Posted on 06/13/2005 5:36:34 AM PDT by Happy Valley Dude
WASHINGTON | When Congress passed the $417 billion Pentagon spending bill last year, Rep. John P. Murtha, top Democrat on the House defense appropriations subcommittee, boasted about the money he secured to create jobs in his Pennsylvania district.
But the bill Murtha helped write also benefited at least 10 companies represented by a lobbying firm where his brother, Robert ''Kit'' Murtha is a senior partner, according to disclosure records, interviews and an analysis of the bill by the Los Angeles Times.
Clients of the lobbying firm KSA Consulting — whose top officials also include former congressional aide Carmen V. Scialabba, who worked for Rep. Murtha for 27 years — received a total of $20.8 million from the bill.
One of the clients, a small Arkansas maker of military vehicles, was awarded an appropriation of $1.7 million, triple its total sales for all of 2004. Several other clients received awards that repre-sented more than half of their annual sales from last year.
KSA directly lobbied the congressman's office on behalf of seven companies that received money from the bill, records and interviews show. Among those clients, a firm based in Maryland received one of the larger individual awards, $4.2 million.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcall.com ...
Yeah, but he's a Democrat, so this will be ignored, then forgotten.
That's why we need term limits so badly!
Of course, if he was a Repbulican, we'd just say "But Democrats do it too!", and then it would be ignored, then forgotten. Its some system those guys have set up.
True, but the media would latch on to it, if it was a Demcorat.
It would be the top story for NBC/CBS/ABC and NY Times.
Companies seek out lobbying firms that are close to the targeted public official, or those that can most effectively accomplish their agenda. Blood relatives are choice in this respect. This is an unfortunate by-product of our system. This is not illegal, and only borderline unethical.
Yes, that's true. Harry Reid did WORSE by writing legislation to help out his sons and other people in the state of Nevada .. and the media totally looked away .. although Rush had the story up on his website for probably a week.
"Yeah, but he's a Democrat, so this will be ignored, then forgotten."
Maybe not.
Maybe Shakespeare was wrong. Maybe the lobbyists should be first, then the lawyers.
;-)
ohn Murtha, Jr. - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania. Implicated in the Abscam sting, in which FBI agents impersonating Arab businessmen offered bribes to political figures; Murtha was cited as an unindicted co-conspirator
bump
People here on FR will fight you on term limits.
This is basically what Harry Reid did also for his 3 sons.
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