How kind of Danny Bubp to try to explain Jean Schmidt's words by the fact that she had only one minute and they came out wrong. However, since Schmidt was reading from a prepared text -- and one she had to know would be provocative -- any apologies now ring hollow. She knew exactly what she was saying and her refusal to take the heat now is beyond cowardly. It's a dereliction of duty.

The up side of Schmidt's idiocy is that the voters of Ohio are being royally embarrassed, which I would think makes them more likely to vote for Hackett in his Senatorial race in that state. After all, he narrowly lost to Schmidt in a congressional election when I'm sure the electors in that district knew less than they do now about how incautious and dishonest she is in her statements. Surely, this helps put Hackett in a better light for his Senate run.

If any part of what Jean Schmidt said on the House Floor was not true, then she must be charged with lying to Congress and prosecuted accordingly.

I'm sure Carl Levin will agree that such a rule does not apply to only British MPs.

Jean Schmidt? Where do the Republicans find these people?

is insulting someone without standing behind the insult. A courageous person stands owns her words and her opinion. A coward delivers the insult by proxy. We know what Schmidt is -- a coward. Of course, what she did is just standard operating procedure set forth in the GOP Sneer and Smear User's Manual.

Jean Schmidt's idiotic and offensive comments about Murtha just sums it all up.

Republicans are desperate.

Now,what is the solution?

Hey - when I heard Schmidt's comments, I imagined some kid in the trenches in Iraq finding a way to "phone home" just to tell her Marines don't run. It turns out this guy is a politician who has never seen active duty. So not only did she falsify what her friend, the politician said, but her comments were completely misleading as to the validity of the person supposedly sending that comment.

I have been reading about how Rep. Schmidt says that she is now the victim. Gee, you call people names, they retailiate, so now you're the victim. I know people like that - they provoke outrage, then act innocent when they get caught in the blow back.

What I think was that she thought that she would rally the 'Republican troops' and be the hero. When outrage happened, she cut and ran. (Sorry.)She immediately claimed she wasn't referring to Murtha, after she had addressed her diatribe at time.

(Actually, this is not new for her. She and the Marine General, she quoted, also said that her Congressional opponent, an Iraqi War vet was a disgrace to his Commander in Chief Bush.)

Jean Schmidt calls a 37 year Marine Corps veteran, decorated for valor in combat, a "coward" yet idolizes a cokehead doofus who used his father's connections to avoid the draft, and then went AWOL, failing to complete his Guard requirements. Don't you just love those Republican "values"?