Melissa Hart, GOP incumbent in Pennsylvania's 4th district, wouldn't, in a normal electoral cycle, be in much danger of losing her seat. True, she's a mini-Me version of Orc-on-Dog Santorum, on social issues, but her constituents, alas, don't dislike that. She's a wholly-owned subsidiary of the pharmaceutical industry, and even that would pass muster in her sleepy district... except for the Bush Administration's assault on
Medicare prescription benefits (courtesy of
Nancy Johnson, CT-05, who wrote the final draft of the legislation, I understand). However, seniors
do care about social security and prescription drug coverage.
So she called the police on them.
Down with Tyranny picked up the story from an AFL-CIO blog:
http://blog.aflcio.org/...
Seniors showed up with a box of doughnuts at Representative Hart's offices in Allison Park to protest the "donut hole" gap in prescription coverage. Hart's operatives called the cops to have them removed. Donuts are so threatening. Mmmm, donuts....
Howie Klein points out the parallel with Marilyn Musgrave trying to have Michael Schiavo removed by police from a public debate against our candidate in CO-04, Angie Paccione.
Howie's got a clip from the tv news coverage of the Pennsylvania fracas posted at Down with Tyranny:
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/
Fortunately for us, Melissa Hart isn't running unopposed. We've got a strong challenger against her this time, Jason Altmire, and he's doing real well in the polls at this point. Show him some love, if you have any left to spare from the marathon, at:
http://www.actblue.com/...
(where you'll also find a run-down on other PA House seats the GOP might lose)