Fighting Back with Patrick Murphy

Oct 27, 2006 - 04:14 AM | by support

Road Report from Ted Chiodo:

10-26-2006: Today, with 12 days remaining till the November election, John Kerry stood up and defended Patrick Murphy in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Patrick Murphy who is running for the PA-08 seat in Congress is a Democrat, lawyer, and Iraq war veteran. Patrick took the stage at Bucks County Community college where he began his higher education to rail against a Republican party that makes a habit of smearing Democrats and veterans.

He spoke from the heart to the large crowd of vets and students. The packed house was enthusiastic and cheered along as Patrick expressed his distaste for the fiscal irresponsibility of the GOP and the failed stay-the-course policy in Iraq. Patrick then introduced the man he defended 2004 and who traveled to this rally to defend Patrick in 2006—John Kerry. JK called for Americans to stand up and end the lies of this administration in 2006.

After the rally, JK and Patrick plunged into the crowd and I got some great photos. Enjoy!

Mahalo. <!~~-more~~->

&nbsp; &nbsp; -- Ted

15 Comments

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Patrick Murphy seems to me to be one of the very most worthy of the new Democratic candidates for Congress, and I am proud of Sen. Kerry for his good judgment in seeing Murphy’s potential early on, and for his continuing, strong support of Murphy’s candidacy.

Posted by mbk | 10/27/06, 04:54 AM EST

Patrick Murphy is exactly that, mbk, and I feel the same way about Sen. Kerry’s offering his heartfelt support to candidates such as Mr. Murphy now and in the months and years to come.

The future of the Democratic party depends on its rebirth as a unified community speaking on behalf of a diverse constituency, which is no small task to tackle.

Mr. Murphy and those like him are at the core of the new-Democrats movement, and we should all give serious props to Senator Kerry and his like-minded colleagues for helping to midwife that rebirth as well.

make america safe for small-d democracy again,
Otter

Posted by Otter | 10/27/06, 05:18 AM EST

Good news from Virginia! The Virginian-Pilot has endorsed Jim Webb, and it has to be the most glowing endorsement I have ever read!

http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=113302&ran=153446

They even decided to print the entire citation for the Navy cross he received for his heroism in Vietnam right below the endorsement.

Read the whole thing. It is quite extraordinary. I am thankful to John Kerry for getting involved here early to endorse Webb before the primary and continuing to fundraise for him all the way to the end. I REALLY think we can win this seat.

Posted by beachmom | 10/27/06, 06:31 AM EST

Yes, the FAILED “stay the course” policy. How about in addition to pointing out the failures, we (be the media, remember?) point out the direction of JK’s proposals?

As in something I know DiAnne remembers well:

“Making some friends on this planet.”

Let’s keep hitting the point home: we need the House and the Senate back for all people. We need to move ahead towards sharing the challenges we all face on this earth. Others are not are our enemies, but not yet our friends and co-workers. The world is a mess; let’s ALL clean it up.

Posted by karen | 10/27/06, 06:33 AM EST

GREAT news, beachmom!

NOW, everyone, here’s another vet who needs our help:

http://massaforcongress.com/

The other side is pushing hard, so let’s push back!

(This guy is running in my sister’s district and she let me know he could use a little more *encouragement*!)

Posted by karen | 10/27/06, 06:46 AM EST

And speaking of Shrubya’s failed ‘stay the course’ policy, Karen just posted about this relevant commentary by George Lakoff over on the Democracy Cell Project blog:

——

THE Bush administration has finally been caught in its own language trap.

“That is not a stay-the-course policy,” Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, declared on Monday.

The first rule of using negatives is that negating a frame activates the frame. If you tell someone not to think of an elephant, he’ll think of an elephant. When Richard Nixon said, “I am not a crook” during Watergate, the nation thought of him as a crook.

“Listen, we’ve never been stay the course, George,” President Bush told George Stephanopoulos of ABC News a day earlier. Saying that just reminds us of all the times he said “stay the course.”

What the president is discovering is that it’s not so easy to rewrite linguistic history. The laws of language are hard to defy.

[snip]

“Stay the course” was for years a trap for those who disagreed with the president’s policies in Iraq. To disagree was weak and immoral. It meant abandoning the fight against evil. But now the president himself is caught in that trap. To keep staying the course, given obvious reality, is to get deeper into disaster in Iraq, while not staying the course is to abandon one’s moral authority as a conservative. Either way, the president loses.

And if the president loses, does that mean the Democrats will win? Perhaps. But if they do, it will be because of Republican missteps and not because they’ve acted with strategic brilliance. Their “new direction” slogan offers no values and no positive vision. It is taken from a standard poll question, “Do you like the direction the nation is headed in?”

This is a shame. The Democrats are giving up a golden opportunity to accurately frame their values and deepest principles (even on national security), to forge a public identity that fits those values — and perhaps to win more close races by being positive and having a vision worth voting for.

Right now, though, no language articulating a Democratic vision seems in the offing. If the Democrats don’t find a more assertive strategy, their gains will be short-lived. They, too, will learn the pitfalls of staying the course.

—

Full Lakoff piece is here: http://tinyurl.com/y8ujv7

‘W’ is for just all kinds of Wrong,
Otter

Posted by Otter | 10/27/06, 07:03 AM EST

With so much fear-based politics and concern for voting as true expression, I come here and dare to dream about the big tent Democracy, new beginnings, and government working for the people.

Thanks Otter, Karen, et al.

