Jim Gerlach must be worried about
Lois Murphy, the Democrat who came within a whisker of unseating him last year and is running against him again in 2006.
Gerlach insists that a fundraiser headlining Karl Rove will go on as planned on Tuesday, despite calls from his district to avoid the unseemliness of rubbing elbows with the man who revealed classified state secrets for the purpose of ruining the career of the wife of an administration critic, according to a story by Mary Ann Akers which appeared in Roll Call (subscription) last Thursday.
"We've actually gotten more RSVPs in the last couple of days because of Rove being in the paper," says Michael Gula of Keelen Communications, the firm handling the fundraiser for Gerlach. "We're getting a lot of free press."
Rove wants to keep Gerlach in Congress because Gerlach is one of the core residents of Tom DeLay's House of Scandal. Gerlach has received almost $30,000 directly from DeLay's scandal money, so his unwavering loyalty to DeLay (and Rove and Bush, of course) is rock solid. Gerlach has also given $2,000 to DeLay's legal defense fund.
More below the fold.
Murphy called for Gerlach to consider the concerns that his constituents have about Rove's activities, the
Philadelphia Inquirer (registration) reported.
"Jim Gerlach should do the right thing and not feature Karl Rove at his fund-raiser," said Lois Murphy, Gerlach's likely Democratic challenger for the Sixth District congressional seat.
By not cancelling Rove's appearance at the fundraiser at a time when the evidence of serious wrongdoing is mounting daily, Gerlach is creating an unsavory and undeserved connection between the good citizens of his district and Rove's lawlessness.
Gerlach's constituents deserve to be treated in an honorable manner and the honorable thing is to postpone Rove's appearance until such time as he is cleared in this matter. Instead, Gerlach is featuring Rove as his headliner and endorsing all that Rove has done and stands for as he accepts Rove's endorsement.
Many of us who live in this district are deeply concerned about the damage Rove has done to our national security by leaking classified state secrets. And we are equally concerned about the ongoing threat to our security posed by his continued access to classified information.
"This is not a personal attack," (Murphy) said. "It is legitimate criticism. He is cozying up to Washington insiders rather than taking seriously the concerns people here in the district have about Karl Rove."
The rooftop fundraiser includes a "VIP roundtable discussion" with Rove. A $1,000 check gets you in, but it takes a $2,500 check to get a seat at the table with him.
As Gula wrote in an email to Akers:
"We will not be canceling or postponing the Gerlach fundraiser on Tuesday night with Karl Rove. As Ronald Reagan once said, 'you dance with the one that brung ya.'"
The notion of Jim Gerlach and Karl Rove dancing a frenzied, pulsating dance on an air-conditioned roof-top overlooking a sizzling, sweltering, angry Washington full of people suffering on the short end of Bush's cruel tax cuts to the repetitive, rhythmic, hypnotizing music of ka-chinging cash registers along with a bunch of rich Halliburton lobbyists shovelling taxpayer money that should have paid for up-armoring Humvees into Gerlach's coffers just makes me want to vomit.
But I'm going to save that bile for another day.
Instead, I'm going to funnel my anger into a positive channel and send Lois Murphy some love.
http://loismurphy.org