"...needs to suck up to his base."
Murtha's base is blue-collar Johnstown and other coal mining/steel towns and gun rights rural western PA. This is not left wing country, believe me. A lot of people in his base identify strongly with the military and are serving in Iraq.
Murtha isn't an American...he is a DemocRAT!
He's not sucking up to his base. He has plenty of families of service people serving in Iraq in his district and they will NOT be pleased to hear for him calling for surrender. This s.o.b. abandoned the military before the '04 election when he thought that there was a shot to get his Chairmanship back in the House. Now he really smells blood and he's sick and tired of the indignities of being in the minority. He will do anything - whatever it takes including selling his country out - to get his perks and power back. If the Republicans don't lose the House in '06, this old fart will do exactly what many of the Democrat old Bulls have done since '94 --- QUIT!
Murtha has no real challenge politically. He can stay in the job as long as he wants. He ran unopposed in 2004 and won in 2002 with 72% of the vote. Whatever the motivation for his actions, it has nothing to do with securing his political future.