Congresswoman seen as hero, villain

The Republican has been parodied by 'Saturday Night Live.'
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Messages of "You go girl!" and a marriage proposal mix with daily angry phone calls and notes to a Republican congresswoman who called a Democratic representative and Marine veteran a coward for wanting U.S. soldiers out of Iraq.
Rep. Jean Schmidt, the lowest-ranking House member, became a villain and a hero in her southwest Ohio district with the comment, which earned national ridicule. Schmidt says her wording was a mistake.
She hopes to capitalize on her newfound notoriety when she works on bills and against possible primary challengers who say she is breeding anti-Republican sentiment.
Schmidt said she decided spur-of-the-moment to deliver this message last month to Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.: "Cowards cut and run. Marines never do."
"Would I have changed the words? Yes. Would I change the message? No," Schmidt said Thursday. "I am sorry to have caused any consternation to Congressman Murtha."
Democrats booed her on the House floor, and "Saturday Night Live" did a parody, even copying her star-spangled suit. Schmidt said she and her staff laugh about the comedy sketch, and they have their own DVD copy.
She expects the situation to give her a political advantage in her district -- one of the nation's most conservative -- because she says her message of supporting the Iraq war to combat terrorism represents her constituents' concerns.
Conservative reputation
Her chief of staff, Barry Bennett, says the talk about her in Washington isn't all positive, but she is benefiting by getting a conservative reputation.
"You're not important in this town unless they're talking about you, and they're definitely doing that now," he said.
Schmidt says she was relaying the coward comment from Ohio state Rep. Danny Bubp, a Republican who later denied mentioning Murtha. She also said she didn't know Murtha had been a Marine.
Before the comments, she acknowledged struggling to know her 434 more senior colleagues. Bennett jokingly put it this way: "She looks at them and sees 300 white men who all look the same."
In her first floor speech, she had promised not to engage in name-calling. Two Republican rivals in her district say she went back on her promise, then lied about who was responsible for the words.
Challengers
Former Republican U.S. Rep. Bob McEwen and state Rep. Tom Brinkman said they are working together to decide who should run against her in a May primary, trying to avoid a crowded field like the last primary that Schmidt won with 31 percent of the vote.
They say her infamy will embolden Democrats to try to take her seat next November if she's the GOP nominee.
Democrats' best chance to do that would be Democratic newcomer Paul Hackett, but the Iraq veteran who narrowly lost to Schmidt this summer says he is staying in a Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.
Schmidt's Washington office has fielded angry calls from places including California, New York, Oregon and Washington. The Democratic National Committee has begun a fundraising campaign to put up a billboard near Schmidt's Portsmouth district office saying "Shame on You, Jean Schmidt: Stop Attacking Veterans. Keep Your Eye on the Ball -- We Need a Real Plan for Iraq."
Schmidt is not worried about how most Democrats see her and calls her GOP rivals "a fringe group." An avid marathoner, the 54-year-old former Ohio Right to Life president ravenously talks about battling liberals on abortion and other issues in the 1970s as if it happened yesterday.
Supporter
One supportive e-mail came from Howard Hines of Batavia, Ohio, a self-described "card-carrying member of the vast right-wing conspiracy." He said in an interview that he told Schmidt not to worry about losing conservative support.
"I think she learned some very valuable lessons that will make her a better congressperson in the years to come," Hines said.
Schmidt has sponsored two bills in her short tenure, one to stop recorded telephone calls from unidentified groups to private homes and one to force the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast states to adopt uniform building codes.
Democratic Rep. Vic Snyder, a Vietnam veteran from Arkansas who demanded Schmidt be admonished under House rules for attacking another member on the floor, doesn't think his party will hold a grudge against her as long as she shows humility. She avoided admonishment by withdrawing her comments.
"Everyone makes mistakes and she made a doozy, but I think she realized it and apologized for it and learned from it," Snyder said.
But there is still hope among war critics that a few words will be both Schmidt's claim to fame and her undoing. Jeff Szabo of Amelia, an independent with a son in the Air Force who has served in Afghanistan, wrote an angry letter published in The Cincinnati Enquirer, saying military families might turn against her.
"She's embarrassed the Republican Party, no doubt about it," Szabo said.