John Murth: "What's That Got to do With Me?"

When the liberal media keeps nipping at the tail of a liberal democrat, then something must be in the wind. Maybe for even the Democrats there is a point at which too much graft is really too much. Of maybe its time for the Democrats to toss the public a pork chop. With every passing day, porker and earmark king Rep John Murtha appears to be the pork chop that is going to fed to the public. Not that he doesn't deserve it.

Yesterday, The New York Times blasted John Murtha in an editorial with innuendos of his connection to using Federal money to advance his interests via family and friends. Below are a few of the comments:

One of the most favored insiders in Representative John Murtha’s rich churn of defense earmarks has pleaded guilty to criminal charges, shedding light on a twisting, pay-to-play money trail. . . . What’s that got to do with me?” commented Mr. Murtha, who previously lavished praise and tens of millions of dollars in contracts on the two companies caught up in the criminal investigation. . . . Investigators have not identified him as a target. But the inquiry is backtracking a trail of hundreds of millions awarded to Pentagon contractors who gratefully requited with tens of millions in political donations to Democrats on the appropriations subcommittee headed by Mr. Murtha.

In just one tangent of the complex inquiry, Mr. Ianieri’s company hired the lobbying firm of Mr. Murtha’s brother Kit. The company soon was blessed with money from an $8.2 million defense earmark. . . . Representative Murtha, using a 2005 tsunami relief bill, took the $8.2 million from another contractor that had severed ties with his brother’s lobbying firm. The Department of Justice alleges that Mr. Ianieri’s company then illicitly distributed $1.8 million of the money to other companies, some of them represented by Kit Murtha’s firm.

The Murtha money trail is far from fully explored but already features a second tangent of Congressional appropriations staff members’ exiting through the golden door to defense lobbying and scoring big contracts from their old bosses. Taxpayers should press the question of what all this has to do with Mr. Murtha . . .

Beyond the criminal investigation, a full-scale ethics inquiry should be pressed by House Democrats and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. If not, the Murtha money trail could lead them back to the minority.

In conclusion, the following remark by Does It All Matter posted three months ago is still appropriate [Hat tip to the same source for the above photo]: "Come on people, we had a revolution in this country once because of unfair government representation. Perhaps with the next election cycle we need to have another revolution and get rid of this bunch of corrupt scum!" [H/T to Veterans for Bill Russell]