Sedition to the very end...

Leave it to Jack Murtha to never miss an opportunity to pick out a turd from a hill of daisies.

(MONONGAHELA, November 6) -- Washington County Commissioner and Pennsylvania 12th district Republican Congressional nominee Diana Irey -- responding to comments made by Jack Murtha as reported by the New York Times -- today issued the following statement:

"Right up to the very end, Jack Murtha is playing politics with national security. Yesterday, in the wake of an Iraqi court's decision to sentence Saddam Hussein to death by hanging for mass murder, Jack Murtha was quoted as follows by the New York Times:

Representative John P. Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who has become the face of his party's opposition to the war in Iraq, said the verdict was the right one but predicted it would not make a difference in this campaign. What would matter more, Mr. Murtha said, were editorials in military papers being published Monday calling for the resignation of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld.

"When The Army Times, The Navy Times, The Marine Corps Times, they have all said that we're not supporting the troops, that they're losing confidence with the administration, that's what's important," Mr. Murtha said, campaigning in Croydon, Pa., outside Philadelphia, for Patrick Murphy, a Democrat seeking to unseat Representative Michael G. Fitzpatrick.

"Again, Jack Murtha is trying to get us to believe something that just isn't so -- in this case, that editorials in The Army Times, The Navy Times, and The Marine Corps Times reflect either public opinion or, more importantly, the opinions of our active duty, reserve, or retired military.

"For the record, these publications are owned by a subsidiary of Gannett Newspapers (which, not coincidentally, makes them sister publications to USA Today), and are in no way affiliated with the professional military. They are headquartered in Springfield, Virginia, just outside the Washington Beltway.

"Surely, Jack Murtha, with his vaunted and loudly-touted connections to the Pentagon, knows this. Yet he touts these editorials as 'proof' that our armed forces are losing confidence in the Administration. What utter balderdash!

"And on a side note, what does it say about the lack of respect Jack Murtha shows his own constituents when he spends the last Sunday before the election campaigning not in his own district, but on the other side of the state, for yet another liberal Democrat who doesn't reflect the culturally conservative views of his own constituents?

"Right up to the very end, Jack Murtha is playing politics with national security. Voters in the 12th district will have the opportunity tomorrow to let him know just what they think of that."

Note the key words: Right up to the very end.