Murtha... the gift who keeps on giving

[JaJae]

Murtha makes a scene, and waves, for Pelosi

Posted by Frank James at 7:00 am CDT

Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) is one of those members of Congress who, for reporters, is the gift that keeps giving, a frequent news generator in recent years. Republicans obviously view him as a gift too.

His latest benefaction was an alleged threat he made on the House floor to another lawmaker. The incident as reported by the Associated Press and others involved an angry Murtha, a 74-year old former Marine officer and the chairman of the House Appropriations military subcommittee, marching over to the Republican side of the House chamber to confront Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.)

As the AP reported:

During a series of House votes Thursday, Murtha walked to the chamber's Republican side to confront Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., a 43- year-old former FBI agent. Earlier this month, Rogers had tried unsuccessfully to strike a Murtha earmark from an intelligence spending bill. The item would restore $23 million for the National Drug Intelligence Center, a facility in Murtha's Pennsylvania district that some Republicans say is unneeded.

According to Rogers' account, which Murtha did not dispute, the Democrat angrily told Rogers he should never seek earmarks of his own because "you're not going to get any, now or forever."

"This was clearly designed to try to intimidate me," Rogers said in an interview Friday. "He said it loud enough for other people to hear."

House rules prohibit lawmakers from placing conditions on earmarks or targeted tax benefits that are based on another member's votes.

Murtha's office, asked for response Friday, issued a three-sentence statement: "The committee and staff give every Democrat and Republican the same consideration. We have extensive hearings and every request is given careful consideration. We will continue to do just that."

Rogers said he will file a "privileged resolution" Monday, which would seek a House vote on whether to reprimand Murtha.

(House Minority Leader Rep. John) Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement the resolution will outline "a blatant abuse of power stemming from a Republican-authored proposal to cut wasteful earmark spending from legislation pending before the House. This egregious action is not only beneath the dignity of this institution, it constitutes a violation of House rules."

The House's top Democratic leaders declined to comment on the Murtha- Rogers incident.

Murtha, a relatively conservative Democrat, is a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) So the resolution is aimed at not just embarrassing Murtha but Pelosi.

Murtha, a long-time friend of the Pentagon, was one of the first House Democrats before the 2006 elections to come out strongly for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. He drew a tremendous amount of media attention with his repeated calls for a pull out.

Pelosi has credited him with helping to position Democrats to benefit from the growing anti-war mood in the country so they could takeover control of the House after 12 years of Republican control.

But it's hard to imagine that she welcomes this distraction and headache caused by Murtha, who's known for his crusty feistiness.

The Swamp - Chicago Tribune - Blogs.

“I hope you don’t have any earmarks in the defense appropriations bills because they are gone and you will not get any earmarks now and forever,” Murtha told Rogers on the House floor, according to the draft transcript supplied to The Politico.

“This is not the way we do things here — and is that supposed to make me afraid of you?” Rogers replied.

“That’s the way I do it,” Murtha said.

...
<snip>
Murtha yelled at Tiahrt on the House floor for voting in favor of Rogers’s motion, members and aides familiar with the incident said.

Murtha accused of rules violation - Politico.com

Cliffs...
The new budget purposely left out $23 million for the National Drug Intelligence Center to close down the office in Murtha's district because it constantly gets horrible negative federal reviews from numerous review boards.

Murtha didn't like that so he tried to slip it into an intelligence Bill. Rogers motioned against it and Rep. Tiahrt agreed. Murtha lashed out on Tiahrt.

Rogers attacked Murtha for inserting what he considered more pork spending for his home district into a bill and Murtha walked right up to him in the Republican side and as the chairman of the House Appropriations military subcommittee told him that he shouldn't ever ask for earmarks and if he has any in current bills they are going to be removed.

Rogers explained his conduct and threat was not the way the House does things (House Rules) and Murtha responded "That's how I do it."

While I don't mind getting rid of earmarks, I do have a problem with the unethical behavior. Basically Murtha feels he can put whatever earmarks he wants into bills even after the budget purposely left them out and nobody can question them. And if they do he's going to violate House rules and make decisions on bills/earmarks based on whether or not people support his pork.

It'll be interesting to see how this pans out. Apparently there's plenty of who heard Murtha. I doubt the media will harp on it much too much, but it'll be fun to see what happens next week as motions are filed against Murtha for his unethical behavior.

