Today's Rochester Post Bulletin reports that "Gutknecht, Walz bring in heavy hitters." As BSP has earlier noted, the heavy-hitters are John Murtha and Newt Gingrich. Reporter Matthew Stolle outlines the case:
GOP Rep. Gil Gutknecht and DFL challenger Tim Walz brought in a couple of political heavyweights on Sunday in the latest sign that the U.S. congressional race is shaping up to be a dogfight.
Rep. John Murtha, a 16-term Pennsylvania Democrat and former Marine, stumped for Walz during a political rally at the home of a southwest Rochester couple. Meanwhile, former GOP Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was the main attraction at a Gutknecht fundraiser in the Radisson Hotel in downtown Rochester.
Their speeches and comments reflected the political divide over the four-year-old Iraq war and its relationship to the war on terrorism. They also underscored the issue's prominence in political races across the country, including Minnesota's 1st Congressional District, where the 12-year incumbent Gutknecht is fending off a challenge by political newcomer Walz.
Regular readers of Bluestem Prairie have learned how important this issue is for people in the Fighting First, from the headlines generated by Gutknecht's wobbling on the issue to letters-to-the-editor in newspapers across the district.
Stolle leads off with Murtha's afternoon appearance:
In Rochester, Murtha said the public was tired of what he called the Republican-controlled "rubber stamp Congress" and was eager for change. The rally was at the home of Sarah and John Pacchetti of southwest Rochester, the same couple who hosted Sen. John Kerry when he ran for president in 2004.
"I see an intensity out there I have not seen for years. People want a change. They want somebody to speak up like Tim," Murtha said about Walz, who stood next to him on a porch overlooking a crowd of an estimated 60 people.
Murtha catapulted to the national stage with his call for U.S. troops to leave Iraq. Murtha said American troops did a "marvelous" job in the early stages of the war, but were let down by political leaders who were wrong about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction and having connections to al-Qaida. The Bush administration also failed to adequately plan for the occupation, he said.
He said that by any number of measures, the war in Iraq is a failed policy: Iraq produces less oil and electricity now than it did under Saddam Hussein and incidents of violence, much of it Iraqi-on-Iraqi attacks, have soared, while America spends $8 billion a month on the conflict.
"I see no way that it can be won militarily. It's a police action. And we have to revert to diplomatic effort in a police action," Murtha said.
Gingrich met with the press before a $1000-a-plate fundraiser at the Marriott. As we predicted, Gingrich sounded the terrorism alarm:
. . . he said a U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq would spell disaster for America and a bloodbath for Iraq.
"My question would be: What signal does he think it sends to all our allies around the world who watch the United States abandon an ally and walk out as (Iraqis) get slaughtered, which they will," Gingrich said.
"Gingrich said an American withdrawal would effectively turn the Persian Gulf over to an Iran desirous of nuclear weapons that "wants to defeat the United States and eliminate Israel from the face of the earth."
While Democrats have argued that the war in Iraq has been a distraction from the war on terrorism, Gingrich says Iraq is part of a larger global threat. An anti-American coalition is emerging, composed of such countries as Iran, North Korea, Somalia, Syria and Venezuela. In an age of nuclear and biological weapons, America's response should be not to "stay the course," but to redesign the war and the country's strategy for the threats ahead, he said.
"I believe if we mobilize now, that we still have a huge net advantage over our enemies. But if we wait and let them get nuclear weapons, and wait and let them get better organized, we're going to be potentially in a Third World War," he said.
It's unclear from the article if Gingrich was talking about Murtha or Walz sending a signal. Stolle points outs the policy differences between Murtha and Walz:
While the Iraq war has opened a political divide between Democrats and Republicans, it has tended to obscure tensions within each party. While Murtha has called for a military withdrawal from Iraq, Walz has not. Walz, a high school teacher and retired National Guard Command Sergeant Major, reiterated his call for "robust diplomacy" as a critical element in bringing the troops home.
"I can tell you for certain the one plan that's not working is the Bush administration's plan. That one is a failure," Walz said.
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