Battle Royal in Ohio's 2nd Congressional Dist.

There will be an important special election in Ohio this Tuesday for Rob Portman's congressional seat. Portman got appointed by El Presidente as U.S. Trade Representative. His district has been heavily and dependably Republican for decades. It stretches up the Ohio from Cincinnati, where decaying industrial towns still vote against their economic interests out of pure habit. Some of the counties in this district went for Bush/Cheney in 2004 by over 70 percent.

Ought to be a shoo-in for any Republican who can walk and chew gum, right? The Republican candidate is a woman to boot, Jean Schmidt, a former member of the Ohio House of Representatives and head of the Cincinnati Right to Life. Not a hair out of place, in that Republican femme way. Shoo-in.

But wait. The Democrat running against her, Paul Hackett, is a blunt-talking Marine who has seen active duty in both Iraq wars of the presidents Bush. He is described by one Ohio newspaper that endorsed him as "a libertarian Democrat" who "doesn't seem to have much use for the orthodoxy, or the partisanship, of either party. He doesn't want the government telling him what kinds of guns he can own, nor does he want it interfering in family or medical decisions or taking away civil liberties in the name of fighting terror." He likes to note that, if elected, he would be the only member of Congress with direct military service in Iraq.

The National Republican Congressional Committee has dumped more than $500,000 at the last minute into "slime" TV ads attacking Hackett. The most amazing thing about this ad buy was an admission made by Carl Forti, Republican committee spokesman: "What prompted the committee's entry into the Schmidt-Hackett race was a comment made by Hackett in a USA Today article published Thursday. Hackett, talking about his service as a marine in Iraq, is quoted as saying, 'I've said I don't like the son-of-a-b--- that lives in the White House. But I'd put my life on the line for him.' Because Hackett said that, Forti said, 'we decided to bury him.' "

Remarkable. It was the French that invented the term "lese majeste," which means literally "an offense to majesty," an insult to the king, for which there was a follow-up prescription: "Off with his head!" When did El Presidente morph into Louis XIV? Is Karl Rove channeling Cardinal Richelieu?

For his part, Hackett ain't pulling his punches, and he shows an effective talent for getting under Madame Schmidt's skin. He whipped her pretty decisively in at least one debate, making a huge point that Schmidt, since winning her Republican primary, had gone all stealthy on her extreme anti-abortion position: "Hackett seized upon Schmidt's reluctance to assert the vehemence of her anti-abortion stance. He pushed the need to fund preventive education and said that, until there are no unwanted pregnancies, abortion should remain legal, safe and rare. Hackett managed to make the pro-choice position seem manly and obvious, dominating a debate that Republicans almost always rhetorically win."

And check out this scene from the end of that same debate: "Once the debate ended, Hackett dramatically took off his sport coat to reveal sweat stains across his blue Oxford shirt. He raised his drenched arms, as if in victory, and grinned widely, connecting with the laughing crowd, who shared his sense of deflated tension."

Looks and sounds like a winner, now don't he? No wonder the National Republican Congressional Committee is dropping a half-mil on his head.

But even the most sanguine observers say it's still the longest of long shots. Our guru of Wall Street, Billmon, doesn't think he has a prayer, though he sent him $50 anyway.

Win or lose, Hackett's demeanor and bravery ought to be on the study list for every other Democratic congressional candidate in the country, especially the ones who think they can be "nice" and get into office. His forthright talk about abortion rights, as the only "manly" position to take, is especially worth studying.

Check out his web site: http://hackettforcongress.com/.