Step Back Jack

John Murtha may have become the darling of the lefty anti-war crowd, but the man who has spent thirty-two years of his life in the House of Representatives won’t become the poster-child of any anti-corruption crusade any time soon, that’s for sure.

As The Washington Times pointed out yesterday, this cut-and-run congressman who accused Marines of murder "in cold blood" before a preliminary investigation was even complete, has more than his fair share of political skeletons in the old closet.

“Last June, the Los Angeles Times reported how the ranking member on the defense appropriations subcommittee has a brother, Robert Murtha, whose lobbying firm represents 10 companies that received more than $20 million from last year's defense spending bill. "Clients of the lobbying firm KSA Consulting -- whose top officials also include former congressional aide Carmen V. Scialabba, who worked for Rep. Murtha as a congressional aide for 27 years -- received a total of $20.8 million from the bill," the L.A. Times reported.”

More: “In early 2004, according to Roll Call, Mr. Murtha "reportedly leaned on U.S. Navy officials to sign a contract to transfer the Hunters Point Shipyard to the city of San Francisco." Laurence Pelosi, nephew of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, at the time was an executive of the company which owned the rights to the land. The same article also reported how Mr. Murtha has been behind millions of dollars worth of earmarks in defense appropriations bills that went to companies owned by the children of fellow Pennsylvania Democrat, Rep. Paul Kanjorski. Meanwhile, the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan campaign-finance watchdog group, lists Mr. Murtha as the top recipient of defense industry dollars in the current 2006 election cycle.”

This is nothing new for old Jack. In fact, as the paper points out, Murtha’s questionable history extends all the way back to 1980, to the massive Abscam bribery scandal, when Mr. Murtha was named by the FBI as an "unindicted co-conspirator."

We have unfinished busines left in Iraq Jack. Step out of the way.