Congressman John Murtha came to Park Slope tonight. The event may have been a sleazy attempt to push a particular local candidate, but ultimately it was a good thing.

Anthony Weiner brought Congressman John Murtha to speak about Iraq to Park Slope. He also turned it into an Yvette Clarke event, blurring the line between a unified town hall meeting and an endorsement event, but because about half the crowd was Chris Owens supporters, they had to go with the flow. Due to pressure from his constituents, Major Owens was ultimately included and the Yvette Clarke endorsement was downplayed. In fact, there was no overt mention by Congressman Murtha of endorsing Ms. Clarke.

I have to say, inside the church Anthony Weiner and Yvette Clarke were self-serving weasels, using John Murtha for their own political gain. It was kind of disgusting. By contrast, Major Owens focused only on the message that John Murtha had delivered, and John Murtha made it clear that in terms of opposition to Iraq, Major Owens led the way in Congress.

Now let me preface my next statement by saying I disagree with Congressman Murtha on many things. He is way too Conservative for my tastes. But, tonight, discussing Iraq (and local politics aside) John Murtha rocked! He outlined the lies told by Bush to get us into the war in Iraq. He outlined why Iraq was the wrong place to be at the wrong time for the wrong reasons and why we have to redeploy AWAY from Iraq and back into the war against the people who actually attacked us: al-Qaeda. Now, at the risk of being churlish, I will point out that I have been saying that long before Murtha has, but it takes some guts to say you were wrong, as Murtha did.

Anthony Weiner started the event and said all the obvious good things about Murtha and his message. But he also stuck in as many references to Yvette and the upcoming primary as he could. He said that we had to be united, but he did all he could to divide us when it came to local politics.

Yvette Clarke said nothing of any great interest and fumbled several times. To give her credit, perhaps standing on the same stage as two (ultimately three) Congressmen may have intimidated her. She implied she was an early opponent against the war, ignoring the fact that her rivals have been at least, if not more, adamantly opposed to the war. She did introduce a gentleman whose son had died in Iraq, who was honored by all. Ultimately, after much pressure yesterday, Yvette was forced to introduce Major Owens, who was one of the EARLIEST and MOST adamant opponents of the war, but who had not originally been invited.

Major Owens deferred completely to Murtha, saying point blank that nothing else mattered more than the need to listen to Murtha's message and discuss it.

Murtha's message was this: Bush lied to us to get us into the wrong war in Iraq, it is now a Civil War that has nothing to do with us, and we have to get out of it in order to fight against the enemy that attacked us on 9/11.

Many of his strongest statements were made in answer to questions after his main (and very excellent) speech. As an aside, and purely co-incidentally, I noticed that almost 50% of the questions asked were by members of Central Brooklyn Independent Democrat members. Kevin Caroll, for example, pointed out to Murtha that it wasn't just President Bush who marched to war, it was Congress, with Murtha himself part of the vanguard. Murtha's response was to agree and to admit that he was horribly wrong and horribly misled. Other questions had to do with the excessively pro-war stands of both Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer. Murtha's comment about Hillary was to say that "she is slowly coming around" and expressing surprise that she has been unwilling to take a more leadership role against the war. When someone pointed out that she could not think of one word said by Chuck Schumer against the war, Murtha agreed. Murtha did not say anything against our Senators, but he clearly disapproved of their lack of leadership against the war.

One questioner asked point blank if John Murtha would go to Connecticut and campaign for Ned Lamont. Murtha unequivocally said that he would campaign for Lamont.

In the end, Anthony Weiner once again stuck in a plug for Yvette and Yvette jumped up to share the photo op with Murtha and Weiner. But Murtha was the real show.

Congressman Murtha treated the event as a genuine town hall meeting on Iraq. Anthony Weiner and Yvette Clarke tried to stick their own agendas into the event, but ultimately it was about Murtha and the war.

Outside there were many Chris Owens supporters getting across the message that Chris and Major were the first and most vocal opponent of the Iraq war. Inside about half (roughly!) of the audience struck me as Chris supporters based on their buttons, who I knew and how they reacted to proceedings. But inside not one of the Chris supporters made any attempt to turn the Iraq war discussing to their own ends, unlike Weiner and Yvette. But outside they did indeed emphasize Chris' anti-war stand and Yvette's tendency to mislead the public.

Outside there were also a handful of odd people. My wife and I got cornered by an Orthodox Jew (could he tell we were Jewish??) who, believe it or not, was standing up for the Taliban and opposing the war in Afghanistan. To give him credit, his main point was that we have been lied to and should not be fighting wars based on lies. But he seemed too willing to forgive the Taliban for their atrocities.

As we filed out, I cornered Anthony Weiner and told him that although I petitioned for him in 2005 (he looked pleased and waited for more words of support) that because he turned this event to his own and Yvette's personal gain I would no longer support him. He took it in stride, of course, acting like it was never his intention to turn it into an Yvette event even though that is exactly how it was treated.

Now, to give him full credit, outside the event Anthony Weiner spent a great deal of time talking with the Owens crowd. He admitted that he had been wrong about Iraq and Major Owens had been right, something he had not said inside explicitly. I had to leave with my baby before I could catch much more, but no worries. I think I saw Ben Smith taping the intense and extended exchange between Weiner and the Owens crowd. So I am sure he can report on it at length.

Ultimately Democrats do have to pull together, and that is the message Murtha was giving. My objection to Weiner and Clarke is that they tried to turn that message to their own gain, but in the end Murtha, who has endorsed Clarke, did not let the event become a pro-Clarke event. He stuck to his message and so did the crowd. Inside the building, Yvette and Anthony were the only ones who tried to subvert the message to their own gain. But outside the event, even Anthony seemed to realize that those of us who support Chris are necessary for his future plans. However, I don't think we will be going along with him too much in the future.

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