The Republican former U.S. Attorney in Pittsburgh, Mary Beth Buchanan, has been thinking of running for Congress. And perhaps it’s cynical to link her ambitions to a heartwarming rescue plan she’s been trying to organize for Haitian children stranded in an orphanage destroyed by last week’s earthquake.
Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.) outmanuevered his potential rival by pulling off the humanitarian mission first. (Getty Images)
Except that Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) and Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.) — whose House seat Buchanan has been eyeing — have made the connection for us.
While Buchanan was still planning her mission (and a nice photo op for a future campaign?), the governor and Altmire swooped in and rescued 53 orphans, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. The governor and the Democratic congressman accompanied a group of doctors and others on an airplane to the Haitian capital of Port-Au-Prince. The politicians and the orphans arrived today at Pittsburgh International Airport.
Mary Beth Buchanan (Steve Pope)
Buchanan, who served as the Western District of Pennsylvania U.S. Attorney from 2001 until November 2009, had been trying to arrange for a private plane to shuttle the Haitian orphans to the United States. She was also in contact with an immigration lawyer and found a doctor to help care for the children.
Americans Jamie McMurtie Heckman and Alison McMurtie, who lived at the orphanage and hail from Pittsburgh, told The Associated Press that the children had been living in the orphanage’s yard without any food or water after the quake struck the impoverished Caribbean nation last Tuesday.
Buchanan sounded a bit peeved in a statement to the Tribune-Review. ”I had little prior knowledge of the attempted air rescue mission that departed from Pittsburgh today, though I have since been advised that some of the resources aboard the flight were collected through the efforts of myself and others.”
She added: ”Now that it is underway I am hopeful for the best, and continue to pray for the safety of young Jamie and Ali, this group of Haitian orphans and all of the people suffering in Haiti.”
Spokespersons for Rendell and Altmire didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from Main Justice.
What a distasteful article. You should be ashamed of yourself
Although there are obviously some political subtexts surrounding this story, I don’t see the need to put something like “Loses in Political Skirmish” in your headline. I’m basically with gracchus.