JOHNSTOWN -- If John Murtha is ceding a significant segment of the military voting block to Republican challenger Diana Irey, as she hopes and claims, there were few signs of it yesterday. A cavalcade of rank-and-file vets and Democratic military brass gathered in Johnstown's damp Central Park to support the representative from Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District.

Former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland, a disabled Vietnam veteran, was the rally's master of ceremonies, and he was joined through the late morning and early afternoon by Vietnam veteran and former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey, former NATO commander Gen. Wesley Clark, state Auditor General Jack Wagner and finally Gov. Ed Rendell, himself seeking re-election this November.

They all hit on a common theme -- that Mr. Murtha, the top-ranking Democrat on the House committee that disburses defense appropriations -- is a great friend of the American soldier, not a foe, as his challengers are trying to paint him.

"We're tired of swift-boating in America," said Georgia's Cleland, who lost his own re-election bid in 2002 after his patriotism was questioned. "And it stops right here today, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania."

Mr. Murtha, who spent 37 years in the Marine Corps and its reserves, angered some veterans, and became a visible target for the GOP, when he began publicly campaigning for a military withdrawal from Iraq. He's drawn more partisan fire as he's continued to criticize the White House's handling of the war, as well as Marine involvement in the killing of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha. (When Mr. Murtha went on the offensive following the Haditha revelations, Ms. Irey called on the congressman to apologize, saying he was aiding and comforting the enemy.)

Ms. Irey's name wasn't spoken once over the course of the 90-minute rally, which police officials say drew a crowd of 2,000, but the incendiary issues have put this race, and Ms. Irey's face and candidacy, into a national spotlight. The Washington County commissioner says she believes the military voting bloc is more divided than Mr. Murtha realizes. She hopes to capitalize on the split in Cambria County and the rest of the 12th District, which historically had been impenetrable to Republicans, but in recent presidential elections has been voting more conservatively. Ms. Irey won't attend today's "Boot Murtha" rally in Johnstown, organized by local vet Craig Minnick and a group called "Vets for the Truth."

Mr. Murtha's criticisms, said Mr. Kerrey, demonstrate that the congressman of three decades has the courage to oppose the White House, in a time when opposition of the president means you'll be branded a turncoat.

"Long before it was cool to wave a flag and support the men and women wearing the military [uniforms] of our Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard, Jack Murtha was waving the flag and supporting the men and women of our Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard," Mr. Kerrey said. "Until Jack Murtha stood up and began to tell the American people what was going on, there were far too many people [unaware]."

The other speakers picked up where Mr. Kerrey left off. "Jack had the courage to stand up and tell the truth," said Gen. Clark. "This administration's leadership of the war has been incompetent, inept. We're not going to let any swift-boaters, shrimp-boaters or anybody else take out Jack Murtha."

Mr. Rendell, who flew in from Harrisburg yesterday afternoon, said Mr. Murtha has done more for American fighting men and women than "any American alive today ... How dare these outsiders come here to Pennsylvania and impugn the patriotism of one of the greatest sons in this commonwealth's history."

Mr. Murtha took the dais last, again criticizing the war effort but sympathizing with the soldiers who must fight it, as well as the nearly 3,000 killed and 20,000 injured. "You know what this war's doing? It's tearing the families apart," he said. "I don't appreciate these people sitting on their fat backsides in the White House, sending our young people to war, when they don't understand the circumstances."

In a recent interview, Ms. Irey said that Mr. Murtha has lost touch with his constituency. "Jack Murtha has been in office 32 years, and that's too long," she said.

She won't be attending today's anti-Murtha rally, she said, because she doesn't want it to appear that her campaign is coordinating with the "Vets for Truth" group.