Rep. endorses retired Marine for old seat

[unhappycamper]

Rep. endorses retired Marine for old seat
By Kimberly Hefling - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Jan 14, 2008 18:42:22 EST

WASHINGTON — A former Pennsylvania congressman said Monday he will not seek to win back the seat he lost to Iraq war veteran Patrick Murphy and instead endorses the potential candidacy of a father of a Marine killed last year in Iraq.

Mike Fitzpatrick, a Republican who served one term in Congress before losing the seat in 2006 in a hotly contested election to Murphy, D-Pa., said Thomas Manion “has the focus and experience to demand a successful conclusion to the mission in Iraq.”

Manion is a pharmaceutical executive who recently retired as a colonel in the Marine Reserves. Manion’s son, 1st Lt. Travis L. Manion, 26, of Doylestown, Pa., died April 29 during his second Iraq tour while living with an Iraqi unit he was leading and training.

Manion, a Republican, has invited reporters to his house on Tuesday to discuss his political intentions, but has not said whether he will run.

Murphy was a military lawyer who fought in Iraq with the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. He seized on his military record and voters’ discontent with the war to help win the election by about 1,500 votes. In office, he’s been front and center in the Democrats’ fight to bring troops out of Iraq.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/01/ap_marinefather_080114/