Murray, Smith Turn Up Heat Early In Senate Campaign Senator Demands Apology For Attack In Oliver North Letter

Washington’s U.S. Senate race is 11 months away, but one would think it was next week by the way two candidates are going at each other.

In the last week, Sen. Patty Murray accused Rep. Linda Smith of calling her anti-American through surrogate Ollie North, and misconstruing her comments about the IRS.

Then Smith responded by ignoring the demand for an apology and challenging Murray to a debate next week in Seattle.

A spokesman for Murray says the incumbent will consider debating the Republican nominee for the post - which, he notes, Smith is not. At least not yet.

The action that touched off this war of words was a fund-raising letter for Smith. It was written by North, the former White House official involved in the Iran-Contra affair.

“If the United States Senate is ever going to protect American sovereignty from the globalists at the United Nations, restore family values and promote freedom, then we need to throw Patty Murray out and elect Linda Smith,” North said, urging readers to mail up to $1,000 to the Republican congresswoman’s campaign fund.

“The good Lord gave my best friend Betsy and me four wonderful children - and I don’t want to entrust their future to Patty Murray and her radical feminist friends at NOW or her globalist allies at the United Nations.”

Smith, he added, “is not afraid to stand up to the anti-American liberals who despise the very principles for which you and I stand.”

A separate letter from Smith, also sent out last month, took another tact, accusing Murray of being supportive of the IRS. It quoted a line from a 1995 speech in which Murray said there were “fewer deterrents stronger than the first-strike capabilities of our tax watchdogs.”

The IRS is a dog that has turned on its master, Smith said, in the letter that asks for up to $200 for her campaign.

Murray took offense at the suggestion that she’s anti-American.

“As the daughter of a disabled veteran and a Washington state native, I can assure you I was raised to love and respect our country,” the Democrat said in a letter sent to Smith’s home.

The comment about the IRS was taken out of context, from a speech on a different subject, Murray added.

A check of the Congressional Record shows that Murray was arguing against a proposed amendment that would have banned nonprofit organizations from lobbying Congress.

She was contending the new restriction wasn’t needed because the law keeps those groups from using federal money for lobbying activities. Any violations of that law can be adequately policed by the IRS, she said.

The amendment never passed Congress.

“I feel you owe me and the people of Washington an apology,” Murray wrote. “As we campaign in the months ahead, I look forward to a lively debate that will inform - not insult - the voters of Washington.”

In a two-page reply, Smith didn’t offer an apology, but she did seize on the suggestion of a debate. That’s where Murray could explain her comment about the IRS, the Vancouver congresswoman said.

“I propose that we debate a different issue every month from now until the election in November,” Smith wrote. “Since we are both home from Congress, I would propose that the first debate take place either Dec. 8 or Dec. 9 in Seattle.”

Rick Desimone, a campaign spokesman for Murray, said his boss still feels she’s owed an apology. “Calling someone anti-American crosses the line,” he said.

Murray will consider debating the Republican nominee after next September’s primary, Desimone said. That might not be Smith, he added, since at least one other Republican, Pierce County Executive Doug Sutherland, is also running for the post.

Sutherland got into the fray late Tuesday with a press release urging Smith to apologize for North’s comments and disassociate herself from the White House aide.

Scott Hildebrand, a spokesman for the Smith campaign, said Murray’s complaints about the fund-raising letters were just an attempt to “divert the campaign from one of issues to one of ad hominem attacks.”

North’s comments were no more scurrilous than some of the comments that Democratic groups have made about Smith, he said.

Smith has not asked for apologies because she realizes “campaigns are rough and tumble,” he added.

Hildebrand said he wasn’t surprised that Murray was not going to debate, although he insisted the senator had issued the challenge and Smith was just following up.

The Smith campaign hadn’t reserved a site for the forum, he said, but was sure that if the two candidates were going to debate “we could find a place.”

, DataTimes