Stu Blog

“In our many years of examining decision screens we do not believe that there has ever been a single instance in which the leader changed in a race in which we had this much data from survey…Presented with this consistent data there was no reason to justify not calling this race. We would not have been doing our jobs if we had not called this race at this time when presented with this data.”

–The exit vote 'decision team' as they called the state of Florida for Al Gore. Quote given at 8:10pm, election night 2000.

Honestly, I am ready to accept a deal in which the democrats win the presidency, and the republicans lose every seat in both houses except for one. As long as that one seat is John Murtha's.

Yes, he called his own constituents racist. And sure, when trying to apologize for calling the entire western half of his state bigots, he called them rednecks.

I will note that those in the Midwest that are casting a vote for Barack Obama are doing the same thing.

Remember his famous “clinging” quote, had more than God and guns:

“They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

All of that is probably more humorous than anything else. If you're willing to vote for a guy who thinks you're a racist, then more (white) power to you.

And of course, Murtha is famous for all of his pork and unfortunately videotaped bouts with bribery.

But what John Murtha has done to our troops in the last two years is absolutely inexcusable.

His opposition to the war, while I believe it was misled, is completely fine. He underestimated our military and their ability to win the war–which they are now clearly doing—but he's far from alone there. However, when trying to make that case—he started running his mouth off about our Marines in Haditha.

He said: “Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood.”

When asked to clarify by Chris Matthews, this exchange happened:

MATTHEWS: Congressman, a lot of people think you're basically saying you have got some civilians sitting in a room or out in a field and they're executed just on purpose…
MURTHA: That's exactly what happened.

He went on to say they “were so stressed out, they went into houses and killed women and children, 24 people they killed.” Stressed out?

When AGAIN asked to clarify by Wolf Blitzer, this exchange happened:

BLITZER: There's an investigation of what happened at Haditha. …you've suggested this week that there in effect was a massacre. …
MURTHA: Well there was. There's no question about it…
BLITZER: The Marines say they're still investigating. They don't know what happened yet. The pentagon says the same thing. How do you know what happened?
MURTHA: Wolf, you read the “Time” magazine articles. There are pictures, there are photos. You don't have to talk to the military about the proof.

After Time started retracting details of the story, Reuters reported:

The head of the U.S. Marine Corps briefed Rep. John Murtha on the Haditha case after the vocal war critic publicly said Marines had killed innocent civilians in that Iraqi city”

AFTER. He was briefed AFTER he said it. AFTER? You're a former military man with access to almost anyone in the military and you're trusting Time magazine???? You are so desperate to make your argument that you will literally call our own troops cold blooded murderers?

Later, headlines like these began appearing about various marines accused by Murtha in the incident:

Charges dropped for two Marines in Haditha killings
Marines recommend no murder charge in Haditha case
Charges dropped against Marine in Haditha case
Marine acquitted of all charges in Haditha killings
Haditha charges dropped against top Marine officer

So far seven of the eight men accused have been found either not guilty or had the charges withdrawn completely, with one case still pending-although charges have already been reduced. No apology from Murtha.

His opponent, William Russell, is an Iraq War veteran who captures much of this in this new campaign ad.

YouTube Video Link

There are worse things you could do with your money than to throw a little his way.

Website Link

In response, Murtha says there's “no g*ddamned way” he will lose. Two separate polls show Murtha up by 4, and down by 13.

Honestly, what more could this man possibly do to convince you he should not be representing this country? Do you need him to run over a bunch of children playing kickball?

So, that is my Christmas wish as we approach the holidays this year. If you happen to be feeling generous Santa Claus, I'd like Al Franken to lose too.

There's been a lil' internet style blowup about CNN reporter Drew Griffin, who supposedly misquoted a National Review column during his interview with Sarah Palin.

He said that Byron York had written:

'I can't tell if Sarah Palin is incompetent, stupid, unqualified, corrupt, or all of the above.'

York's quote in context was:

“Watching press coverage of the Republican candidate for vice president, it's sometimes hard to decide whether Sarah Palin is incompetent, stupid, unqualified, corrupt, backward or - well, all of the above.”

Obviously, in context, York was taking a shot at the media's coverage of Palin, not at Palin herself.

Griffin was on CNN Thursday and said:

“In no way did I intend to misquote the National Review. This exchange aired just once in the 6pm hour, and as soon as the National Review brought it to our attention at 7:05, we immediately realized that the context could be misconstrued, we cut that portion of the interview. It never aired again. We sent a statement to the National Review in an email explaining what had happened, that we had in fact cut the question from any further airings.”

Here's the kicker…I believe him.

Griffin has done some incredibly solid reporting this election-in particular on ACORN and the Obama campaign's ties to the organization, and also –this must watch report on the Obama/Ayers connection.

Link

And while the quote wasn't an actual example of Palin-bashing—his point was still accurate. There's been plenty of it to go around. He could have quoted Peggy Noonan instead–it was really an immaterial mistake, and he corrected it right away.

Even though we're no longer at CNN and are moving to Fox News, I'm not going to start ripping their people for no reason less than a week after we walk out the door. I mean, only a dirt bag would do that. A complete dirt bag.

Look at me-two blogs in a row complimenting reporters. I'm getting soft.