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Novak: Murtha race 'A toss up'
National pundit Robert Novak's Aug. 30th 'Evans-Novak Political
Letter' shows the PA Congressional race between Rep. John Murtha and
Diana Irey is now officially "A toss up.'
Below is an excerpt from the Novak report:
Today we begin a new, seat-by-seat look at this year's competitive
House races, based solely on how each would turn out if the election
were held today. As promised, we take a look this week at
Democrat-held seats in the U.S. House and Democrats' chances of a
takeover, and compare them to the Republican-held seats they will be
targeting.
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Democrat-Held House Seats In Play
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Likely Democratic Retention |
Tossup |
Likely Republican Takeover |
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Leans Dem |
Leans GOP |
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IL-17 (Open) |
GA-8
(Marshall) |
IL-8 (Bean) |
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LA-3 (Melancon) |
GA-12
(Barrow) |
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OH-13 (Open) |
IA-3 (Open) |
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TX-25 (Doggett) |
OH-6 (Open) |
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PA-12 (Murtha) |
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SC-5 (Spratt) |
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TX-17
(Edwards) |
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VT-AL (Open) |
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WV-1 (Mollohan) |
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Quinn sounds the 'Code
Pink' Murtha alarm
Jim Quinn, of the syndicated radio show "The
War Room with Quinn & Rose," is sounding the alarm about
Congressman John Murtha's Code Pink connection:
[Quinn, on-air Sept. 1, 2006:]
" ... in paging through this [BootMurtha.com website] I stumbled
upon a story that even surprised me. Murtha took an award from CODE
PINK? My god, this is a communist organization! Code Pink. I mean,
there he is with his arms around these two women dressed in pink.
THESE are the people that Rose ran into in Washington, DC, who stand
outside of Walter Reed Hospital and harass families visiting their
wounded servicemen. JOHN – WHAT ARE YOU DOING? (pause) And by
the way, John, you're welcome on this show any time to explain
yourself. The door is always open."
Do you recognize these people? The top photo shows Rep. John Murtha
accepting his award from Code Pink last January 2006. And the bottom
photo? It shows 'sweet' Cindy Sheehan on the left, of course, but the
other three are the ones we're really interested in, because the women
are in the same 'Code Pink' Marxists group that gave John Murtha a
special award for his anti-military stance.
And who do you think the guy is in the photo with Sheehan and Code
Pink? It's none other than the pro-Castro, pro-Hezbollah, pro-Iran,
pro-Communist, America-hating dictator of Venezuela – Presidente Hugo
Chavez! [LINK
to Code Pink website with this photo]
Get it? Code Pink loves John Murtha; Code Pink loves
Hugo Chavez. Ergo, John Murtha has allied himself with one of the most
vitriolic America-haters in the world!
No wonder Jim Quinn's sounding the alarm in Pennsylvania.
[click
here to learn more about Code
Pink.]
Murtha Campaign pulls
ads from
Boot Murtha Rally emcees'
radio station & affiliates
"John! If you're listening out there
by satellite, you'd better come home right away!
Things are going to hell in a hand basket back in Johnstown!"
– Jim Quinn, on-air, Sept 1, 2006
Jim Quinn of the syndicated "The
War Room with Quinn & Rose" radio show reports the Murtha for
Congress campaign has pulled all ads from their station and
their five affiliate stations.
[EXCERPTS:]
"...the Murtha for Congress campaign has decided not only not to
buy any commercial time on this radio show, but to punish the other
five radio stations in our group. I guess this is supposed to put
pressure on me and Rose. Or it's supposed to... well it's designed to
punish us for our editorial positions on Murtha and also on the
upcoming election...
... I mean, look – if you're gonna take your advertising off SIX of
the largest, most successful, most listened-to radio stations in a
market that covers half of your congressional district... I mean,
you've gotta be really torqued off about something...
Jim Quinn and Rose Somma Tennet are co-emceeing the Boot Murtha
Rally, set for Oct. 1st in Murtha's hometown of Johnstown.
The War Room with Quinn & Rose [LINK]
airs Monday through Friday in the 6 to 9 a.m. time slot. It covers a
major portion of Murtha's district and is heard on Pittsburgh, PA
(104.7 FM WPGB); Altoona, PA (1290 AM WFBG); Johnstown, PA (850 AM
WNTJ); Somerset, PA (990 AM WNTJ); Akron, Ohio (640 AM WHLO) and
Wheeling, West Virginia (1170 AM WWVA).
Transcript from the Sept. 1st show:
Ladies and gentlemen... John Murtha, John Murtha. I
mean I became privy to some information yesterday and I want to share
it with you....