[thomez]

slap on the wrist forthcoming

[Thorgrim]

Some snobby people don't realize how poor Murtha's part of Southwest Pennsylvania has been and continues to be...the people elected him and continue to elect him because they desperately need federal money to try and eek out a living, to take away funding from an already hobbling non-urban district...you might as well sow salt into their grounds

This is obviously something he takes very seriously, as do the people he represents, they expect him to fight hard for them, and he puts his heart and soul into it.

Maybe the district, since it isn't running it smoothly, should take one for the team, heck, why are we giving any federal funds to any poor district? Obviously the wealthy ones are doing fine on their own, they even have private schools that are largely attended...let's cut all public funding and just give up on those districts who time after time don't hit the levels like NJ's 11th

We could gate off the districts, and slowly let them starve, in the end we'd all be better off, think of all the money we'd save! We waste so much on giving free lunches to school kids, it's time kids learned how to get their own food.

[RMNIXON]

The man is a bully.

You can dress that up however you want and I wont be so bold as not to say the Republicans don't have their own. But he is still a bully. He picks a fight with people he knows he can win and got caught this time.

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by Thorgrim

Some snobby people don't realize how poor Murtha's part of Southwest Pennsylvania has been and continues to be...the people elected him and continue to elect him because they desperately need federal money to try and eek out a living, to take away funding from an already hobbling non-urban district...you might as well sow salt into their grounds.

What does $23 million for a drug intelligence center have to do with the quality of life from his home districts?

[Thorgrim]

Originally Posted by JaJae

What does $23 million for a drug intelligence center have to do with the quality of life from his home districts?

It's jobs, it's money in the district...I can't believe I'm hearing this question

It's like saying "what's the economic benefit of having a multi-million dollar olympics in your city?"

More money in the district=more jobs & more pay=better quality of life

[RMNIXON]

Originally Posted by JaJae

What does $23 million for a drug intelligence center have to do with the quality of life from his home districts?

One would think pride in ones district would be all about how productive to themselves and the nation they are. Now how much they need others tax money to hold them up. Not that I can run for office on that type of foolish thinking! God help us all if WWIII happens!

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by Thorgrim

It's jobs, it's money in the district...I can't believe I'm hearing this question

It's like saying "what's the economic benefit of having a multi-million dollar olympics in your city?"

More money in the district=more jobs & more pay=better quality of life

It's welfare. The federal government has no obligation to keep a facility open if they aren't performing properly. It's a disservice to our tax dollars.

[Thorgrim]

Originally Posted by JaJae

It's welfare. The federal government has no obligation to keep a facility open if they aren't performing properly. It's a disservice to our tax dollars.

Yeah, we don't have a constitutional obligation to help fund homeless shelters so people don't die alone and cold on the streets, and it's straight up welfare...but we still do it because our founders cared about the general welfare and today we hold it to be sacred to look out for our fellow American

What you call disservice, people call using their right to vote, which you are disrespecting

No one from that district is going to pull the plug on federal money to "take one for the team" because no one is going to invest in PA's 12th, there are rapidly growing districts in the southwestern states that are far more attractive, unless you have a plan to start up a business in SW PA, which you don't... neither does really anyone...we have to invest in our poor districts or watch them collapse and turn into a huge problem costing much more, while making Americans suffer

The people from PA's 12th don't care about arrogant attitudes, they don't care about some elitist philosophy, and they don't care about you're thoughts on "disservice"

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by Thorgrim

Yeah, we don't have a constitutional obligation to help fund homeless shelters so people don't die alone and cold on the streets, and it's straight up welfare...but we still do it because our founders cared about the general welfare and today we hold it to be sacred to look out for our fellow American

This isn't a homeless shelter. This is a $24 million bureaucracy that was is not performing. We have no obligation to fund Drug Information Centers if they aren't doing their jobs properly. If there serves a need for one elsewhere open it somewhere else and pay people willing to do the job properly.

It's not an issue of pulling the plug on federal money. That's not up to Murtha. It's up to our federal government. And our federal government specifically decided to cut funding for that project and then he decided to put it back in. When questioned about it he threatened a politician with unethical behavior to blackmail him if you will.

There's no defense for Murtha's behavior.

