Do you think that Jean Schmidt’s celebrated one-minute speech on the House floor Friday increases or decreases her chances of receiving active support from George W. Bush, “Evil Genius” Karl Rove, and the national GOP in her re-election campaign? (Duh)

In case anyone cares–Contrary to the beliefs of some, I have not taken a position on whether she should receive the GOP nomination again in the May 2 Republican primary 160-whatever days from now.

UPDATE: Go to the cartoon post for updates on the Schmidt he-said, she-said situation. Go here for the transcript of Bill Cunningham’s November 22 interview of her. Go here for “One More Look at All This Schmidt.”

UPDATE 2: An apparent partial answer: Schmidt has been asked to go, and will go, to Iraq early next year (HT Project Logic).

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Nov. 22 Update (Cunningham Interview): I didn’t catch the interview. I am listening to some of the reaction on WLW. In the meantime, here’s S.O.B Alliance member Project Logic’s take on the interview and the Schmidt press release. Cunningham’s interview transcript is here.

Nov. 22 Update (Gongwer Ohio): An in-state publication that requires a subscription had the following pertinent information yesterday as part of a longer article (no link is available–I subscribed to a free trial subscription, and was sent an e-mail attachment containing what is below):

Karen Tabor, spokeswoman for House Republicans, said Monday that Rep. Bubp had engaged in what he considered was a private conversation with Congresswoman Schmidt to express his concerns about the question of an immediate troop withdrawal.

“He spoke with the congresswoman in the context of a constituent, and someone with a military background who had concerns on the issue. I think it is a fair assumption that he was surprised to hear it on the floor,” Ms. Tabor said.

“I think she went an extra step and brought that up on the floor. It’s important, though, to note that Rep. Bubp never intended his remarks to be directed at Congressman Murtha or his service to our country. As a Marine colonel himself, he respects Congressman Murtha and his record and the service of all veterans.”

Related reports are in the the Nov. 22 Cincinnati Enquirer and the Nov. 22 New York Times (scroll down past the end of the section about Rep. Murtha). Given what’s in the orginal source cited above, I’m not convinced that The Times’ published quote of Ms. Tabor is accurate.

I have reason to believe that there may be more to this story than has been published thus far, but have concluded that I will not be able to publish it, or prove it, without someone in a position to know going on the record.

Suffice it to say that while I remain pleased at the general nature of Congresswoman Schmidt’s remarks, and with the results of the House’s decisive rejection of immediate withdrawal from Iraq, I’m less than pleased with the basis for the detail in the message she delivered. The cartoon stays, as I’m not about to begin whitewashing what I (or my “guest artists”) do here, but I’m not sure that I would have had it posted had I known what I now know. I still agree with the Jawa Report Update below that no matter how frantic the media spin, no one personally called anyone a “coward,” and that the person in question did not cast a “cowardly” vote, something one cannot say about his opposite and conflicting public remarks.
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UPDATE, Nov. 20: My Pet Jawa: “Hysterical Left Begins Building New Lie: ‘She Called Murtha a Coward’”
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Nov. 19 Wizbang Trackback Carnival participant.

As usual, a grand slam:

But what do Rockefeller and Reid and Kerry believe deep down? That voting for the war seemed the politically expedient thing to do in 2002 but that they’ve since done the math and figured that pandering to the moveon.org crowd is where the big bucks are? If Bush is the new Hitler, these small hollow men are the equivalent of those grubby little Nazis whose whining defense was, “I was only obeying orders. I didn’t really mean all that strutting tough-guy stuff.” And, before they huff, “How dare you question my patriotism?”, well, yes, I am questioning your patriotism — because you’re failing to meet the challenge of the times. Thanks to you, Iraq is a quagmire — not in the Sunni Triangle, where U.S. armed forces are confident and effective, but on the home front, where soft-spined national legislators have turned the war into one almighty Linguini Triangle.

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UPDATE: Must-reads from Marie Jon’ at Vincent Fiore’s place:
- America, you must be asleep…..
- What Did The President Say On Veteran’s Day?

It’s what you expect from The Times, but with a twist: The emphasis is on what “local rivals” of her own party think of her. Project Logic is in full rip mode.

