Clinton Muzzles Mikey The Mutt

Ah, to be a Democrat in Bucks County, Pa. yesterday (links here, here, and here)...

In the reporting by the Bucks County Courier Times of Bill Clinton’s visit to Bristol, Pa. yesterday to campaign for Patrick Murphy, I took note of this passage in particular:

“When you look at this young man and you realize the life he's lived and the service he once surrendered and the fact that his opponent actually had the gall to try to pull a swiftboat on him,” Clinton said as the crowd erupted in boos.

Clinton was referring to comments made at a Fitzpatrick press conference on Friday when two Iraq war veterans said Murphy was not on the war's front lines and has been mischaracterizing his service in Iraq. Fitzpatrick later said he disagreed with that criticism, but in his famous eloquence, Clinton described the attack on Murphy's war record as a “mangy dog.”

“The problem with mangy dogs is you can run 'em out of the kennel one time and they might scare people off, but after a while you just see it for what it is: just a mangy old dog,” Clinton said. “That's what this is.”

In a phone interview Wednesday, Fitzpatrick called Clinton's statement “ugly and unwarranted.”

“Bill Clinton has never been to Bucks County and he doesn't know me,” Fitzpatrick said. “He doesn't know of the service I've given to this community.”

I’m surprised. I mean, didn’t Mikey say that he disagreed with what Kelly and Barbato were saying about Patrick Murphy? That’s what Clinton was criticizing, along with Fitzpatrick’s silence as the two liars were leveling their charges against Patrick.

Why does Mikey have his shorts all in a knot, then? Is it just his typical petulance when he doesn’t get his way? Or do Bubba’s criticisms hit just a little too close to home for our U.S. representative?

This isn’t about “your service to the community,” Mikey. It’s about taking the hit for a cowardly smear endorsed by your campaign.

Oh, and I got a kick out of that line from Mikey that the Dems “parachuted” Patrick Murphy into Bucks County; when all else fails, keep trotting that other flea-bitten varmint out of the kennel – namely, the “residency issue" – right, Mikey?

Also, as far as veterans issues are concerned, I've yet to hear Mikey provide an explanation for the following:

Rep. Fitzpatrick opposed expanding access to the military's TRICARE health insurance program to thousands of Reservist and National Guard members, even though 20 percent of all Reservists do not have health insurance, and 40 percent of Reservists aged 19 to 35 lack health coverage (from dccc.org).

Besides, Mikey, if you’re so jealous of Clinton’s appeal, then why don’t you just ask the head of your party to come back to Bucks County and campaign for you? After all, that last visit worked out so well, didn’t it?

Update: Oh, by the way, remember how Mikey said he'd asked tough questions and was looking for hard answers (or something) concerning the Iraq war from that entity known as The Iraq Study Group run by Jim "The Fixer" Baker?

Well...