Send Murtha packing

Murtha in trouble after calling constituents racist

A new independent poll shows Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) leading his opponent by only five points, just a week after he suggested residents of western Pennsylvania are racist.

Forty-six percent of voters in Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district said they supported Murtha, while 41 percent voiced support for his Republican challenger, retired Army Lt. Col. Bill Russell. Eight percent of voters said they were undecided, 4 percent said they preferred another candidate, and 1 percent refused to answer.

Murtha has found himself in hot water after telling the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that there is "no question" western Pennsylvania is racist. Murtha subsequently apologized, only to make another controversial statement about his constituents earlier this week.

“This whole area, years ago, was really redneck,” Murtha told a Pittsburgh television news affiliate earlier this week.

Yeah, it's a broad generalization, one that can be proven as often as it can be disproved by spending some time with folks in towns straddling I-70. (When passing through on the way further west for family stuff, I seem fated to hit errant deer around Everett, barely dodge them around Somerset, each not far from Shanksville of Flight 93 infamy.) But you can say the same thing around Windsor, MI or Bakersfield, CA not to mention Richmond, VA.

Saying there's racism in his district is unremarkable, but if it gets John Murtha, the champeeen pork barrel democrat kicked out and retired early, well, that's okay by me. That's, uh, change I can believe in.