And then there's Murtha.

A smaller piece in the paper today is on John Murtha. It does a pretty good job of describing the remarkable arc of his career - for years he was a classic small-city US Rep, bringing home some economic development/pork to his Rust Belt district and having a fairly low national profile. But since he came out strongly for withdrawal, he's become a national lightning rod. Yet the hometown folks still seem to love him - and with good reason. He really embodies his district: conservative, but not reactionary, devoted to the troops but not to the Administration, and ultimately worried about domestic issues most.

The PA Legislature article I discussed below doesn't mention him at all, but he's turned into a bit of a Democratic star. His district is right at the border between blue SW PA and bright red Central PA ("Alabama in the middle"), and his high profile should be a very good thing for nearby Dems, who will have a strong Dem with ironclad bona fides to point to, as opposed to the culturally liberal national Dems that so frighten rednecks.