The real Jack Murtha
TODAY'S EDITORIAL
June 21, 2006


Rep. John Murtha is thinking big thoughts. Since coming out for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq last year, he has accused Marines of murder "in cold blood" before a preliminary investigation is even complete; accused the military of a cover up over the same incident; declared his candidacy for the House majority leadership post; and, most recently, refined his cut-and-run strategy in Iraq to mean "redeployment" to Okinawa, Japan.

That's quite a splash for such a veteran congressman, who a year ago had zero name recognition outside Washington. That he's made a name for himself now by slandering our troops and their mission deserves a brief recital of some other activities associated with Mr. Murtha.

Last June, the Los Angeles Times reported how the ranking member on the defense appropriations subcommittee has a brother, Robert Murtha, whose lobbying firm represents 10 companies that received more than $20 million from last year's defense spending bill. "Clients of the lobbying firm KSA Consulting -- whose top officials also include former congressional aide Carmen V. Scialabba, who worked for Rep. Murtha as a congressional aide for 27 years -- received a total of $20.8 million from the bill," the L.A. Times reported.

In early 2004, according to Roll Call, Mr. Murtha "reportedly leaned on U.S. Navy officials to sign a contract to transfer the Hunters Point Shipyard to the city of San Francisco." Laurence Pelosi, nephew of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, at the time was an executive of the company which owned the rights to the land. The same article also reported how Mr. Murtha has been behind millions of dollars worth of earmarks in defense appropriations bills that went to companies owned by the children of fellow Pennsylvania Democrat, Rep. Paul Kanjorski. Meanwhile, the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan campaign-finance watchdog group, lists Mr. Murtha as the top recipient of defense industry dollars in the current 2006 election cycle.

As Rep. Joe Wilson, South Carolina Republican, has said, "If there is a potential pattern where Congressman Murtha has helped other Democrats secure appropriations that also benefited relatives of those members, I believe this would be something that merits further review by the ethics committee."

It's odd that the media, which has been fairly unbiased in going after corrupt politicians recently, has gone silent on Mr. Murtha's questionable actions. Or maybe it isn't. Since December, Mr. Murtha has become the darling of the antiwar crowd, and, as we've seen with other such darlings, scrutinizing their behavior is considered disrespectful. But as we're on the subject, few might recall that after the massive 1980 Abscam scandal, Mr. Murtha was named by the FBI as an "unindicted co-conspirator."

Maybe the next time the new Jack Murtha thinks up another big idea someone can ask him about the old Jack Murtha.

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What was it that Tom Delay did again?

The entire U.S. Congress is crooked.

Oh fuck. They're right, our troops are always so righteously above criticism.

They can sit around and dig up shit on anybody in Congress if they wanted to, when really this article had nothing at all to do with Murtha's criticism of the war. How thorough was this article anyway? Not very. Link?

It was a really petty personal attack, and it wasn't trying to be anything more. If you're going after some anti-war spokesperson for corruption (a type of corruption that seems to be pretty common among all members of Congress), you might as well expose them all. Every last one of these dirtbags. And anyone who disagrees with the President is a wimp I suppose. I bet you thought you were pretty clever for posting this, huh? This article was everything political and nothing of substance. They said nothing about breaking any laws, despite how shitty trading favors is.

When it comes to choosing between the lesser of two evils (if that maybe the only option in this great country of ours), I always choose the lesser. What a waste of time.

Wait a second. So you don't see any problems or hypocricy here? You guys had PAGES on Tom Delay, and in comparison this, what was it? Delay was in the media for months, forced to resign...and over what? Nothing like this.

Murtha became a media darling overnight. Nobody in America had the slightest clue who Murtha was until he came out against this war and became a vocal spokesperson in the anti-war campaign. Then he became an infallible opinion. The media will invariably ignore all this. They will hail him, and put him up on a pedestal for making anti war comments, they won't question him, nor criticize him. And they will surely never bring all this into the limelight.

20 mil to his brother? A naval station for Feinstein's cousin? All this while being so anti-war and trying to make a name for himself.

No problems with this?

This article was in the Washington Times yesterday. Unless you're insinuating that I actually had the imagination to make all that shit up.

I can't really blame you for posting the article, but it still doesn't take away from Murtha's anti-war sincerity. Just like Tom Delay's scandals don't take away from his anti-gay sincerity.

Honestly, is there any member of congress who doesn't do this shit?

I guess we can drop the investigation on those troops in Haditha. They must be innocent.

Talk about going off point...

Ron Paul, maybe?

if you consider strong evidence of significant ethics violations merely a personal attack, then i suppose. certainly it can't be used to criticize the core of his arguments for withdrawal and his brilliant strategy to redeploy to Okinawa, but it's germane to anyone evaluating him as a representative. i was already pretty convinced this guy was ethically challenged, this just clears it up a bit, if true. doesn't surprise me a bit you don't seem to concerned as to his ethics as long as he represents your views.


i agree.

The hell I am concerned about the ethics of members of the US Congress. And I still agree with his anti-war stance. Nothing changes that. He still doesn't even represent my state.