[Thorgrim]

I'm glad you take the GOP Rep's statements as fact, the AP says only that "some" republicans think its not needed, they don't cite any non-partisan review board saying it should be shut down

He's an elected respresentative from PA, you're not even from PA, he has nothing to answer from you

If his people want him to stand up, bend the rules (that are NOT in the Constitution and may be unconstitutional to some) and get punished, then fine, thats what they want. I know I'd want my Represenative to do the same in a similiar situation, that's what I elected him to do, if he was too much of a zombie I'd throw him out...its called democracy

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by Thorgrim

I'm glad you take the GOP Rep's statements as fact, the AP says only that "some" republicans think its not needed, they don't cite any non-partisan review board saying it should be shut down

I've read articles dating back to 2005 of when they were trying to get the place shut down for poor performance. So yes, I'm taking his word on it because it's true.

He's an elected respresentative from PA, you're not even from PA, he has nothing to answer from you

Ok. Those are hard standards and that would imply you shouldn't post in any thread that has to do with any politician who is not from PA. Regardless it's my tax dollars the same as everyone else in this country. It is our government time being spent and it is the House Rules being violated... these issues concern every American and quite frankly any person on this forum who wishes to discuss it.

If his people want him to stand up, bend the rules (that are NOT in the Constitution and may be unconstitutional to some) and get punished, then fine, thats what they want. I know I'd want my Represenative to do the same in a similiar situation, that's what I elected him to do, if he was too much of a zombie I'd throw him out...its called democracy

It's called unethical. And I don't support my politicians to do things unethically, even if I support their end goal.

[thomez]

Originally Posted by JaJae

Ok. Those are hard standards and that would imply you shouldn't post in any thread that has to do with any politician who is not from PA.

This would also put every member out of this thread because I do not believe any live in Murtha's Congressional district

[Thorgrim]

And a libertarian would say you're unethical for not being out there following their ideology, many christians would say its unethical that you are not out preaching the Good News to people you meet, anti-war marchers would say you're unethical for not taking time out of your day to march against the iraq war

Ethics is subjective, yes, we heard your view, everyone who doesn't share your world view should, and anyone who violates your idea of what is right is unethical

I believe many lambasted peaceful civil rights sit-ins because they violated the rule of law, so its unlawful and therefor unethical

You don't like Murtha, we get it, we heard it before when you flipped out that he revealed the truth about the investigation that Marines who were there recently testified about in detail

Whether you like it or not, the "shock" part is over, Murtha lessened the blow by making it a multi-step problem...and look...it wasn't even headline news when the Marines testified about Haditha...old news...the nation has moved on

Good for Murtha helping us out, and good for him sticking up for his district

Murtha

[RMNIXON]

Originally Posted by JaJae

There's no defense for Murtha's behavior.

He can't help it!

He got his wasteful stubborn bureaucratic training on another planet:

[6SpeedTA95]

This is ridiculous and I find it disturbing the rest of the media isn't talking about this. I do not find it surprising as anything that could potentially damage the democrats will be swept under the rug till after the elections next year, but the fact remains this is exactly the kkind of shit this country doesn't need. This is the same kind of crap that created firestorms when republicans did it. Now that a democrat has done it? Nothing and even defense on this board by some

[Thorgrim]

Originally Posted by 6SpeedTA95

This is ridiculous and I find it disturbing the rest of the media isn't talking about this. I do not find it surprising as anything that could potentially damage the democrats will be swept under the rug till after the elections next year, but the fact remains this is exactly the kkind of shit this country doesn't need. This is the same kind of crap that created firestorms when republicans did it. Now that a democrat has done it? Nothing and even defense on this board by some

Uhm....Fox News...Weekly Standard/WashingtonTimes/conservative print...right wing radio

You think they haven't heard about this...they asked pelosi about it on ABC, its public knowledge

any "lack of discussion" is due to the right wing media not doing the talk

the 'big three' had This Week question Pelosi about it, check out their website if you want to see her reaction

just calm down and take deep breaths, if you want to be angry, be so at the media outlets i provided at the top of this post

at worst, he broke an ethics rule after losing his temper, I believe people call that "everyday life"...isn't it better he did it in public, rather in some secret private meeting

there's not much scandal to what one does on the house floor?

What's worse exactly, Murtha losing his temper and making possibly empty threats to a pain in the ass congressman who just riled him up or:

He provoked contentions of unethical conduct when he distributed campaign contributions from tobacco industry lobbyists on the House floor as House members were weighing how to vote on tobacco subsidies

Which is more disgusting to you? I think the checks are a much worse violation...yet how much does the media ever bring up that fact to the current leader of the House Republicans?

[DosEquis]

Originally Posted by JaJae

What does $23 million for a drug intelligence center have to do with the quality of life from his home districts?

Sounds like they are "full", but maybe they could use some illegal immigrants to improve their lives.