In Salon today: Dogfight in Ohio By Bill Frogameni
Paul Hackett, right, the Democratic candidate for Congress in Ohio's 2nd District, with his wife, Suzi, at a rally last week. The special election is slated for Aug. 2.
A Marine who fought in Fallujah is trying to become the first Iraq war vet to serve in Congress -- and give Democrats hope that Ohio is not permanently lost.
(Paul) Hackett, a 43-year-old personal injury lawyer and Marine Reserve major who volunteered for service in the Iraq war, has little prior political experience, only having served as a city councilman in a small town. But he's a contender in a special congressional election taking place in Ohio on Aug. 2 to fill the 2nd District seat vacated by Republican Rob Portman, who's now serving as the U.S. trade representative.
Hackett, a Democrat, is surely the underdog. The 2nd District, which includes Cincinnati, has been solidly conservative in a state that's thoroughly dominated by the GOP and that decided the 2004 election for President Bush. His better-funded opponent, Jean Schmidt, is well-connected and, as a former state representative, has a more extensive political résumé. But Hackett hopes his credentials -- Iraq war vet and plain-spoken self-described moderate -- will give him a much-needed edge.
Hackett hopes he's part of a seismic political shift happening in Ohio -- a shift driven in part by recent outrage against Ohio Republicans over a high-profile, multimillion-dollar accounting scandal that has cast a cloud over the state party and may find its first political fallout victim in Schmidt, the first major Republican candidate to face the voters since the scandal broke.
A victory for Schmidt would mean continued Republican dominance in this district that voted 65 percent in favor of Bush last November. If Hackett wins, however, it would make him the first Iraq war veteran in Congress -- and would also give Democrats hope that Ohio has not gone completely and irreversibly to the GOP.
Paul Hackett is an NRA member; Jean Hackett got the NRA endorsement.
Hackett:
"Gun control is when you point your gun and hit what you aim for."
Schmidt voted against gay marriage in the Ohio House of Representatives, while Hackett's take is:
"Gay marriage -- who the hell cares?"
Responding to Schmidt's criticism that he doesn't "stand with the president in support of the troops", Hackett, the 6'4" U.S. Marine is blunt:
"The only way I know how to support the troops is by going over there."
And Hackett doesn't hesitate to criticize Schmidt's support of the war:
"All the chicken hawks back here who said, 'Oh, Iraq is talking bad about us. They're going to threaten us' - look, if you really believe that, you leave your wife and three kids and go sign up for the Army or Marines and go over there and fight. Otherwise, shut your mouth."
Semper fi ...
UPDATE: WHILE WRETCHED REPORTER JUDY SITS & SWEATS
Lloyd Grove reports: Famed editor Jason Epstein, husband of jailed New York Times reporter Judith Miller, has lately been making himself scarce at the federal facility in Virginia where his wife has been incarcerated for the past three weeks. (He joined) a celeb-glutted Mediterranean cruise, featuring everyone from Isabella Rossellini to J.K. Rowling aboard the ocean liner Silver Shadow. Christopher Buckley (Bill's kid), comic novelist and editor of Forbes FYI, imagined what Epstein might have said to Miller prior to his departure:
" ... Darling, I wouldn't be able to enjoy myself even if it were a nice cruise. While I'm dining on foie gras, I will be thinking only of you, sitting behind bars in 110-degree heat, eating baloney and being brutalized by prison matrons."
REMEMBER STEVE CANYON?
TERRY & THE PIRATES?
The late cartoonist, Dayton's own Milton Caniff also introduced Lace, the central character of Male Call during the WWII years.
". . . . Most Americans have been brought up on comics. In the far corners of the world they serve as a one or two minute furlough home, a diversion from the usually depressing business at hand. . . ."
(Click images to enlarge - this should work if you enable pop-ups on this site only - check your toobar)
Milt was in the Stiver's High graduating class of 1930 . . .
Good fortune. Please spread the meme.
COMMENT! COMMENT! Don't smoke in bed . . .
