Anthony Weiner's support base in 2005 did not really overlap with Clarke's. In fact, almost everyone I know who supported him in 2005 support Chris Owens or David Yassky. In other words, Anthony Weiner is alienating his Brooklyn base here, from what I can tell. Is this an indication that he has given up a city-wide office?

I also wonder about how much commonality Murtha and Weiner have on the war. Weiner, with the exception of during his run for mayor when he wanted progressive support, is pretty hawkish.

Weiner is on murtha's "get out now" bill.

This is a thinly disguised campaign event for Yvette Clarke. You can tell by the fact that its being held in a crucial neighborhood in cd 11, where she's running. They aren't holding this in manhattan where they could probably get a larger crowd are they? Or anywhere else in the city. Also Yvette Clarke is listed first on the notice, even though Weiner, a congressman, holds the higher office and is better known. Finally as pointed out, this neighborhood's city councilman, Yassky, and Congressman, Owens, aren't even invited, instead the only elected official billed as attending is the one who endorsed Clarke.

What you have here is Clarke having a campaign event in a neighborhood where she needs to look for votes if the race is really tight, and not wanting her campaign to pay for it. By calling it a "town hall", I guess she can get her city council's office to pay for it, although even that is not proper since the event is not in her district nor is it at city hall. If her council office is paying for it, or if some otherentity other than her campaign is paying for this event, the other candidates should complain. This is just as bad as Carl Andrews using his office in albany to send out mailers that are clearly campaign material but which he's forcing his constituents, not his campaign, to pay for.

Somebody tell Chris Owens to attend this event, be in the audience, and call out Yvette in the Q&A session. In fact fill the audience at the church with Owens supporters holding Owens signs. This is a clarke campaign event just begging to be hijacked, since she won't call it a campaign event.

Apparently she also forgot to pay her student loans.

I used to support Yvette - no longer.

She is such an opportunistic slimeball...and that is being as nice as I can possibly be.

I can't believe that Anthony Weiner is allowing her to do this, and that organizations like the NY Stonewall Democrats are still out there organizing on her behalf....

What's worst of it all, is that Yvette clearly does not care about any of their reputations, and worries more about her own good fortune, than what she is doing to those who support her.

I don't know who I support now, but it clearly is no longer Yvette Clarke.

I hear Anthony is making robocalls to plug this; which is a really awful idea - for him. I agree that Murtha probably does not have any idea what he's getting himself into, which leads me to believe he wasn't told.

This event has Yvette's new consulting/pr firm, 5W written all over it. They must have done polling showing that voters don't know much of where she stands on Iraq, so presto! A town hall on the Iraq war materializes right smack in the heart of a prime neighborhood in the district.

People haven't picked up on the real reason she hired 5W anyway. Look at 5W's client list on their web site. Their clients include:

American Jewish Congress
American friends of Magen David Adom
The Zionist Organization of America
Foundation for Jewish Camping
Shaare Zedeck Medical Center (of Jerusalem)

In fact nearly all of 5W's non profit (non corporate) clients are jewish organizations. Yvette didn't hire these guys because of their political acumen, they don't have that much political experience to begin with. She clearly hired them to help her get the jewish vote.

Therefore I suspect that 5W is having Yvette have this Iraq war town hall, so she can stand up there and sound more centerist on the war than the other candidates. Because while pulling out of the war in iraq is a hot button issue among progressive voters in the district, among the jewish voters Yvette is trying to court, the sentiment is not quite as far to the left. The idea no doubt for her to sound more pro-israel's interests than Yassky or the others. This is all her making "calculations", the same thing she accuses Yassky of doing like its something horrible to do. Yvette is hypocritical.

Has Murtha actually endorsed anyone in this race?

Does anyone know who is funding this event? The flyers have "Paid for by Clarke for Congress" on them, but is that just for the flyers, or is that for the event?

What an ignorant bunch of comments.

