Murtha exposed:Murtha's Bid for House Post May Weaken Democrats' Ethics Image
By Kristin Jensen and Brian Faler, Bloomberg.com
Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) -- John Murtha's bid to become House majority leader may undermine Democrats' efforts to portray themselves as more honest than the Republicans they defeated last week.
Government-watchdog groups say Murtha, 74, has used his position as the senior Democrat on the defense appropriations subcommittee to direct federal dollars to political donors. They also recall that he was investigated, though never prosecuted, in the Abscam bribery scandal that led to the convictions of seven lawmakers in the 1980s.
``If Representative Murtha is selected to be the majority leader, it will be a clear sign that the new Congress has no intention of ending the culture of corruption,'' said Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, a Falls Church, Virginia-based nonprofit group that focuses on ethics in government. ``Murtha personifies what is wrong with Congress.''
House Democrats will pick their leaders tomorrow after last week's elections gave them control of the chamber for the first time in 12 years. Murtha is challenging Maryland Representative Steny Hoyer, 67, the current No. 2 Democrat in the House, for the majority leader job; California Representative Nancy Pelosi, who's in line to become speaker of the House, has endorsed Murtha.
Hoyer, who said yesterday that he had the support of a majority of Democrats for the post, wouldn't comment on whether ethics concerns should disqualify Murtha from the majority leader's job. ``I'm not going to get into that,'' Hoyer said. ``We're going to have a unified caucus, and I'm going to be positive.''
`Looking Forward'
Murtha's spokesman, Andrew Koneschusky, declined to comment on criticism of Murtha's ethics. ``We are looking forward, not backward,'' he said.
Murtha has earned a reputation for being one of the most prolific lawmakers at doling out earmarks -- federal dollars added to spending legislation, sometimes anonymously, to pay for lawmakers' pet projects.
Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington-based group that campaigns against waste in federal spending, estimates that Murtha's western Pennsylvania district received between $80 million and $100 million in earmarks in 2006 and will receive an additional $80 million next year. Murtha says the projects help bring jobs to an area hurt by steel-plant closures.
Center of a Scandal
Earmarks were at the center of the congressional scandal that resulted in the resignation and imprisonment of California Republican Representative Randy ``Duke'' Cunningham, who admitted taking $2.4 million in bribes for steering money to defense contractors.
``Earmarks have become known as the currency of corruption,'' Boehm said.
The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said this year's defense budget included 2,847 earmarks worth $9.4 billion, almost five times as many as in 1994, and twice the dollar value.
``Securing pork for one's district or state is a time- honored tradition in American politics that knows no ideological boundaries,'' said David Primo, a political science professor at the University of Rochester in New York.
Murtha received at least $179,400 from defense companies' political action committees in the 2005-06 election cycle, according to PoliticalMoneyLine, a Washington-based company that tracks campaign finance.
More Than the Chairman
The amount he received not only exceeded the $109,600 that the Republican chairman of the defense appropriations subcommittee, Florida Representative Bill Young, received -- it was more than any other member of Congress got.
Watchdog groups say Murtha has also steered a large number of earmarks to politically connected lobbying firms that have given to his re-election campaigns.
His sixth-largest career donor is the PMA Group, a Washington lobbying firm founded by former appropriations committee staffer Paul Magliocchetti, according to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis based on employee, family and PAC contributions. PMA won at least 64 special projects in the 2006 defense-spending legislation.
``He's been a serial abuser of earmarks,'' said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. ``To be talking about trying to change the tone and the pay-to-play system -- he has been, more so than just about any other Democrat, the personification of that system.''
Abscam Memories
Murtha's candidacy has also revived memories of the Abscam investigation. The American Spectator, a conservative magazine, in September posted a video and transcript on its Web site of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's attempted sting in January 1980.
During the meeting, an undercover FBI agent showed Murtha $50,000 in a drawer in front of him. The congressman first said ``I'm not interested,'' then told the agent, ``You know, we do business for a while, maybe I'll be interested, maybe I won't.''
The video was played during the 1980 trial of two Abscam defendants during which Murtha testified as a witness, according to the New York Times.
Six U.S. representatives and a senator were convicted in the scandal. Murtha denied any wrongdoing and the House ethics committee found no reason to sanction him. ``I am disconcerted that some are making headlines by resorting to unfounded allegations that occurred 26 years ago,'' Murtha said in a statement yesterday.
Reagan's Commandment
The complaints by ethics-in-government groups haven't been publicly echoed by Democrats on Capitol Hill. ``Ronald Reagan had the 11th commandment: Speak no ill of a fellow Republican,'' said Representative Jim Cooper of Tennessee. ``We need to adopt the same thing on our side.''
Murtha, a Vietnam War veteran with close ties to the Pentagon who has served in Congress for 32 years, drew national attention last year when he called for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
The call for withdrawal ``changed the national debate'' on Iraq, Pelosi said in her Nov. 12 letter of support for Murtha.
Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said elevating Murtha would knock Democrats off the political high ground on good- government issues.
``This is not the face you'd want out there when you're talking ethics,'' Sloan said. ``It sends a message that they're not taking the culture of corruption quite as seriously now that they're in power.'' |
