He’s a 17-term incumbent who’s bloated his district with so much pork that the Journal once described him as having practically built the town himself. Nothing’s going to dislodge him unless he commits a major felony — and even then, per Abscam, I wouldn’t be so sure — but if there’s any justice this clip will put Bill Russell within single digits. Russell’s active military duty ended just two days ago so presumbly this signals the start of his campaign in earnest. I can’t find any polls online, but follow the last link to MM’s post and you’ll see that he’s (momentarily) outraising Murtha considerably.

Moms are always more sympathetic than dads and letting Mr. Sharratt speak off the cuff would have worked better than the stilted Teleprompter treatment, but no matter. Murtha’s been dodging this subject since last August, when the charges against Justin Sharratt and another Marine were dropped. If nothing else comes from this, it at least means he can’t dodge it anymore. As for the Hoekstra Amendment, you’ll find the text here. The argument against it is that it’s “unhelpful” to speak plainly about jihadist motives lest we abet their own religious glorification. By the same token, I guess, the Cold War should have been properly thought of as a fight to stop the spread of, er, “Russian culture.” Here’s the roll; only two Republicans voted with the left to try to defeat it. One was Ray LaHood. Guess who the other was.

Exit question: Why didn’t they chop this down to 30 seconds or a minute for airing on Pennsylvania TV? Or is that the next step?