OH-02: Schmidt Called Upon to Clarify False Statements on China-Cuba Offshore Drilling

The continuing saga of false statements by Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Loveland) about communists drilling for oil off the coast of Florida just keeps getting longer and more bizarre.

Schmidt first made the false claim that the Chinese are drilling off the coast of Florida on the floor of the U.S. House in June, continuing a well-established pattern of fabrications by her. Others made that claim as well (including Dick Cheney), but later retracted it. Schmidt has not.

Now Schmidt is raising campaign cash using a fund-raising letter that devotes substantial space to the scary-but-totally-false notion of communists drilling off the American shoreline. That's bad enough by itself, but the web of deceit gets deeper and stranger. In the letter, Schmidt can't even truthfully describe her own prior statement. She writes that she "stood on the House Floor and pointed out that Cuba was drilling off our shores." Wrong - last time it was China. Then, when confronted about the letter by Eric Kleefeld of Talking Points Memo, Schmidt staffer Bruce Pfaff denied that it came from her office.

Today, Hamilton County Democratic Party Chairman Tim Burke called on Congresswoman Jean Schmidt to clarify once and for all who she believes is drilling off the coast of Florida, and whether or not she is trying to raise funds based on a claim that China or Cuba is drilling near American shores:

It is one thing to make a mistake. Others did. They acknowledge it. It was over. But not Jean Schmidt. She makes a claim on the floor of the House that is patently wrong, refuses to correct it. Then she tries to make money off of it. When challenged, her staff claims the letter didn’t come from her.

If Jean Schmidt stands by the bogus claims she repeats in her letter, she should come out and acknowledge that it’s her letter. It is not surprising Jean Schmidt would stick her foot in her mouth, she’s done that before. But I’m afraid it is just the latest in a long line of embarrassments for Congresswoman Schmidt.

Given the history here, I'm not predicting any response by Schmidt, at least not any admission that claims she has made were wrong.