An Oct. 26 article incorrectly said that Pennsylvania congressional candidate Patrick Murphy attended West Point. He was a professor there.
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War Now Works Against GOP
Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) has donated $1 million to the campaigns of 18 military veterans. That includes $220,000 to Tammy Duckworth, seeking the suburban Chicago seat vacated by Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R), and $130,000 each to Murphy and to Joseph A. Sestak Jr., who is challenging Rep. Curt Weldon (R) in suburban Philadelphia.
After campaigning for Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Sen. Debbie Stabenow in Flint last week, Kerry maintained that the Iraq war has become a national proxy for other worries about GOP leadership.
  Democrat Patrick Murphy, center, has made the Iraq war a major issue in his challenge of Rep. Michael G. Fitzgerald in Pennsylvania's 8th District. A veteran of the Iraq war, Murphy calls for all U.S. troops to be withdrawn within 12 months. "We can change what we're doing in Iraq," he said. (By Chip Somodevilla -- Getty Images) '08 Presidential Race Check out this guide to all the Democrats and Republicans who are running (or are likely to run) for president next year. |
"I believe there is a continuum of incompetence and outright misleading that characterizes this administration on everything," Kerry said. "There is no disagreement that it's been mishandled and mismanaged and that we need a change. It runs very, very deep."
To emphasize the war, Kerry will attend with Murphy a Thursday rally among veterans. Murphy has made his military training and the war the centerpiece of his campaign against Fitzpatrick, 43, the GOP incumbent, who spent 10 years on the Bucks County Commission.
"It's forward-thinking: You anticipate what your enemy might do next. It's leadership," Murphy, a lawyer who served with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, said in an unsubtle slap at Republicans. Yet in an MSNBC television interview as he launched his candidacy, he repeatedly refused to say how he would have voted on the 2002 Iraq war resolution -- an awkward moment he calls "a lesson learned."
Murphy now calls for all U.S. troops to be withdrawn within 12 months, with a strike force of 30,000 left in remote Iraq or Kuwait. He said 8,000 to 10,000 troops should be redeployed to Afghanistan. Fitzpatrick opposes setting a timetable.
At a recent debate, each candidate was permitted to ask the other a final question.
Fitzpatrick asked: "Pat, how many school districts are there in Bucks County and what are their names?"
Murphy asked: "Congressman Fitzpatrick, when are you going to give the American public the straight story on where you are with the war in Iraq?"
Powell reported from Connecticut. Staff writers Kari Lydersen in Chicago and Robin Shulman in New York and political researcher Zachary A. Goldfarb in Washington contributed to this report.
