Book Review: Taking the Hill

Tom Miller

Taking the Hill: From Philly to Baghdad to the United States Congress, by Patrick J. Murphy with Adam Frankel.  Henry Holt, $25 (288p) ISBN 978-0-8050-8695-9

On Election Day 2006, anti-war vet Patrick Murphy won a narrow, upset victory over Republican Representative Mike Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania's Eighth Congressional District.  An ally of fellow Pennsylvania congressman Jack Murtha--whom Murphy describes as a "legend" among veterans--Fitzpatrick joins a new Democratic congressional majority itching to retreat from Iraq which he variously describes as "senseless," "criminally negligent," and "doomed from the start." 

Murphy was born in Philadelphia in 1973, the son of a policeman and a legal secretary.  A so-so student who preferred hockey to homework, he was rejected by Pennsylvania's King's College.  He attended community college where he made the Dean's List.  After a year, he transferred to King's College where he joined the R.O.T.C. and met President Bill Clinton--a meeting that Murphy describes as "a defining moment in my life because it stamped in my heart a duty to serve."  (Clinton had that effect on some people.  See Monica Lewinsky.)

After graduation from King's College and commissioning as an Army second lieutenant, Murphy attended Widener University School of Law in Harrisburg before going on active military service. 

As an Army lawyer, he served at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, deployed to Bosnia where he handled claims against the U.S. government, and deployed to Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division. 

Of his time at West Point in the Staff Judge Advocate's Office and teaching law, he claims (falsely) that "I became part of the Long Gray Line."* Such exaggeration is typical of Murphy's narrative.  (He also claims to have developed "a sixth sense" in the Army.  A little humility would have been nice.) 

Stationed in Baghdad, Murphy led a Brigade Operational Law Team (BOLT).  His duties included prosecuting troops, providing legal counsel to soldiers, and adjudicating claims against the Army. 

Having decided that the war was "senseless" and "doomed," Murphy left the Army and joined the presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry.  Buoyed by his efforts on Kerry's behalf, he decided to challenge Fitzpatrick, a first-term congressman, in 2006. 

Blasting Fitzpatrick as "a rubber stamp for George Bush on Iraq," Murphy claimed a higher calling: "I'm doing this for the nineteen guys I served with who never made it home."

In his retelling of the campaign, it was the Murphy "team" against "the Republican machine."  But, Murphy relied on his "warrior spirit" to pull out a slim victory.  His win--the "Taking the Hill" of the title since Army lawyers don't take hills--sent young Murphy to "the front lines in Washington."  (Some political consultant has obviously advised this guy to go heavy on the martial rhetoric.  The Democrats are eager to establish their national security bonafides.  Not, of course, by doing anything substantive but by talking tough.)

In a final bit of hyperbole, Murphy suggests that the man and the moment have arrived: "Now," he writes, "is a defining moment in our nation's history."** So?  Isn't every moment a defining moment in our history?  Some--1776, 1787, 1861, 1941--more so than others, but all adding something. 

There's not much to recommend Congressman Murphy's autobiography.  First, he hasn't done much out of the ordinary except get elected (once) to Congress.  He served 7 months as an Army lawyer in Iraq, and he seems to think that makes him an expert.  Who knew?

On the issue of extreme partisanship, he talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk.  He calls Democratic Representative Jack Murtha "a legend" among veterans.  He is careful not to label him as a political liberal.  But, when he mentions Rick Santorum, he's not content with calling him a Republican or even a political conservative.  No, Santorum is a "right-wing Republican senator." 

Of all Murphy's fanciful statements, none rankles more than his clumsy attempt to compare his uphill congressional campaign with the fight faced by the 82nd Airborne in Normandy and at the Battle of the Bulge in 1944.  Such is the conceit of modern politicians. 
Murphy on Iraq

"The worst foreign policy blunder in American history."

"America's efforts were doomed from the start."***

"The Bush administration's policies . . . have ripped apart the moral fabric of our great military."
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* Only West Point graduates become part of the Long Gray Line.

**Rep. Murphy, who opposed President Bush's "surge" in Iraq, apparently hoped to define this moment in history as one of retreat and defeat.  

***Perhaps his opponent will ask him to defend this pronouncement on the campaign trail this year. 

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Copyright 2012 by Tom Miller