Scaife's Far Right Newspaper: Bush Is 'Blathering' And Maybe Nuts

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Richard Mellon Scaife, the Pittsburgh fat cat who has dipped into a huge family fortune to finance right wing causes over the decades, owns a newspaper that has openly questioned President Bush's mental stability.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review editorial said Bush seemed to be spouting nonsense at his news conference last when he vowed to hold steady in Iraq, a vow that Scaife's publication dismissed as disconnected from reality because "there is no shame in leaving in Iraq. For it will not be, in any way, an exercise in tail-tucking and running."

Scaife is often described as a billionaire. He funded investigations of Democratic President Bill Clinton, and helped underwrite Newt Gingrich's GoPac.

Now his newspaper agrees with Democratic U.S. Rep. John Murtha, who has called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Last year, OH-02 U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt accused Murtha -- a decorated Marine who served in the Vietnam War -- of promoting cowardice when she made her notorious maiden speech on the House floor. But Murtha has won a powerful and influential friend in Republican places.