Ohio Congresswoman Endures Firestorm Updated 5:43 PM ET December 1, 2005
By DAVID HAMMER
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...8e7npagc&src=apWASHINGTON (AP) - Rep. Jean Schmidt, the lowest-ranking member of the House, can't escape the firestorm she caused by calling 30-year congressman and Vietnam veteran John Murtha a coward for wanting U.S. soldiers out of Iraq.
So Schmidt, R-Ohio, is trying to laugh at the ridicule.
Her staff obtained a DVD copy of Rachel Dratch's spoof of Schmidt on NBC's "Saturday Night Live." And Schmidt pores over positive notes from constituents, some of which say "You go girl!" and at least one of which requested her hand in marriage.
Schmidt said her biting Nov. 18 remark about Murtha _ "Cowards cut and run, Marines never do" _ was a mistake. She said she didn't know Murtha, D-Pa., was a decorated Marine veteran, and that
she got the message from another Marine, Ohio state Rep. Danny Bubp, who later denied mentioning Murtha.
"Would I have changed the words? Yes. Would I change the message? No," Schmidt said. "I am sorry to have caused any consternation to Congressman Murtha."
Schmidt's Washington office fields angry calls daily from around the country _ mostly blue states.
The Democratic National Committee held her up as an example of Republican callousness, and is raising money to erect a billboard near Schmidt's Portsmouth district office that reads, "Shame on You, Jean Schmidt: Stop Attacking Veterans. Keep Your Eye on the Ball _ We Need a Real Plan for Iraq."Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., a Vietnam veteran who demanded that Schmidt be admonished under House rules, accepted her request to withdraw her comments and doesn't think his party will hold a grudge.
"Everyone makes mistakes and she made a doozy, but I think she realized it and apologized for it and learned from it," Snyder said. "If she goes forward with appropriate humility, she'll do just fine and it won't have any effect on her work at all."
Schmidt's chief of staff, Barry Bennett, says while it isn't all positive, Schmidt's growing reputation as a passionate conservative isn't all bad either.
"You're not important in this town unless they're talking about you, and they're definitely doing that now," said Bennett, who's been on congressional staffs for two decades.
Before she criticized Murtha, Schmidt was struggling to know her more senior colleagues.
She promised in her first floor speech Sept. 6 that she would not engage in name-calling from the House floor. Republican rivals say she went back on her word, lied about who was responsible for what she said, then avoided the media for four days.Schmidt bested a crowded GOP primary field and went on to defeat Iraq veteran Paul Hackett in this year's special election to replace Rob Portman, who left Congress to become U.S. trade representative. Two
rivals in the primary, former Rep. Bob McEwen and current state Rep. Tom Brinkman, say Schmidt has become the poster child for rising anti-Republican sentiment, which might embolden Democrats to try to unseat her next November.
Schmidt says she's unconcerned about the Democrats, and calls her GOP opponents "a fringe group" who are plotting a future challenge.
An avid marathoner, the 54-year-old
former Ohio Right to Life president talks about battling liberals on abortion and other issues. She revels in supportive e-mails, like one from Howard Hines of Batavia, who described himself as a "card-carrying member of the vast right-wing conspiracy."
But among war critics there is still hope that Schmidt's few words will be both her claim to fame and her undoing. Jeff Szabo of Amelia, an independent whose son served in Afghanistan with the Air Force, predicted in a letter to The Cincinnati Enquirer that military families might turn against her.
"She's embarrassed the Republican Party, no doubt about it," Szabo said.
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