Weiner hasn't given up on Citywide office; he's only doing this to attain Citywide office. Last time he got about six black votes Citywide; Yvette's endorsement will at least double that number. He figures that after working as a stockboy at "Back to the Bank", he's got the Slope vote cornered anyway, and the Owens' folks are more the Food Co-op type anyway. Anyway, most of the Slope thinks Weiner is still their Congressman, and with Major misrepreseting them in his time honored manner of constituent lack of service, who can blame them?

As to the dis, Weiner learned manners at the hands of his old boss (never get between Chuck and either a TV camera OR the buffet table (espcailly if there's fried calamari. Anyway Weiner and Murtha probably figure Major is leaving, and have enough sense to know Chris is not taking his place. Yassky doesn't gain Weiner any votes he ain't already got, and Carl's already committed to Billy Thompson. As to John, perhaps Weiner is serving as a whip for Murtha's leadership campaign.

Sidnora, what better way would there be to appear centerist on the Iraq war issue than to be on stage with two people, Murtha and Weiner, who will be substantially to the left of her. Even if she's left of center, she'll APPEAR less liberal than the two sitting next to her. Yvette already knows she's going to lose Park Slope, so I believe that the purpose of the event is likely not to win votes there, but to win jewish votes in other parts of the district who may be on the fence about her because they're unsure about her foreign policy views

Mole: I didn't call you ignorant, but half of the comments made it seem like Weiner didn't know what he was doing and/or was no loger running citywide. Weiner knows exactly what he's doing and it stems from his desire to run Citywide. We essentially agree on this one, but a lot of those commenting don't get it.

And if Chris Owens (or any of the others, for that matter) is mad at Murtha, they shouldn't bother having supporters call him, unless those supporters are members of Congress. I trust Chris can muster a sufficeint number of those calls; I bet Carl and David can as well.

Well Yvette is calling it an endorsement. I assume she gets it outside, then wonders in and does another purely political "town hall" inside a Church!

getting endorsed by an anti-choice, anti-gay, pro-gun elected in park slope....that's quite a campaign team she's got goin there. Well done, Flateau and 1199!

It's time for this misguided woman to drop out. Who does she think she's kidding? First she lies, then she takes support from someone who if she shares those values, she has no place in Congress from this district.

Forget where he stands on any other issue; there ain't one of 'em, Owens included, who wouldn't be glad to have it, and whoever had would be usin' it just like Clarke.

Murtha is a congressman who regularly gets a ZERO ratiing from NARAL, a group whose endorsement Yvette Clarke sought, and an A+ rating from the NRA, a group whose endorsement Yvette would never accept. He also co-sponsored the flag burning amendment. If Murtha wasn't so staunchly opposing the war, the republicans would love him. Why would Yvette want his endorsement?

Also Murtha is said to be planning to run against Nancy Pelosi for Speaker if the Democrats retake the House, and you can be pretty certain he already has Yvette's vote locked up if she gets the cd 11 seat, whereas Major Owens has no doubt locked horns with Murtha on many occasions and would never support his getting promoted, nor would Chris. So s to Murtha has clear incentive to come up to brooklyn and endorse Yvette Clarke.

Although it was obvious from the outset that this "town hall" is really just a campaign event for Yvette orchestrated by Weiner, I could not immediately decide if there is anything wrong with that. It's not illegal, and I don't see how it's unethical. Since it's a campaign event, it doesn't violate protocol to not invite the local congressman. On the other hand, it smells bad, because the purported purpose (to discuss Iraq) is not the real one (to introduce Yvette as an anti-war candidate to Park Slope voters). If it fails the smell test, that's enough for me.

P.S. Doesn't strike me as a 5W orchestration; my understanding is 5W stopped working for the Clarke campaign 10 days ago. This is Weiner helping the candidate he endorsed. If Clarke wins, she would help Weiner in 2009. Assuming she remembers what happened in 2006, of course. She admits to a spotty memory.

I just listened to Murtha on the Brian Leherer show, and he obviously has no idea what's going on. Weiner must have suggested to Clarke that they approach Murtha about the possibility of swaping an endorsment for a vote for majority leader. I would almost feel bad for Murtha if it were such a bone-head move. He's going to get pummled tonight at the meeting.

"weren't" not "were"