Posted by Marjorie G | 10/27/06, 10:06 AM EST

I’m definitely with you on the hopes and dreams thing, Marjorie. You might enjoy checking out GlobalVillage’s moving montage on the subject over on YouTube here; if that whets your appetite for more, you can really get your fill by way of this upcoming threader I wrote for another blog:

DON’T go to YouTube and watch this video!

DON’T look at the faces of the people in this video!

DON’T pay attention to the message at the end of this video!

DON’T send emails to your friends telling them to watch this video!

DON’T come back to the DCP blog and post your reactions to this video!

DO vote for every Republican candidate running in your district on November 7!

(Okay, so we were only kidding about that last part.)

one for all and all for one,
Otter

Posted by Otter | 10/27/06, 11:26 AM EST

Otter, thanks for the link to the ONE spot on YouTube. It’s nice that, in ‘06, we Dems are doing a better job of voting our values.

Posted by democrafty | 10/27/06, 12:32 PM EST

#10

Thanks, Ted. Great photos. I caught the rally on PCN (Pennsylvania Cable Network) last night. Awesome.

OT, the great folks at welovejohnkerry.com put one of my photos of Sen Kerry from the JJ dinner up on their blog. Check it out!

http://welovejohnkerry.com/

TGIT!

Posted by GV | 10/27/06, 03:58 PM EST

#11

Another article on this event, although as usual some in the MSM just can’t or don’t want people to know how many Pennsylvanians came out to see these two great individuals.

Raucous crowd at BCCC greets Kerry

By BRIAN SCHEID
Bucks County Courier Times

In a stump speech for 8th District congressional candidate Patrick Murphy on Thursday, U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., condemned what he called Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick’s, R-8, recent “attacks” on Murphy’s military service.

Kerry told a raucous crowd of more than 200 people outside the Bucks County Community College’s student center that Fitzpatrick “attacking Patrick Murphy’s service is like Jessica Simpson attacking Albert Einstein’s IQ.”

“We’ve had enough of these lies,” Kerry said as the crowd erupted in applause.

Kerry was referring to a Fitzpatrick press conference two weeks ago where two Iraq war veterans said Murphy has mischaracterized his role in Iraq and a television ad launched by Fitzpatrick’s campaign this week that claims Murphy lied about his employment as a federal prosecutor in New York.

Kerry, who won 51 percent of the vote in Bucks County during his unsuccessful 2004 presidential campaign, called the attacks “the closest that Mike Fitzpatrick has ever come to combat.”

Thursday, Fitzpatrick denied he had ever criticized Murphy’s military service.

“I appreciate Patrick Murphy’s service and respect it as much as anyone and never said anything to the contrary,” Fitzpatrick said.

However, Fitzpatrick stood behind the content of his new campaign ad that claims Murphy was not a U.S. attorney and refutes Murphy’s claim he “prosecuted some of New York’s toughest criminals.”

snip>

At a debate Thursday morning in Falls, Murphy used his opening remarks before a crowd of about 70 people to call Fitzpatrick “a liar and a coward” for running the ads.

“I will not stand here and let you defame me,” Murphy said to Fitzpatrick.

snip>

At Kerry’s appearance Thursday, John Cordisco, chairman of the Bucks County Democratic Committee, called Fitzpatrick’s ad “despicable.”

Bucks County Commissioner Sandra Miller, a Democrat, said the ads spoke to the “honor and integrity” of Fitzpatrick’s campaign.

“Innuendo, distortions, fabrications, lies ... these are the values the Republicans have put forth in this campaign,” Miller said.

In his speech, Kerry said Fitzpatrick’s ad was symptomatic of the “culture of corruption” that he said the Republicans have created in Washington.

“What you have in Washington is a house of lies and we need to sweep that house clean,” Kerry said.

In his speech Thursday, Kerry discussed how America’s presence in Iraq has made the country less safe and created more terrorists and discussed the need to set a troop withdrawal deadline to “bring our heroes home.”

He also discussed how the “out of control” Republican Congress has squandered a surplus left by President Clinton into a deficit in the Bush administration.

“Spent on bull[expletive],” an audience member shouted.

“I couldn’t have said it better myself,” Kerry said with a laugh. “Man, we really are articulate.”

more>

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/111-10272006-733075.html

We so need Patrick Murphy in Congress.

http://www.murphy06.net/tocontribute.html

Posted by fedup | 10/27/06, 05:13 PM EST

#12

Thank you so much Ted for keeping us up-to-date from the campaign trail(s). You’re doing a fantastic job. (Nice photos too, btw.)

Posted by Island Blue | 10/27/06, 06:11 PM EST

#13

Great report. It sounds like these were lively gatherings and people had a good time.

I love the comments that lay it on the line and really tell people that those who didn’t serve have no right to pretend that they did or demean the service of others. It’s so disrespectful of those good people who have given up so much to be in the military and the reserves or national guard forces.

Thanks Ted!

Posted by TayTay | 10/27/06, 06:12 PM EST

#14

Pardon me, I think Lakoff is over rated and a little too convinced of his importance. There are a lot of ways to communicate. The metaphor model is helpful to understand but it can be applied or used in different ways. I’d like someone to tell Lakoff to keep his ideas to himself if he has to diss the Democrats. The media is good enough at trying to balance criticism, we could do without him chiming in with concepts that are not iron clad or the only way to win.

Posted by Ginny in CO | 10/27/06, 08:37 PM EST

#15

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.” - John Kerry

Posted by E | 10/31/06, 08:36 AM EST