Move another one into the vulnerable column...

Somewhere Jim Kreuser is smiling, as yet another Republican incumbent is eagerly volunteering himself for reassignment outside the State Capitol. This time it's Rep. Terry Musser, who's been outed as having misrepresented his military record for nearly two decades.

Musser has alleged for ages that he was a Green Beret. Turns out that he's not. Oopsie!

"It has never been my intent to mislead anyone about my military service. I apologize if anyone felt I misled them in any way," said Musser.

Musser seems to be a bit confused. See, most of us would look at the question "Are you a Green Beret?" and immediately understand there to be only two possible answers.

• "Yes, I am a Green Beret."
• "No, I am not a Green Beret."

Musser seems to think that there is a third option, one that would excuse him for spending two decades taking credit for a designation that he never actually earned.

Musser's district has always been peculiar, considering the heavy influence from the tribes and the number of military personnel at Fort McCoy who live in the area. And Musser has just handed the Democrats a beautiful wedge issue to employ in prying the latter away from the incumbent.

The winning recipe involves finding a moderate in his district who served in the military who is willing to run as a Democrat. That negates Musser's status as a veteran and affords the challenger equal footing on military matters, which are important in that district. Bonus points for finding a Native American who fits that status. The Dems did a good job in recruiting Kathleen Vinehout, so I'm confident they could do just as well in finding someone to challenge Musser.

The Democratic machine then reminds voters consistently that Musser willfully and knowingly misstated his military record for twenty years. See as follows:

"Can someone who lies about his service to his country really be trusted to do the right thing in Madison?"

"What Musser did is an insult to our men and women who have served and are serving our country proudly."

"Musser might understand service and loyalty, but two decades in Madison caused him to forget about integrity and honor."

I could go on, but you get the idea. The hit pieces write themselves. Musser's only response is to suggest that he didn't know he was misleading people, which is a tenuous argument at best and one that most voters will find unacceptably evasive.

Additionally, Musser's hardly on the leading edge of policy development and the Assembly GOP is well on its way to fulfilling conservatives' wishes for less government by getting damn near nothing accomplished this session. So Musser's not going to have anything to use to draw attention away from this issue. It's one of the hazards of being a backbencher. The simple truth is that Musser doesn't have a whole lot to run on other than his incumbency, and when the incumbent fails to be honest with his constituents, it's easy to turn that into "it's time for a change" and use the incumbent's own longevity against him.

I have nothing against Terry Musser. He's hardly the reason the GOP is in the sorry shape it is currently in. But his dishonesty may have moved him from a peripheral target in '08 right up into the top five - and in the Democrats' quest to run the Republicans out of power, it doesn't matter which three seats in the Assembly they pick up.