John Murtha: Requiem for a Corruptocrat

We are


not supposed to speak ill of the dead.
But those whom the deceased viciously smeared and
humiliated deserve to be defended. Entrenched Democratic
Rep. John Murtha passed away on Feb. 8 after a botched
gallbladder surgery. He has been hailed as a



"military advocate"
(Associated Press) and



"one of the greatest patriots ever to serve in Congress"
(former Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr.). These
obsequious obituaries leave out inconvenient truths:

John "Jack"
Murtha was an


unrepentant smear merchant
and corruptocrat to the bitter end.

In May 2006, during an MSNBC TV show appearance that
Marines and their families will never forget or forgive,
Murtha accused U.S. troops of wantonly killing some two
dozen civilians, including children, in the


terrorist stronghold of Haditha,
Iraq. Bellowed


Murtha:
"Our troops
overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they
killed innocent civilians in cold blood." Murtha
publicly indicted the Marines before military
investigations had been completed. His remarks opened
military-bashing floodgates around the world.

In the wake of Murtha`s reckless blabbing, MSNBC
executioner


Keith Olbermann
accused the Haditha Marines of
"willful targeted
brutality." The Nation magazine


claimed
that "members of
the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment perpetrated a
massacre." The
New York Times dubbed Haditha the



"defining atrocity"
of the Iraq war. International papers piled on with



Vietnam-era




"My Lai"
allusions. Murtha cold-bloodedly sat back and enjoyed
the ride while the Marines were left twisting in the
wind.

By 2008, seven of the Marines charged in the incident
had been exonerated or had charges against them dropped.
Lt. Andrew Grayson was acquitted.
Lance Cpl.


Stephen Tatum,
Capt. Lucas McConnell, Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, Sgt.
Sanick Dela Cruz and


Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani all
had their cases dismissed. Sgt. Frank Wuterich, the last
of the Marines facing charges, awaits a long,
dragged-out trial this year.

Murtha, the so-called
"military advocate," went to his deathbed refusing to apologize or
retract the attacks on the Haditha Marines (several of
whom unsuccessfully sued him for libel to restore their
honor). Decent people would call this intransigent
treachery. Murtha`s friends apparently consider it great
patriotism.

The ego-bloated, big-mouthed lawmaker treated his own
constituents with trademark contempt. During his


last congressional campaign,
he mocked


voters in his district
as bigots.
"There`s no question that


western Pennsylvania
is a racist area,"
he told the



Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Responding to mounting criticism on both sides of the
aisle about his logrolling orgies on the Hill, he
sniffed: "If I`m
corrupt, it`s because I take care of my district."

First, foremost and forever, Jack Murtha took care of
Jack Murtha. The glowing encomiums from his liberal
colleagues have glossed over the 19-term Democrat`s
defining moment of political self-service. In 1980,
Murtha was an unindicted co-conspirator in a massive
bribery probe—in which undercover FBI agents videotaped
Murtha entertaining a $50,000 bribe from agents posing
as emissaries for Arab sheiks trying to enter our
country illegally. From


transcripts of those conversations
published by the late newspaper columnist Jack Anderson,
Murtha`s true colors shined:

"I
want to deal with you guys awhile before I make any
transactions at all, period. … After we`ve done some
business, well, then I might change my mind. …"

"I`m going to tell you this. If anybody can do it—I`m
not B.S.-ing you fellows—I can get it done my way,"
he boasted.
"There`s no question about it."[Murtha
and Abscam: A Sad Spectacle,
August 6, 1980]

Murtha worried not about his integrity or how his
constituents might be harmed, but about getting ratted
out:

"All
at once," he said, "some dumb (expletive deleted) would
go start talking eight years from now about this whole
thing and say (expletive deleted), this happened. Then
in order to get immunity so he doesn`t go to jail, he
starts talking and fingering people. So the (S.O.B.)
falls apart."

"You give us the banks where you want the money
deposited," offered one of the bagmen.

"All right," agreed Murtha. "How much money we talking
about?"

"Well, you tell me."

By the time of his death, Murtha had been caught
intervening on behalf of a law-breaking Pennsylvania
company convicted of selling military equipment parts
illegally overseas; had steered unprecedented billions
in federal earmarks to friends, family and donors; had
earned multiple
"most corrupt in Congress" designations from both
the left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics
in Washington and the right-leaning Judicial Watch; and
had remained intimately tied to PMA Group, a former
lobbying firm under federal investigation, and Kuchera
Industries, a defense contractor also under federal
investigation.

From his character assassination of innocents to his
insatiable appetite for pork and power, Jack Murtha
embodied everything that is wrong with Washington. If
only the culture of corruption he serviced could be
buried six feet under with him.

COPYRIGHT

CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.

Michelle Malkin

[email
her]
is the author of


Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists,
Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our
Shores.
Click


here
for Peter Brimelow`s review. Click



here
for Michelle Malkin`s website. Michelle Malkin
is also author of




Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild
and the just-released Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies.