Democratic Rep. Mark Critz (PA) — a top GOP target for defeat this fall running in a district Obama lost by nine points in 2008 — veered off the reservation Thursday, going on the record with criticisms of President Obama’s economic speech in Ohio that souded like they were written in a Republican comms shop.
From PoliticsPA:
“President Obama and others in Washington need to realize that we cannot spend our way to prosperity,” Critz said. In order to create jobs, he added, “we need to address unfair trade deals that ship jobs overseas and enact policies that allow us to take advantage of our vast natural resources such as coal and natural gas in a safe and responsible manner which will lower energy costs and create jobs and approving the Keystone XL Pipeline would be a good first step.”
As has been the case with other Democrats who’ve overtly taken on the president as part of their effort to appeal to a conservative constituency, Crtiz’ attack on Obama’s speech did not earn him an attaboy from Republicans.
“Critz is trying to mask his allegiance to Obama to hide his liberal voting record from voters,” the campaign manager for Critz’ Republican opponent, Keith Rothfus, told PoliticsPA. “This would be like Tom Brady wearing black and gold all week to avoid being sacked at Heinz field on Sunday.”
