House colleague berates military pork king Murtha

[Ron Burgundy]

Republican Rep. Terry Everett of Alabama unleashed an unusually harsh attack on a House colleague, calling decorated Vietnam War veteran John Murtha, D-Pa., a cut-and-run idiot.

"Don't talk to me about defense," Everett, who is retiring at the end of this term, said during a radio interview this week. "Cut-and-run John Murtha is in charge of the appropriations committee for defense and he is certainly no friend of the military.

"And don't talk to me about him being an ex-Marine. Lord, that was 40 years ago. A lot of stuff can happen in 40 years. Thank you for your service as being an ex-Marine but that doesn't mean you're (not) an idiot, and he is," Everett said of Murtha.

Asked on Friday about his comments, Everett did not apologize but issued a statement saying he wished he had chosen his words more carefully.

Murtha, the House's biggest recipient of home-state pet projects and a key distributor of them to other lawmakers as chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, has been a leading critic of the war in Iraq. His spokesman, Matthew Mazonkey, said in a statement that Murtha would not "stoop to that level" by responding to personal attacks.

"Congressman Murtha's record of supporting our troops and our veterans speaks for itself," Mazonkey said in a statement. Mazonkey noted that the Democratic-controlled Congress had dramatically increased Veterans Affairs spending and recently passed a new GI Bill that more than doubles college aid for troops and veterans.

Everett's remarks were broadcast Wednesday by Dothan, Ala., radio station WWNT. He announced last fall that he is retiring after 16 years in Congress.

source: AP - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080822/ap_on_go_co/congress_murtha_critic [link]