I have said this before.
Am I the only one that thinks of Robert Heinlein’s amazing novel “Starship Troopers” when they read stories like this?
Just curious.
April 7th, 2008 at 10:35 pmTake note:
David Bellavia - New York’s 26th District
United States Army Veteran
Is THE Army SSG David Bellavia, Medal of Honor nominee
http://www.blackfive.net/main/2006/06/more_vets_go_ba.html
April 7th, 2008 at 10:35 pmI know exsactly what you mean man, crazy an’t it. The man was ahead of his time
April 7th, 2008 at 10:42 pmhoplitesamurai
I know exsactly what you mean man, crazy an’t it. The man was ahead of his time
April 7th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Damn straight. I was really disapointed that the movie they made didn’t spend some time on the socio-political aspect of that story. It really affected my political and philosophical developement, along with “Harrison Bergeron” by Vonnegut, “The Marching Morons” by Kornbluth and this little nugget shared by a HS teacher in my formative years:
Best explanation to share with your congressman, who clearly does not
understand this complex principle.
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten
comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go
something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that’s what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the
arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.
‘Since you are all such good customers,’ he said, ‘I’m going to reduce the
cost of your daily beer by $20.’ Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the
first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what
about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the
$20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that
from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end
up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would
be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he
proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to
drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare
their savings.
‘I only got a dollar out of the $20 declared the sixth man. He pointed to
the tenth man, ‘but he got $10!’
‘Yeah, that’s right,’ exclaimed the fifth man. ‘I only saved a dollar, too.
It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I!’
‘That’s true!!’ shouted the seventh man. ‘Why should he get $10 back when I
got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!’
‘Wait a minute,’ yelled the first four men in unison. ‘We didn’t get
anything at all. The system exploits the poor!’
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth
man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without
him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something
important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half
of the bill!
And that, ladies and gentlemen, journalists and college professors, is how
April 7th, 2008 at 11:02 pmour tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most
benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being
wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start
drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
Win some seats gang, esp William Russell.
April 7th, 2008 at 11:23 pmI hope some of them come to Missouri and make me proud.
April 8th, 2008 at 12:01 amStoked. Got one here in San Diego. Duncan D. Hunter, Capt. USMC, and another SSgt. Nathan Fletcher running for California State Assembly. Both great dudes.
April 8th, 2008 at 12:54 amGood luck in whatever they do.
April 8th, 2008 at 2:14 amWe have an interesting race coming up, a congressional district just over the city line here in Philadelphia. A murphy took a seat in ‘04, former military and ran with that to whine about the war. The father of a guy that was killed in Iraq is going to run against the mush mouth bitch. The City of Philadelphia is filled with rabid democrats and at least half of the three surrounding counties. I don’t live in that district, but it’s right next door. A sestak took over Kurt Weldon’s district last election, the camel’s nose is under the tent. dem dems have two out of US Congression districts, dems to the north, dems to the south, Gerlach’s surrounded.
April 8th, 2008 at 3:36 amGood luck to all of them!!
But I just read another biased media report and since I work with soldiers’ everyday and have many friends that are soldiers. I can say this article is bullshit, but it will be an up hill battle for these heroes running.
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=4244798&page=1
April 8th, 2008 at 5:00 amWell, TBinSTL, that is the first time taxes have made sense. They don’t make sense, but your explaination helps to clarify such things like why people would rather remain poor than work for a better life.
April 8th, 2008 at 5:24 amIt is now obvious that we need to stop buying beer for the first four.
———————————————————–
THIS is perhaps the most important one of these races. The biggest problem is Murtha has been the damn “drug-dealer” of earmarks to his district … which keeps his bloated junkie constituency voting for him.
If Lt.Col. Russell is damn serious about finally booting this bastard out of that seat he’d better go full balls to the wall against Murtha … None of the McCain nicey-nice shit. The last Repub that ran against “Jack” didn’t do that.
Since that election the whole Murtha dropping his linens and shitting all over the Marines in the Haditha case has come about … Lt. Col. Russell, PLEASE! use it to the fullest!
Not only taking out Murtha stabs the overly comfy dems in the gut, but twists the knife that an Iraq War vet took him out.
As to the two Ohio seats, they’re out of my hands … My district is pretty much locked in by the damn democrat supporting unions … and a young lap-pup dem who has held the seat since Rep. Jim Trafficant (D) was railroaded by his own party (and the leftover dem influenced FBI) because he wouldn’t tow the party-line and play ball with them, and tossed into the federal pen to rot for charges so lame and much lesser than those leveled against New Jersey dem Robert G. Torricelli who is out not only walking about as a free man, but may run for an office again … and don’t get me started on William Jefferson (D - La.) …
BTW
Ugly as he was, Trafficant was his own man … fuck the party. His supposed corruption was so damn shitty lame it’s to laugh … He would hold the democrat’s feet to the fire on the floor of the House with his colorful speeches, and that embarrassed the hell out of them. If a union wnet on strike in the area he was back up here refereeing and mediating between the unions and the companies/schools systems to keep the strikes as short as possible.
