{"id":5912,"date":"2005-11-23T10:05:24","date_gmt":"2005-11-23T15:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=5912"},"modified":"2005-11-23T10:05:24","modified_gmt":"2005-11-23T15:05:24","slug":"schmidt-hasnt-learned-to-stop-digging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/schmidt-hasnt-learned-to-stop-digging\/","title":{"rendered":"Schmidt hasn’t learned to stop digging"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly a week after Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) lashed out at Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), calling the decorated Marine veteran a “coward,” she’s still in a pretty deep hole. Unfortunately for her, the rookie lawmaker hasn’t learned to stop digging.<\/p>\n

For example, Schmidt probably isn’t scoring points by characterizing herself as a victim<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rep. Jean Schmidt flung the word “coward” at a decorated war veteran from Pennsylvania last week, but the Ohio Republican’s comments landed with a splat in her own Cincinnati district, where some supporters are backing away as she scrambles to explain what she meant.<\/p>\n

Judging by her words yesterday — the first after avoiding the public for three days — Schmidt doesn’t understand what the fuss is about, and sees herself more as victim than villain. “I am amazed at what a national story this has become,” she said in a statement. “I have been attacked very personally, continuously since Friday evening.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, we should all feel sorry for poor Jean Schmidt, who made up a quote<\/a> to relay an attack against one of Congress’ most respected members, impugning his integrity because she disagreed with his policy position. And here I thought conservatives didn’t believe in the idea of victimization.<\/p>\n

And then, just to dig in a little deeper, Schmidt is not only feeling sorry for herself, she’s blaming the media<\/a> for her mistake.
\n<\/p>\n

Rep. Jean Schmidt says her comments Friday on the floor of the U.S. House have been misinterpreted and that she has been made a scapegoat by a media disappointed that Congress didn’t vote to withdraw troops from Iraq. […]<\/p>\n

“I have become the lightning rod because they don’t like the message,” said Schmidt, R-Loveland, who was elected to Congress in an August special election.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ah yes, the media conspiracy tack, the last refuge of a fool.<\/p>\n

For what it’s worth, Schmidt may represent a conservative Ohio district, but her callous style and personal attacks aren’t boosting her popularity back home. At least two Republicans who ran against her in this year’s special election have expressed interest in taking Schmidt on in a GOP primary again next year.<\/p>\n

They won’t hurt for campaign material.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly a week after Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) lashed out at Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), calling the decorated Marine veteran a “coward,” she’s still in a pretty deep hole. Unfortunately for her, the rookie lawmaker hasn’t learned to stop digging. For example, Schmidt probably isn’t scoring points by characterizing herself as a victim. Rep. Jean […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}