corrente

Johnny Firefighter that is. And Johnny Policeman, and Johnny Prisonguard. And, oh yes, not to forget Johnny DemCandidate, aka Greg Philips, of whom the Philly Inquirer notes:

Greg Philips, 42, of King of Prussia, has been the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House in Pennsylvania's Seventh District, which includes Delaware County and parts of Chester and Montgomery Counties.

But he is scheduled to announce this morning that he has withdrawn from the race. Lt. Philips has been called to active duty and is to ship out next week for Kuwait.

That leaves the Democrats temporarily without a challenger to U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon, the nine-term Republican.

But back to those other Johnnies...it seems the governors who employ these folks are getting more than a little unhappy. Even the Republican ones.

(via NYT)

SEATTLE, July 19 - With tens of thousands of their citizen soldiers now deployed in Iraq, many of the nation's governors complained on Sunday to senior Pentagon officials that they were facing severe manpower shortages in guarding prisoners, fighting wildfires, preparing for hurricanes and floods and policing the streets.

Concern among the governors about the war's impact at home has been rising for months, but it came into sharp focus this weekend as they gathered for their four-day annual conference here and began comparing the problems they faced from the National Guard's largest callup since World War II.

Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, a Republican of Idaho and departing chairman of the National Governors Association, also said through a spokesman that he was worried about the deployment of 2,000 members, or 62 percent of his National Guard, who are now training in Texas for a mission in Iraq.

California fire and forestry officials said they were not using National Guard troops to battle wildfires plaguing that state, but they did say that they were using nine Blackhawk helicopters borrowed from the Guard to fight the fires. Some of the helicopters are bound for Iraq in September.

In Arizona, officials say, more than a hundred prison guards are serving overseas, leaving their already crowded prisons badly short-staffed. In Tennessee, officials are worried about rural sheriff's and police departments...

But even during a meeting that featured plenty of partisan sniping, Republicans also sounded worried about whether the deployments would leave them vulnerable in emergencies.

Maj. Gen. Timothy J. Lowenberg, commander of the Washington State National Guard, who attended the Sunday meeting with Pentagon officials, said in an interview that he heard worries voiced by plenty of Republicans.

"There are absolutely no partisan pattern to the concerns being raised," he said. "They are being articulated by governors of both parties."