Who is Colonel Danny Bubp?
Yesterday, as all the blogosphere, Left and Right, now knows, first-term Ohio Congresswoman Jean Schmidt offered these words as she stood in the well of the House:
Ms. Schmidt: Yesterday I stood at Arlington National Cemetery attending the funeral of a young marine in my district. He believed in what we were doing is the right thing and had the courage to lay his life on the line to do it. A few minutes ago I received a call from Colonel Danny Bop, Ohio Representative from the 88th district in the House of Representatives. He asked me to send Congress a message: Stay the course. He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message, that cowards cut and run, Marines never do. Danny and the rest of America and the world want the assurance from this body - that we will see this through.
Of course, as we all know as well, Schmidt's personal attack on the Hon. Congressman (and two-time war veteran from Pennsylvania) sent the House floor into a well-deserved meltdown, with Democrats shutting down the body until Schmidt withdrew her words.
But an unanswered question remains, who is this Colonel Danny Bubp, and why does his opinion matter so much to Ms. Schmidt? One would assume that he would possess at least as much military experience as the man he essentially termed a coward, in lieu of the Congressman's call for the troops in Iraq to return home within six months.
Well, we do know that Colonel Bubp is an Ohio state representative, in fact, from a district contained within Ohio's 2nd Congressional district, which Ms. Schmidt won in a special election earlier this year. And how did he win that seat for the first time in 2004?
His own words from the local paper:
Danny Bubp, a West Union attorney facing retired educator Cy Richardson for the Ohio House of Representatives seat here, believes that's why he'll win.Bubp, who grew up in Sardinia, calls the 88th district a "good Christian community" that's against abortion and same-sex marriage and protective of its right to bear arms.
"That's the kind of district I want to serve in," said Bubp, 50.
And his prior "political experience"?
Colonel Bubp, a 1984 graduate of the (4th tier) Ohio Northern College of Law, spent all but one of the past twenty years in private practice. The single foray into public service during that time was a year as a county judge.
But Col. Bubp didn't waste his legal education. His most recognized pro-bono work to fight the removal of Ten Commandment monuments from public grounds. Here he is, receiving the coveted "Ten Commandments Leadership Award" with none other than Congresswoman Schmidt herself.
And that extensive military experience Ms. Schmitz determined was vastly superior to Congressman Murtha's? According to his own biography at his campaign website:
Military Service : 1978 - Commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps
1978-Present - Continues to serve in United States Marine Corps Reserve as a Colonel of Marines
1997-Present - Serves on the staff at the National Defense University, Washington, D.C. as Team Leader for the Reserve Component National Security Course
2003 - Graduate of Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island
2003 - Served on the J-3 Staff at United States Central Command, Tampa, Florida for General Tommy Franks in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom
Nearly thirty years in the Marines, and Col. Bubp missed every single military engagement? Southeast Asia? Beirut? Grenada? Panama? Gulf War? The Balkans? Somolia? He even missed embassy service in Paris!
But that hasn't stopped Col. Bubp from attacking the character of decorated veterans in the past. Col. Budp campaigned for Schmidt in her race against Iraq veteran Paul Hackett in the special election:
Later in the afternoon, the Schmidt campaign staged a "Support Our Troops" rally in Union Township's Veterans Memorial Park, where about 50 people gathered under the park's Vietnam-era medical evacuation helicopter to hear speech-making by Schmidt and some of her supporters, including Glenda Kiser of Amelia, the mother of Sgt. Chuck Kiser, an Army reservist killed last year in Iraq.The event was billed as a rally to honor veterans and local residents serving in Iraq, but much of the speech-making - particularly from State Rep. Danny Bubp, R-West Union - consisted of criticizing Hackett, an Iraq war veteran, for his differences with President Bush and the administration's policies in Iraq.
Bubp - who, like Hackett, is a Marine Corps Reserve officer - stood under the helicopter's wings in his military dress uniform, saying that the one thing military officers do not do "is criticize their commander in chief."
"I served for eight years under a president who loathed the military but we never said a word about it," Bubp said
Of course, there's "served" and "served", though it looks as though Col. Bubp has just been "served up" by his favorite Congresswoman as fodder in the war against true American patriots.
Bon appetite.
Comments
I don't see any "service with marines" in his bio, just staff jobs.
During GW I he made it as far as Tampa??? So did I. Hell, he might have been one of the clueless "Jointness" staff morons I handheld and briefed on how to use a distributed C3I system.
Not a bio to impress.
Posted by: Eric | November 19, 2005 09:45 AM
So they essentially are a mutual admiration society of the fraternal order of fundie sluttists? Why am I not surprised?
But considering the things she said against Hackett, which seems counter to her newfound support for the troops, the real question is what kind of wackos live in her district? Are they all Crusaders after the extermination of Muslims at any cost?
Colonel Bubp is obviously a freak, Schmidt is obviously a disgrace, and it'll be interesting to see how the current military members of her district vote the next time around.
Posted by: Kevin Hayden | November 19, 2005 02:00 PM
Why is it Schmidt could barely get those wackos in CD-2 to vote for her and the failed administration to which she is s loyal? I think Paul Hackett needs to take another run at Schmidt, rather than the Senate.
Posted by: tom | November 19, 2005 02:51 PM
Hi Tom,
That's what I wrote Karl Frisch - "Hackett for U.S. Senate" karl AT hackettforohio DOT com (his day job is with Rep. Slaughter's WDC office) last night.
No primary fight, and a walk-over in the general against a visible drooler. All Hackett need do is loop the Schmidt-Cowardice moment from the House floor.
