John Murtha; the broad side of the barn

I love taking shots at Jack Murtha – for one thing you can’t miss him no matter where you shoot. Physically or otherwise.

There is still no answer from his office on his forthcoming apology to the Marines he publicly indicted as cold blooded murders. I still call every morning like clockwork – but oddly, Murtha hasn’t heard anything.

Well, today the Washington Times editorial board took their shots at him in “John Murtha, venture capitalist“;

Funny how attempts at congressional ethics reform keep running into roadblocks like Rep. Jack Murtha. The Pennsylvania Democrat and chair of the House defense appropriations subcommittee is best known in this context as the man who once called the ethics package “total crap.” He represents an economically depressed corner of southwest Pennsylvania whose largest city, Johnstown, has lost 5 percent of its population since 1990. Not even considering the man’s unique personal qualities, one senses where this earmark story is headed.

“Murtha has almost — but not quite — single-handedly created a new economy in his district,” concludes Roll Call this week in an overview of the lawmaker’s earmarking activities.

[…]

The self-styled “most ethical and honest Congress in history” must get a grip on Mr. Murtha and friends if it is to make any headway whatsoever on ethics reforms. At this rate, Mr. Murtha just about torpedoes whatever chance House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has to deliver on her campaign promises.

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette calls Murtha “The King of Pork“;

Are you the owner of business that is looking to get some big federal contracts? A move to Johnstown, hometown of Rep. John Murtha, might help, according to today’s Roll Call.

[…]

“Murtha has almost – but not quite – single-handedly created a new economy in his district, with start-up companies getting Murtha earmarks, getting contracts from other companies that have gotten Murtha earmarks or getting trained on how to get government money by other institutions that have gotten Murtha earmarks.

“A good guide to the patterns of Murtha’s largesse is the client list of KSA Consulting, a lobbying firm that employs a former Murtha staffer and used to employ Murtha’s brother, Kit Murtha.

[…]

“The pattern that appears dominant is that the companies’ federal contract dollars expand shortly after they open an office in the 12th Congressional district – though it is not entirely clear how much of their work is actually conducted in the district.” 

The Roll Call story (subscription required) goes into greater detail – here’s a sample;

Kit Murtha, who says he retired from KSA a year ago, told Roll Call that he doesn’t believe there is any connection between the earmarks and the companies’ move to the Johnstown area. “You can’t really answer that … which comes first, the chicken or the egg?” he said. KSA represents “people that are in Johnstown, and some came to Johnstown, and which came first, and why, you can’t say.”

But KSA’s client list indicates a pattern. Applied Ordnance Technologies was a Maryland-based firm that signed up with KSA in 2001, opened a Johnstown office in 2004 and saw the value of its government contracts jump from $12 million in 2003 to $21 million in 2004 and $24 million in 2005.

Murtha’s office issued a press release declaring that “Congressman Murtha helped to attract AOT to Johnstown.” Murtha said in the release, “AOT represents the type of organization that is helping to revitalize our communities — small, technology-based companies with potential to grow.”  

[…]

Rodney Ruddock, chairman of the Indiana County Commission, pointed out that local efforts are geared toward weaning these businesses off defense contracts and getting them to broaden into other work that is more sustainable. “We don’t want to put all of our eggs into the defense industry basket,” Ruddock said.

Instead, companies are shifting into homeland security work, Ruddock noted, in part with the assistance of the John P. Murtha Institute for Homeland Security at IUP.

The institute itself grew out of Murtha earmarks. The university, in announcing the center in 2003, said that “Congressman Murtha has arranged for more than $20 million in funding to IUP for homeland security initiatives.”

I think it’s totally laughable that there’s a John P. Murtha Institute for Homeland Security. That’s like opening the Barney Fife Academy of Police Sciences.

Now, much of this isn’t news – we’ve been hearing about KSA Consulting since last summer before the Congressional midterms. So why are we not hearing of Congressional investigations? If this was a Republican, we’d be reading everyday about it – Hell, we read every day about Republican scandals that haven’t ever happened.

So I guess we now know why Murtha has positioned himself as the (ughh) darling of the anti-war Left – it makes him bulletproof. As long as he says the most outrageous things about the troops, Pelosi, et al. will leave him alone. It really tells something about the Left – they threw Joe Lieberman, probably the most ethical Democrat in Washington, out of the boat because of his pro-terror war stance, but they’ll cover for a crook like Murtha because of his pro-terrorist stance.

I take some satisfaction that Roll Call gets the same reactions I get from Murtha’s office;

Murtha’s office declined to provide comment for this article.

The Influence Peddler and Don Surber have good summaries of the Roll Call Article. 

Category: John Murtha, Politics, Society, Terror War