Walls Are Closing In On Mean Jean Schmidt-- From All Sides

Blue America has been working so long-- over 3 years now-- on helping Vic Wulsin get her message out, that I felt like I've know her forever. But last weekend I met her for the first time. Southern California liberal icons, Hilda Solis and Linda Sanchez, along with 9 other local congresswomen, threw a fundraiser for a diverse group of women congressional candidates-- from Blue America progressives like Darcy Burner (D-WA) and Debbie Cook (D-CA), to corporate hacks from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, like Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ) and Christine Jennings (FL). It was positively fascinating to hear all those women speaking one after the other and I was so happy to see that the progressives were so much better, not just substantively, but also stylistically, than the Republican-lite candidates.

It will be no surprise to anyone who has followed Vic's many live blog sessions at FDL to hear that she was one of the outstanding speakers of the day, along with Annette Taddeo, Darcy Burner and Debbie Cook. She spoke in a very down to earth way about her field of expertise, public health policy, an area many current members of Congress are saying will be drastically better served if she is elected in November. One of those members is a senior Democratic leader, John Murtha (D-PA). And Murtha is going further than just praying for a Vic electoral victory.

According to this afternoon's CongressDaily Murtha has offered to help Vic raise some real money in her fight against corporate shill, Mean Jean Schmidt, a somewhat embarrassing and deranged wingnut who once called Murtha, a decorated Marine and the military's best friend in Congress, a coward. (Schmidt, on the floor of Congress, embarrassing her entire caucus, except some closet queen-- either Foley or Dreier-- who asked her to marry him, said that she had talked to a constituent and that "He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message, that cowards cut and run, Marines never do.")

A statement from Murtha's office says he "believes that Dr. Wulsin is a terrific candidate... Her experience in public health and opposition to the Republican war in Iraq will greatly benefit both her constituents and the Congress." Wulsin's communications director, Kevin Franck, said Murtha had said "he really likes Vic and looks forward to serving in Congress with her." In September, that assistance will come by way of not one, but two fundraisers-- one scheduled in the Cincinnati-area district for Sept. 14, and another to be held in Washington in the first few weeks after Labor Day. Schmidt narrowly defeated Wulsin 50-49 percent two years ago and Wulsin is back for a rematch.

Meanwhile, insider sources say that when Congressman Dean Heller (R-NV) told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the Republican Party needed to "clean house," he was talking about some of the Class of '94 and about Jean Schmidt who most members of Congress consider a lunatic fringe sociopath.

[T]he newsmaking began when Heller said the Republican Party needs to “clean house” and “the next couple of election cycles are going to do that.” In remarks to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, he said some Republicans who rode a conservative wave to office in 1994 “came to change Washington, and Washington changed them.”

...“We’re seeing a lot of housecleaning because people are disenchanted with what Republicans are doing,” [a club for Growth spokeswoman] said. Republicans no longer can be taken seriously as stewards of fiscal conservatism, and corruption scandals still mar the party name. “They’ve abandoned their principles.”

Even Rep. Tom Cole, the Oklahoma congressman leading the Republican effort to win House seats this fall, said, “We don’t disagree with what he’s saying.”

Many Republicans were offended thinking he was talking about them-- since his unflattering description fits so many of them, but once word got out that he was talking about Mean Jean, everyone just shrugged and saw it all made sense. “In a way, he’s right,” Zach Wamp (R-TN) said earlier this week. “The status quo has got to go.” Heller's Democratic opponent, Jill Derby agrees too-- and insists that it isn't just Mean Jean who needs to be swept out of the House but Heller as well. And all I can say is Amen, to that! And if you'd like to help Vic Wulsin clean out one small part of what's wrong in Washington, please visit the Blue America ActBlue page. It never closes.