Posted by: Eric | November 19, 2005 03:09 PM
w/r/t "He even missed embassy service in Paris!"
This implies that embassy duty is an easy billet. In fact, embassy duty is hard to qualify for in the Corps and serving on the embassy guard staff is a high honor.
In other words, small wonder Bubp didn't get picked for it.
Posted by: fiat lux | November 19, 2005 03:51 PM
The proper term for the congressman is "Staff Puke".
Posted by: Prudence Goodwife | November 20, 2005 09:26 PM
Pru,
Could you be refering to Col. Budp (Ret.), member of the Ohio legislature, representing the 88th district?
I don't think all "staff" are "pukes", but I do recognize that most are.
Posted by: Eric | November 20, 2005 10:32 PM
Any man who questions a fellow Marine's patriotism is a puke in my book, whether he's on staff or not.
Posted by: Prudence Goodwife | November 20, 2005 10:49 PM
"Nearly thirty years in the Marines, and Col. Bubp missed every single military engagement? Southeast Asia? Beirut? Grenada? Panama? Gulf War? The Balkans? Somolia? He even missed embassy service in Paris!"
Lefties' ignorance of things military is universal, but is evidenced again by this asinine comment. "Southeast Asia," a.k.a. Vietnam, was long over by the time Bubp was commissioned a 2dLt in 1978. Beirut, Grenada, Panama and Somalia all involved Marine Expeditionary Units (MEUs) built around a single battalion of Marine infantry; the Marine contigent in Panama and the Balkans (the latter an air war) weren't much bigger. As for the Gulf War, most reservists were used to backfill personnel slots here in the US to replace active duty Marines who made the deployment to Kuwait. And, as already noted above, embassy duty is very difficult to get (particularly for officers).
I appreciate that facts are a always sticking point for liberals (one easily ignored), but I suggest that you stick to topics you know something about, e.g., French history.
Posted by: schmedlap | November 21, 2005 02:19 PM
Budp missed the last draft year, but people I know found a way to get to Nam. One gave up his midshipman billet and his 1975 commission, went as a Marine infantryman, and was KIA in 1974. We both shot pistol competitively for our unit.
Can you find a unit command in his service record that isn't ... silly? I couldn't. I'm still looking for the thesis he had to have done to have graduated from the NWC.
Another of our friends missed all combat during his 20+, retiring as a Lt.Col. from the Army, however, his career was full of TRADOC work, right up to the teaching end, and compared to that doing Jointness just seems fashionable and insubstantial.
Your milage may vary. I see the forces through staff colleges, which isn't the only, or best, perspective. I'm glad you like my work in French history, its hard for Indians to really get a grip on Europeans.
Posted by: Eric | November 21, 2005 04:16 PM
Eric writes: "... people I know found a way to get to Nam. One gave up his midshipman billet and his 1975 commission, went as a Marine infantryman, and was KIA in 1974."
What was he doing in Vietnam in 1974, e.g., was he some kind of advisor to the ARVN? Per the Paris peace accords, the last US ground troops were ordered
out of Vietnam in March 1973, and I've never heard of any Marines in-country after that withdrawal.
Posted by: scmedlap | November 21, 2005 04:59 PM
Since I left the unit in early 1973, and learned of his death in combat before then, it was 1973, or 1972.
Thanks for the nit. I can remember him better now. A jock, not very bright, a terrible shot with a target pistol (barn, broadside safe kind of marksperson), and not deserving of anything but respect and personal regrets.
You have a nice day.
Posted by: Eric | November 21, 2005 05:16 PM
Providing you more info from Southern Ohio on Bubp. (And, yes, Bubp is more of a joke than Schmidt.)
As for the relationship between Schmidt and Bubp, Schmidt ran for the state senate when Bubp was running for state rep. The two of them were connected at the hip. Schmidt lost that election, only to come back and win a crowded special primary.
As for Bubp, it is completely true that Bubp has never served in harms way - anywhere. In fact, he has never served outside of CONUS. Bubp is the biggest hypocrite when it comes to the military. He talks and brags about the military, yet he truly knows so little. (Those who have to talk so much about it, have never really done it.)
Bubp runs around constantly in his full dress military uniform, even to political events. Look at
http://home.fuse.net/jbecker/TheBeckerReport/TheBeckerReportVolumeI_Issue_VII.htm
"September 30, 2004. You should have seen Colonel Danny Bubp in his full dress Marine uniform. The white gloves, spit shined shoes, and chest full of metals were very impressive. We were at a 'Party for The President' in Batavia." Bubp has fooled so many people.
As for the Naval War College graduate, he is not. He took a 2-week course at the college as part of his reserve duty; nothing more, nothing less. Yet he misrepresents that he is a "graduate".
As for his support of the Ten Commandments, the running joke in his home of Adams County is that "for Danny, 8 out of 10 isn't that bad".
And as for his views of marriage, he is divorced (see previous paragraph). Bubp had his entire divorce records sealed and fought efforts to open them up. See
http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/rod/newpdf/0/2004/2004-ohio-4952.pdf
(There wasn't anything significant in them, although the figures on the tax return appeared to be somewhat low from Bubp's law practice.)
Schmidt needs to be out of Congress and Bubp out of the state house - a concerted effort is going to be needed. Just as Bubp talks the talk but doesn't do the walk, what are we going to do when viable candidates challenge Schmidt and Bubp (I don't care if they are Republicans, the Republican is going to win Schmidt's and Bubp's district).
Posted by: Veritas_Ohio | November 21, 2005 06:35 PM
Nice. I'll be linking to this later today. Good research.
Posted by: Martian | November 22, 2005 09:17 AM