The dictionary tells me that to be a “rival” you actually have to be a competitor or to be trying to take away what someone has. The only person known to fit that description in Jean Schmidt’s case is Democrat Jim Parker, the only declared candidate for the 2nd District seat in the 2006 election cycle. Right now, everyone else is a critic.

But expecting Manhattan’s quaint little alternative newspaper to get the English language right is apparently as unrealistic as expecting them to see if their reporters are actually doing their job.

It’s as unrealistic as expecting them to stop making excuses for totalitarian mass murderers.

It’s as unrealistic as expecting them to back up a truth-telling reporter when political correctness demands that you defend lies.

And it’s as unrealistic as expecting them to stop making sure their front page is “in sync” with The Washington Post before they publish.

This passage is in the introduction to an interview of French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut. the third paragraph of the excerpt reveals that France’s desperation is not just civil, it’s financial (bolds are mine):

Last night probably another hundred cars were set ablaze – as will be the case tonight, tomorrow night, and the following ones. Before large-scale rioting started on 27 October the police had already registered 30,000 car-becues this year – an average of, indeed, 100 a day. What a boost this must be to the French automobile industry. In the same period there were 3,800 attacks on police officers – a “normal” non-riot average of almost 13 a day.

Today in the Belgian newspaper De Tijd Nicole le Guennec, a French sociologist, says that car torching has been a common phenomenon in France for the past fifteen years. If this is true and if 100 is the average toll of destruction each night, a staggering 547,500 cars have been destroyed in France during that period. Probably more, because when one car is set alight and the fire destroys surrounding cars as well, the statistics count it as only one car fire. The worst night is traditionally New Year’s eve. Last New Year’s eve 330 cars were destroyed, a low figure compared to previous New Years when around 400 cars were set alight.

In contemporary multicultural France such staggering figures of lawlessness are considered to be a sign of “normality” and are hardly reported in the mainstream media. Neither is the following little piece of information. This week Professor Dominique Reynié of Sorbonne University in Paris, told the Brussels weekly Knack that the French state was obliged to borrow money last week to pay the wages of its civil servants. “The money has run out. One must concede: this is no example of a strong state.”

Perhaps what we are witnessing in Europe, but what the politicians and the media dare not say aloud, is the implosion of the (welfare) state. The Soviet Union suddenly collapsed in 1989, when owing to the inability of communism to create wealth, the state went bankrupt, was unable to maintain its army and hold its empire together. In France, the same thing might be happening. The socialist welfare state is no longer able to maintain law and order and is abandoning entire neighbourhoods to anarchy.

Oh, and what kind of culture has taken hold in those “entire neighbourhoods”? This second passage is from a different article called “Polygamy All Over the Place“:

The riots in France have made the world suddenly aware of a reality which city dwellers in Europe have known for some years: that there are no-go areas surrounding almost every major European town. These have become virtually self-ruling enclaves, abandoned by European authorities and police. A case in point is the Swedish town of Malmö, which is said to be unique because creeping anarchy has spread to almost the entire town.

Another thing which many people have known, but which has never been said aloud, is the spread of polygamy across Western Europe. Since yesterday, when French officials, including one government minister, cited polygamy as a possible factor of social breakdown in the suburbs, the media are suddenly devoting attention to a phenomenon which many people have known existed for years: Muslim immigrants going home for a holiday and returning with an additional wife.

….. The stealth with which the European authorities have for almost two decades now been accepting polygamy is a clear indication that Western Europe has lost all faith in its own traditional values, such as monogamous marriage. This also became clear recently when the Dutch authorities refused to annul the civil union which a Dutch man concluded with two women before a notary. The latter is morally distinct from the traditional polygamy of the Muslims because the two women involved also engage in a lesbian relationship (their “husband” said his wives were bisexual), making the case not only a trio-marriage but a homosexual relationship as well. At least the Muslims have never taken decadence that far. How can societies that accept such situations object to Muslims with multiple wives?

In fact the Muslims are not to blame for the collapse of Western Europe’s civilisation. The latter’s problems are entirely self-inflicted. The reality that the old continent is gradually, but ever more rapidly, becoming Islamic is a consequence of the suicide of its once Christian and now hedonist and secular culture. The attitude that everyone can do whatever he or she likes so long as it makes them happy, is leading us directly to Eurabia.

How have we been kept from learning these things until now?

Actually, a anonymous stranger was a life-saving angel for six:

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