A little more on Murtha (vanity...sort of)

Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) is actively lobbying Democratic National Committee (DNC) delegates to select former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean as their next chairman.

The endorsement of the leading antiwar presidential candidate by one of the Democrats' most prominent early supporters of the Iraq invasion signals a rehabilitation of Dean's image in the House and greatly increases his prospects of leading the party, many Democratic lawmakers and aides said.

Several lawmakers said support by the hardscrabble, old-school Vietnam veteran, who endorsed former Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) in the presidential primaries, would compel the DNC to take a second look at the firebrand governor and not simply write him off as an extreme avatar of the party's antiwar wing.

At Dean's request, Murtha wrote to Pennsylvania's seven delegates to the DNC last week explaining why he is endorsing a candidate with whom he shares so few positions.

"I am not with him on all the issues, but he understands the party's problems, what we need to do and how to get there," said Murtha. "And he has executive experience. … A lot of people in the party don't understand just where we are. We need a change. We need something different."

One senior lawmaker, who asked not to be named in order to speak more candidly about internal party matters, said his colleagues would be shocked to hear of Murtha's support for Dean. The lawmaker added, "Maybe we'll all have to take a second look. A lot of us will."

Of Pennsylvania congressman Jack Murtha, who was supporting new House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi: "There's a great guy standing behind her, Jack Murtha."

- Comment by Tip O'Neill, reported in the Washingtonian, Jan 2004, http://www.washingtonian.com/capital_comment/2004/jan04capcom.html

"Murtha signals Dem sea-change on Iraq Respected hawk says conflict may be now ‘unwinnable’ By Hans Nichols

Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) told his Democratic colleagues Tuesday that he feared the war in Iraq is unwinnable if the U.S. military does not dramatically increase troop levels, provide more ground support and seek significant international involvement.

But Murtha — a Vietnam veteran, an early Democratic advocate of President Bush’s authority to invade Iraq and one of Congress’s staunchest supporters of the military — expressed serious doubts that those remedies are even faint possibilities, given current military deployments, a lack of support from NATO allies and widespread outrage over the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners of war.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming from a senior appropriator with close ties to the Pentagon, Murtha’s bleak analysis led many colleagues to surmise that he believes a democratic Iraq is a lost cause.

The White House, however, notified Congress yesterday that it would ask for an additional $25 billion supplemental bill for military operations in Iraq and the war on terrorism. The request will most likely be attached to the 2005 defense appropriations bill.

Many Democrats, especially those long opposed to the war, welcomed Murtha’s apparent change of heart. Democrats continued to vent about the U.S. casualties, the administration’s planning for the war and the POW images.

Murtha declined to elaborate on his presentation, given in this week’s “leader lunch,” but several lawmakers and aides confirmed that he had delivered his dire warning. "

Reps. David Dreier (R-Calif.), Mark Souder (R-Ind.) and John Murtha (D-Pa.) spent more than $5,700 each on plasma-screen televisions. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) decided his office could use a $623 popcorn machine, while Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) shelled out $823 for an ionic air freshener and Rep. Clay Shaw (R-Fla.) paid $444 for TiVo.

Each lawmaker is given an average of $1.2 million a year for his or her member representational account (MRAs), which pays the salaries of 18 full-time aides, travel, mass mailings, leased cars, bottled water, coffee and everything else a modern office needs.

From The Hill, Nov 8, 2005, http://hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/110805/news2.html

Frustrated by defense secretary Don Rumsfeld’s ability to escape blame for rosy predictions about Iraq, Congressional Democrats are training their guns on Rumsfeld deputy Paul Wolfowitz.

Congressman David Obey of Wisconsin started the drumbeat by charging that Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz are “raving romantics.” He urged President Bush to let them “return to the private sector.”

While Obey is a hard-core liberal, tea-leaf readers saw a more ominous sign when Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha, a bipartisan voice on defense matters, followed up by snapping, “Wolfowitz is gone.”

A Senate Democratic aide says insiders are counting the days: “I can’t believe he can take much more of this. He is losing credibility up here on the Hill.”

From The Washingtonian, Oct 2003, http://www.washingtonian.com/capital_comment/2003/oct03capcom.html

Democrats urge Bush to fire aides WASHINGTON - House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and one of her party's staunchest advocates of a strong military exhorted President Bush on Tuesday to fire advisers who helped set U.S. policy in Iraq.

Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said that since Bush declared an end to major combat in Iraq on May 1, American policy there has been riddled with miscalculations over armed opposition and the extent of rebuilding, costing U.S. lives and billions of dollars.

"We can't allow these bureaucrats to get off while these young people are paying such a heavy price," Murtha, a Vietnam combat veteran and senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, said at a news conference with Pelosi. They did not name individuals they would like to see fired.

From the St. Petersburg Times, Sep 17, 2003, http://www.sptimes.com/2003/09/17/Worldandnation/US_negotiates_for_sur.shtml

CONGRESS SLIPS SCHOOLS QUESTIONABLE GRANTS John Murtha, who is not a rich man, gave his alam mater nearly $100 million last year.

Murtha, an 11-term western Pennsylvania Democratic congressman, quietly slipped his gifts into the huge defense appropriations bill passed by the powerful House subcommittee he chairs.