My area’s not hopeless … there are tiny glimmers. In the 2004 presidential race between GWBush and John Kerry Youngstown’s democrat mayor at the time (George McKelvey) stepped forward and supported Pres. Bush … even appeared with him and introduced him to the crowd when he came to town and even spoke at the GOP convention.
This area is a spoiled child just begging for a good spanking. If you talk to most middle-class dems here, or listen to their gripes, once they get past the “my” union mentality spewage they are completely against all this government controlled and funded bullshit the dems run on.
When you point out they are actually moderate conservatives and/or republican-lites they stumble away as if to avoid looking in a mirror.
It’s an inbred mentality in this area.
April 8th, 2008 at 5:25 amAlso, it’s about time we get some new blood in Washington. God bless our fighting men for once again, doing the job most Americans won’t.
April 8th, 2008 at 5:28 amwell its seems like all of our dreams have come true
April 8th, 2008 at 5:54 am
drill…
April 8th, 2008 at 6:02 amRight on the money..
I just don’t know what it will/would take to yank this area out of its political ignorance … But then, we ARE talking about an area that lives and breathes their future as if actually hitting the state lottery is a REAL option for them.
So, the dems campaign on “we’ll bring you jobs and give you government money (which is actually THEIR own money)” and the voters stupidly think it’s some damn lottery windfall …
April 8th, 2008 at 6:58 amI for one, would like to see more vets get into the MSM. If only to counter the left leaning bias.
April 8th, 2008 at 7:40 amJust saw Lt. Col. Russell on FNC …
DAMN! I wish I could vote for him!
April 8th, 2008 at 8:56 amI personally know two of the NY State Iraq Vets for Congress candidates; Kieran Lalor and Lee Zeldin and I can assure you that the troops would be happy to have them watching their backs in Congress while they are taking care of business overseas.
David Bellavia is demonstrably cut from the same cloth.
Visit their websites through www.iraqvetsforcongress.com and, if you can afford it, drop them a few bucks to carry on the war against the domestic insurgency. On the other hand, can you afford not to?
Their opponents are getting funding from George Soros and the other radical leftists who wish to see America destroyed.
Dan Maloney
April 8th, 2008 at 9:35 amNY State Coordinator
Gethering of Eagles
Drillanwr, I saw that too. I really hope he can kick Murtha out on his backside.
April 8th, 2008 at 10:05 amThe Pennsylvania race mentioned above is regarding Tom Manion who is a Republican running against Democrat Rep. Patrick Murphy in November. Manion is a retired Marine whose son Travis was killed in Iraq.
Go Manion!!!
April 8th, 2008 at 10:53 amHoo-ah…Finally a majority of Iraqi vets are running for office and making a diff.
April 8th, 2008 at 3:48 pmWe could send them a few dollars to help out. Do you have a link to the Iraq Veterans for Congress?
April 8th, 2008 at 5:51 pmIf I were a Liberal Loon I would be terrified at the thought of maybe a million service men and women who are young and growing up with families becoming involved in local politics and eventually State and National politics over the next 20 years.
Correct me if I am wrong but I believe 1 million was what I read as the number of service personnel that have already rotated through tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are mostly young and starting out in families and will return to the private sector eventually to be successful citizens. I suspect that most are not liberal pansies.
When I was younger I had several patients who were WWII vets and a couple of gentlemen who were concentration camp survivors. (Sadly , most have passed on now.) Meeting evil up close and personal seemed to instill in them a particular focus in politics and it was not a liberal outlook. Yes they disdained war, but they also knew evil had to be confronted and that the USA was really the only one who had the might to do it.
There might be a short term swing to liberal democrat agenda here but I am hopeful that the men and women who were “in the arena” come to power in about 3 election cycles and set things straight.
April 8th, 2008 at 6:25 pmExcellent news. Hopefully they all win.
April 8th, 2008 at 6:25 pmGood, maybe they can offset a couple of those doofus dems that were elected in 2006.
April 8th, 2008 at 6:39 pmGod Bless these fuckin’ boots, man…Can you imagine 17 true patriots in Congress?
April 8th, 2008 at 6:41 pmUnbelievable!
GOP Write-In Candidate Russell digs in on his beachhead in Johnstown
Russell has launched his long shot Write-In campaign for U.S. Congress against Congressman Murtha from his Clinton Street apartment.
In Russell’s sparse Clinton Street studio apartment, you won’t find many personal touches. The walls are bare. On a coffee table sits a well – thumbed copy of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, a novel Russell counts among his favorites.
His apartment is Johnstown and he is spending less and less time at his place in Virginia. This year, home is where the voter is.
Russell says he has no illusion that it’ll be easy but setting up a Johnstown beach head will make him better known. Even at Republican events, he can still stroll through the room without attracting a crowd. At a “Meet the Candidates Night” in January, seven people showed up to meet Russell.
Russell has a round of You Tube ads that portrays him as a local guy. One shows him and his bride walking in Indiana with Bruno’s Restaurant in the background.
Russell has been seen around Johnstown wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers hat, but if you ask him, he’ll tell you that he doesn’t like wearing hats. He spends time shaking hands with Murtha’s neighbors.
People see through things like this.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:55 pm