Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), the longtime congressman from Western Pennsylvania, legendary earmarker, and leading Iraq war critic has died after suffering complications from gallbladder surgery.
One of Congress's undisputed kings of earmarks, Murtha steered millions upon millions in federal spending to his home district throughout his 35 years in Congress. He was also the House's chief broker of Defense appropriations spending, serving as the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee's Defense Subcommittee.
Elected in 1974, Murtha was the first Vietnam War combat veteran to
become a member of Congress. Though he was a defense hawk early in his
career, that changed when he became one of Congress's most outspoken
critics of the Iraq war: when congressional Democrats called for
immediate withdrawal from Iraq and confronted President George W. Bush
over funding of the war in 2007, Murtha was among the Democrats who led
the charge.
He was a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and, had things
turned out differently, he could have ended up as House majority
leader: when his party took control of Congress in 2006, Murtha ran for
the position and was supported by Pelosi but lost to the more centrist
Steny Hoyer (MD).
Most recently, Murtha had drawn fire from Republicans as a figure in
the scandal over PMA Group, a top defense lobbying firm with ties to
Murtha that was raided by the FBI in 2009. The Office of Congressional
Ethics looked into whether Murtha and others had exchanged earmarks for
campaign contributions; last month, it closed the investigation and
recommended that the House ethics committee dismiss the allegations
against Murtha and two other lawmakers.
Throughout his appropriating and deal-making, and the criticism it
drew, Murtha was unapologetic. And his constituents supported what he
did for their economy, sending him to Congress for 19 terms.
"If I'm corrupt, it's because I take care of my district," Murtha told
the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in March of 2009 for a story on how his
earmarks supported the Johnstown, Pennsylvania economy. "My job as a
member of Congress is to make sure that we take care of what we see is
necessary."
We should all be grateful for Mr. Murtha's courageous service in Vietnam.
Cohen of Tennessee was just on Fox saying that Murtha's demise is an argument against tort reform. It will be interesting to see if other Democrats pick up this talking point.