``Academic pork'' is the name of his game, and it has become a popular pastime in Congress.

A decade ago, fewer than a dozen universities were bold enough to ask key lawmakers to earmark grants exclusively for them. Now hundreds do it. The cost to taxpayers has soared from $11 million in 1982 to more than $650 million this year.

Some of the ways that money is spent are raising eyebrows - like a planetarium for a Michigan community college that has no astronomers, and money for a Chicago gear research institute already under criminal investigation for possible misuse of past federal grants.

Congress also is backing diabetes research by a scientist who never has heard of the National Institutes of Health unit that leads the field, and is sponsoring Chesapeake Bay studies by a new Pennsylvania environmental center 180 miles from its shores.

Sometimes it's hard to know just what America's political philanthropists are up to. Leon Haley, top spokesman for the University of Pittsburgh, Murtha's alma mater, says he knows ``almost nothing'' about how the $99,600,000 in grants to the school included in the 1994 appropriation are being spent.

``Nobody knew what the hell to do with it,'' recalls Lawrence Korb, a former top Pentagon official whose advice was sought by a friend, the university's president, when Murtha first offered the money.

Most of the money actually is going to Concurrent Technologies Corp., a subsidiary of the University of Pittsburgh Trust. Both are nonprofit corporations used to fund academic research by faculty members and others.

According to a CTC brochure, its research is focused on metalworking, manufacturing software and anti-pollution systems. CTC is based in Johnstown, Pa., Murtha's hometown, 80 miles east of the university's main campus.

Generous senior House and Senate Appropriations Committee members like Murtha are behind the successes of the universities and states that have won the most academic pork since 1980.

Pennsylvania is far out in front with an estimated $377,238,000, followed by Massachusetts with $206,191,000. Others in the top 10 are Oregon, Louisiana, Florida, New York, Michigan, California, Iowa and West Virginia, in that order.

From The Virginian-Pilot, Aug 4, 1994, stored in: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1994/vp940804/08040543.htm

Doyle and Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, opposed the House bill that allowed the Schiavo case to move from Florida to federal court. Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Bradford Woods and Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair voted in favor of the measure.

From Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 22, 2005, http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05081/475496.stm

MIXED FEELINGS AMONG US POLITICIANS WASHINGTON (UPI, Dec, 3) -- A leading military authority in Congress, saying the move would represent a major change in U.S. policy, Wednesday cautioned against sending U.S. troops into Somalia without a clear-cut objective. "My feeling is it's a mistake with the present conditions as they are," said Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense. Murtha, at a news conference, said there is "no clear-cut mission. The rules of engagement are not clear, and we have no purpose in being there. It's not in our national interest. And for those reasons I, at this point, oppose deploying troops to Somalia as bad as the situation is." Murtha made his comments as the United Nations was considering authorizing a multinational military force that would try to safeguard relief efforts for starving civilians in that country. He acknowleldged the situation in Somalia is desperate, but said other problems exist elsewhere in the world, as in the former Yugoslavia and the former Soviet republics. "It's tragic, it's terrible what's happening. Everytime I see the pictures I almost have to turn them off," he said. Similar concerns were voiced by Sen. Hank Brown, R-Colo., who said it would "be a mistake to send troops to Somalia," where they would be at risk. Following a White House meeting on the POW-MIA issue, Brown told reporters he is not against humanitarian assistance but "it would be dangerous to send troops to Somalia with no defined mission." Murtha recently visited Sarajevo and on his return urged President Bush to not commit U.S. troops to that war-torn area. He said he also has told administration officials and top aides to President-elect Bill Clinton of his opposition to involvement in Somalia. "It's a change in direction for the country," Murtha said. "We have to make a decision up front. If we make this kind of deployment are we going to make it in other parts of the world where you have some similar, terrible, tragic situations?" "Is the mission for limited deployment of a small number of troops?" he asked. "Is it for a large deployment for an extended period of time? Are we going to try to form a government? Are we going to start forming governments in these countries? There's just so many unanswered questions. I think it's a precipitious decision at this stage." Murtha also complained that Bush had not consulted with Congress about the possibility of deploying troops. Murtha said such consultation was critical in gaining support for the Gulf War and he urged Bush to do the same in the current situation. Murtha said he had been told by a top Defense Department official that the deployment probably would involve "near 30,000 troops" if the decision is made to join the U.N. effort. But Murtha noted that many more military personnel would have to be involved in support operations. He also expressed concern about the costs of such an operation, and warned it would take away from domestic needs and from the already reduced Pentagon budget.

From Somalia News Report, Dec 3, 1992, http://www.etext.org/Politics/Somalia.News.Update/Volume.1/snu-1.39

Sorry for the "sort of" vanity, but I wanted to try to paint a little picture of who Jack Murtha really is, vice the picture we're being given today by the MSM.

He doesn't really sound like much of a "conservative Democrat" or a "hawk" to me.

"He doesn't really sound like much of a "conservative Democrat" or a "hawk" to me."

No, but he does sound like a media whore whiney spineless liberal democrap.

3 posted on 11/18/2005 7:32:14 AM PST by GregoTX (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.)

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