There she goes again ...

This is extracted from an article I wrote about the race for the House of Representatives in Ohio District 2. I hope you don't mind this double dip:

Being from Louisiana, I know about political incompetence, bad judgment, and corruption. Our congressional delegation includes two stars of the genre, "Dollar Bill" Jefferson and David "caught with his pants down" Vitter.

Disclosure: I volunteered and voted for Republican Vitter because I thought he was an effective senator when he ran on a family values platform. I also thought his good example might combat the perception of Louisiana politicians as corrupt. Ha!

Apparently Cincinnati area voters have their own embarrassment in Jean Schmidt. I knew about the Murtha gaffe even before coming here, but now that I vote in her district I have gotten the pleasure of seeing her up close.

On the Ohio Daily Blog, commenter “Jeff” got a bit overheated as he brought us up to date on Schmidt. Jeff's comment, with minor editing, follows:

Amazing Rep. "Mean Jean" Schmidt (R-Loveland) is on an absolute tear of outrageous fabrications, and the latest one is on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

We all know Schmidt's history of playing fast and loose with the truth -- for example, lying about meeting Tom Noe, lying on her resume, claiming endorsements she didn't have, and plagiarizing an op-ed piece from a colleague's letter to constituents. Recently Schmidt sent out a fund-raising letter falsely asserting that Dr. Victoria Wulsin "participated in grotesque medical experiments," although Schmidt's press person later tried to lie away the lie by saying that she "wasn't suggesting Wulsin participated in the experiments."

Here comes another big one. On June 5th, the truth-challenged Schmidt took her misspeaking skills to the floor of the House, denouncing federal limitations on drilling for oil by declaring that China is currently drilling off the Florida coast.

This very day there is indeed drilling activity off of our country's coast. Not by our U.S. companies. That would be illegal. Instead, the Chinese are drilling off the coast of Florida with their new energy partner, Cuba.

The only problem with Schmidt's unequivocal assertion is that -- you guessed it --- it is false. Western diplomats in Havana tell McClatchy that to the best of their knowledge, there is no Chinese drilling in or around Cuba.

jbv's Competitive Edge