"I Can't Believe I'm Losing To This Guy."

That was Jon Lovitz as Michael Dukakis in the classic SNL 1988 debate. And looking at this current crop of Republicans running for office, I'm tempted to say the same thing, with the caveat that I don't expect to lose to most of them.

Take Montana, where Conrad Burns kicked off his tough Senate race against Jon Tester by deciding to yell at firefighters, a gaffe which will surely get him on Harry Shearer's "Apology of the Week" list:

U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns pointed across the Billings airport Sunday and accused a member of an elite firefighting team of not doing “a God damned thing’’ and charged that crew members just “sit around’’ on the job, the original version of a state report said [...]

On Thursday night, Burns, a Republican facing a stiff re-election challenge this year, issued a written apology for his comments. He said he shouldn’t have criticized the hard-working firefighters for how the fires were handled.

Burns was at the Billings airport Sunday and approached some members of the Augusta (Va.) Hot Shots, who were also waiting to catch a plane. In what the report called “an altercation,’’ Burns told them they had done “a poor job’’ fighting the 92,000-acre blaze near Billings and should have listened to the concerns of local ranchers [...]

Rosenthal’s original report of the incident recounted how Burns pointed to a member of the Augusta Hot Shots crew across the airport waiting area and telling her:

“See that guy over there? He hasn’t done a God-damned thing. They sit around. I saw it up on the Wedge fire and in northwestern Montana some years ago. It’s wasteful. You probably paid that guy $10,000 to sit around. It’s gotta change.’’

Rosenthal wrote in both versions: “I offered to the senator that our firefighters make around $8-$12 per hour and time-and-a-half for overtime. He seemed a little surprised that it wasn’t higher.’’

These are the same group of freelance firefighters, the Augusta Hot Shots, that worked at Ground Zero after 9/11, and have been sent out 35 times since then. What politician in his right mind criticizes first responders, and incorrectly calls them bunch of lazy fat cats?

I can't believe we're losing to this guy. Because we aren't. Support Jon Tester.

Then there's Senate candidate Michael Steele from Maryland, seen as a rising star in GOP politics, who thought it'd be a great idea to give an interview to a large group of reporters that essentially ripped his party and called his political affiliation a scarlet "R". The column this tirade generated was unsourced, but Steele eventually owned up to it, then backtracked by calling Bush his homeboy and contradicting his earlier statement that he wouldn't want Bush campaigning with him. Then he claimed that the interview was supposed to be off the record (as if that makes it all better), but it turns out even that is a complete lie, and there's an email trail to prove it:

From: "Doug Heye" To: "Dana Milbank" cc: Subject: RE: Reconsider? 07/24/2006 03:38 PM
Won't waste your time, and know deadlines are tight.

I'd probably be fine with those you sent, but since it was a backgrounder, if there are specific quotes you'd like to use, can you email them to me so I could sign off?

I can hold off on signing off for other press for the time being, as well.

In other words, the Steele campaign SPECIFICALLY signed off on quotes for the Milbank article, and now Steele claims the entire interview is off the record.

I can't believe we're losing to this guy. Because we aren't. Support Ben Cardin or Kweisi Mfume. (disclosure: I'm probably more on Cardin's team at this point, though I don't really have a dog in the fight. The primary is in September.)

Then there's total nutcase Curt Weldon, who has done so many crazy things, from pinning medals on Moammar Gadhafi (before we reconciled with Libya, by the way), to wanting to personally supervise a dig for suspected Iraqi WMD without telling the Pentagon, to having family members hired by government contractors whose bills he advances, to criticizing his opponent for the Congress for finding proper medical care for his daughter. No kidding, look at this:

Sitting in the oncology ward at Children’s National Medical Center on Jan. 19, retired Adm. Joe Sestak and his wife, Susan, awaited the doctors’ verdict about the condition of their 5-year-old daughter, Alexandra.

She had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor last summer and given three to nine months to live. The Sestaks lived for four months in the ward. They watched as their daughter survived three surgeries, and as she endured chemotherapy.

But that winter day, doctors told the Sestaks that Alexandra had done remarkably well and that, although the cancer could reemerge, she could resume living like a healthy girl.

(snip)

Weldon attacked Sestak’s decision to continue owning a home in Virginia while only renting in Pennsylvania and questioned why Sestak did not move back to Pennsylvania when he was working at the Pentagon. Weldon commutes from Pennsylvania each day.

Weldon also suggested Sestak should have sent his daughter to a hospital in Philadelphia or Delaware, rather than the Washington hospital. Sestak said that as soon as doctors give his daughter the all-clear, he’ll buy in Pennsylvania...

If you're Curt Weldon, you see a little girl with a malignant brain tumor and think, "Campaign opportunity!"

I can't believe we're losing to this guy. Because we're not. Support Joe Sestak for Congress.

The Republican crop of candidates this year is noticeably weaker than in recent years, the Democratic crop is pretty strong; and considering that at the end of the day, you vote for candidates, I think our chances are pretty good to make some gains. As I said yesterday, the key is going to be the tangible changes Democrats can make once they get in, to reverse the pessimism taking over the country. But stopping Burns, Steele and Weldon is like shooting fish in a barrel.

P.S. Check this out:



The DCCC's ad man is pretty solid this cycle.