I wasn't passing judgement on the topic as a valid point to raise when discussing Murtha. I don't have enough information. I was just answering the question of whether or not he was involved in Abscam in any way.
I do have a general discomfort with these types of "blasts from the past," but I also think we too often ignore obvious and egregious problems on the dims side when we "rise above it." They never rise above anything and they never let anything go, even when the Republican is not just not indicted but is explicitely declared innocent. They still maintain that during the 1980 campaign George HW Bush borrowed (!!!???!!!) an SR71 to fly over to Paris and meet with the Iranian's to cut a deal on the hostages to hurt Carter. Things like the TNG accusations keep getting recycled as if they were true, no matter how many times they are proved wrong, and they score points every time with the uninformed.
We have to be careful not to stoop to their fraud tactics, but if there really is something there we can't gloss over it. It's like this White House conceding the WMD argument when that debate, IMO, is far from over. Bush wanted to change the tone and they conciously decided not to fight issues like that. I think they were wrong.
Alito's throwing out the first pitch in the Phillies game today... getting the ball from a Navy Seal.
I love it.