Alright, so last evening I get a phone call informing
me that the Murtha for Congress campaign has decided not only not to
buy any commercial time on this radio show, but to punish the
other 5 radio stations in our group. I guess this is supposed to put
pressure on me and Rose. Or it's supposed to... well
it's designed to punish us for our editorial positions on Murtha and
also on the upcoming election.
Ya know, look – this is a business. And I'm all for
making money. And I do not make it a practice to go out of my way to
try and lose money for my employer. Ah, that would be
counterproductive and stupid. I mean let's face it... the bottom line
is, this is a business. The bottom line is to generate enough
listeners so that we can absolutely fleece these poor advertisers out
of every buck [laughing] we can get! I mean, that's what it's about.
But you have to remember, this is after all a political
show. And we're certainly not going to limit our criticism of a
candidate, we're not going to limit our advocacy, our doors are always
open for the opposition – I mean, anytime Murtha wants to call here
I'll stop whatever I'm doing and put him right on. I mean, it may not
be an easy day for him, obviously, because it's a go with the show is
what it is.
But I find this to be very instructive. Ah, because,
first of all I'm flattered that the Murtha campaign feels that this
show has been that instrumental in... (pause) and now here you have to
fill in the blank. Instrumental in what? I mean, look – if you're
gonna take your advertising off SIX of the largest, most successful,
most listened-to radio stations in a market that covers half
of your congressional district... I mean, you've gotta be really
torqued off about something.
I bring this up because yesterday it was either Rush
[Limbaugh] or Sean [Hannity] who was complaining about the dearth of
polls regarding the Murtha race. And, if I heard correctly, Robert
Novak – who by the way I don't think is the end-all, be-all of
predicting things – but Robert Novak had taken the Murtha-Irey contest
out of the "Shoe-In" category and put it in the "Up in the air"
category. Up for Grabs category. Now that tells me that... I mean,
that combined with this... this phone calling 'we're not going to buy
any advertising on any of your radio stations – NONE of
'em!' Well, that suggests to me that they've got some internal polling
here, ah, that has made them very angry about whatever influence this
show has had in that congressional district. Because certainly the
other 5 radio stations are not political. They don't talk about this
stuff. So, it's gotta be all us.
But you know, it's interesting because in the history
of this show, which I believe extends all the way back to February of
1993 when we first went on the – yeah, when we first went on the air
as a local show, before it got syndicated and before it got on
satellite radio... in the entire history of this show, no candidate
has ever pulled their advertising from our show, much less an entire
group of radio stations in retaliation for what they feel is an unfair
or an unjust political opinion. I mean, again, it's a political show.
You're gonna have political opinions here and you don't whine about
it. But actually in the history of this show, the people that we have
taken issue with... the people that we have criticized the most are
the ones that went out of their way to make sure that
advertising was purchased on the show...
In the whole history of this show this is the first
time this has happened. And that tells me a number of things. First of
all, if I'm the Irey campaign, I am popping champagne corks this
morning because in their anger, apparently, about this show they have
managed to take their presence off 6 of the most listened to
radio stations in half of their congressional district.
Now, I would think this would come under the heading of
shooting oneself in the foot. And frankly, this is a big win for Irey.
And it does beg the question, considering that this is the first time
that anyone's responded this way or acted this way... it really does
beg the question here: Who's running this campaign? I mean, do these
people really know what they are doing?
Now, the reason I ask that question – and I think it's
a legitimate question – is because I think John Murtha needs to
address it as well... Murtha has been such a shoe-in for so many
years... why would you develop and pay a 'crack team' of political
operatives who really know how to win an election... why would you pay
for an expensive team of experts to run your election when you're a
shoe-in?
Well now, apparently under fire here, we've seen what I
think is a tremendous mistake on their part. Because you don't like
the opinion expressed by one political show you remove yourself
from the stage? And you let the other side have full reign?
So, I just find all of this very interesting. And very
instructive.
[later in show]
Listen. I don't think John Murtha had anything to do
with this. Cuz he's off on the 41 state Jane Fonda Redux Tour, Let's
Bring Back Vietnam Tour. See I gotta figure that any really smart
campaign manager is not gonna do something like that. I mean, "John!
If you're listening out there by satellite, you'd better come home
right away! Things are going to hell in a hand basket back in
Johnstown!"
NOTE: the following correction was sent by Jim Quinn
on Sept. 2, 2006:
"...just to make it clear; they didn't pull the adds from the
stations who carry our show. They pulled them from the other
Pittsburgh stations in our corporate group. One more thing: WFBG is no
longer an affiliate."
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