Mr. Murtha's Strange History, Stranger Proposal

**See below for an update**

The question has to be asked.

Democrats are hoping to convince America of two things to win over the houses of Congress in the fall.  They wish to be known as the party of honest government and honest politicians, with the Republicans represented at all times by "corrupt" lobbyist Jack Abramoff.  And they wish to be taken seriously on national security, seen as having a smarter, stronger plan for dealing with terrorism and the war in Iraq.  Given those desires, here's the question:  Is Pennsylvania Rep. Jack Murtha the spokesman you really want out front?

Via Robert Novak, there's Mr. Murtha's strange connection to the Abscam bribery investigation in the early 80's. (ht: Kim Priestap)

Murtha got into politics in 1968 as a 36-year-old highly decorated Marine and in 1974 became the first Vietnam War veteran elected to Congress. By 1980, Murtha was a lieutenant of Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O'Neill and was moving to the top in the House when the FBI named him as one of eight members of Congress videotaped being offered bribes by a phony Arab sheik.

The other seven congressional targets took cash and were convicted in federal court. The videotape showed Murtha declining to take cash but expressing interest in further negotiations, while bragging about his political influence. Murtha testified against the popular Rep. Frank Thompson in the Abscam case, which created lifelong enemies in the Democratic cloakroom. The House Ethics Committee exonerated Murtha of misconduct charges by a largely party-line vote, after which the committee's special counsel resigned in protest.

Then there's much more recent dabbling with politics for financial benefit, as outlined in a Washington Times editorial.

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.

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.

As Rep. Joe Wilson, South Carolina Republican, has said, "If there is a potential pattern where Congressman Murtha has helped other Democrats secure appropriations that also benefited relatives of those members, I believe this would be something that merits further review by the ethics committee."

There are similar issues being raised with Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and with former ethics committee member Democratic Rep. Alan Mollohan.  So that 'culture of corruption' thing is probably not going to fly.  How about the 'strong and smart' security plan for winning against the terrorists and in Iraq?  Well, Mr. Murtha is a spokesman there too, and he wants the troops to fight wars in the middle east based in ... Okinawa.

"My question is, what country would take us?" Mr. Rove asked. "What country would say after the United States cut and run from Iraq, 'Yeah, paint a big target on our back and then you'll cut and run from us?'" "We can go to Okinawa," Rep. Murtha responded. "We can redeploy there almost instantly."

Mr. Russert, mindful of the fact that Okinawa, Japan, is 4,899 miles from Baghdad, offered Mr. Murtha an escape, in case he had misspoken. "But it would be tough to have a timely response from Okinawa," he said. But Rep. Murtha dug himself in deeper. "When I say a timely response, you know, our fighters can fly from Okinawa very quickly," he said.

Mr. Murtha has been recommending redeployment to Okinawa ever since his rebirth as a dove last year, so what he said on "Meet the Press" was no slip of the tongue.

Let us be clear about the Murtha "strategy." It is insane. It would be easier to defend Germany from Chicago; Alaska from Miami, or Hawaii from Pittsburgh than to defend Iraq from Okinawa.

It would take 10-12 hours -- and six refuelings -- for F-16s to fly from Kadena AFB on Okinawa to Baghdad (assuming China and India would grant overflight rights, a dubious assumption). Mr. Murtha may regard this as "very quickly," but the Air Force does not.

Let's also not forget that he encourages 'redeployment' from Iraq like he encouraged and agreed with withdrawal from Somalia. 

Murtha's invocation of this event as an example for future US foreign policy decision-making demonstrates a lack of perspective that is so completely absurd that it defies logic.  It is so shockingly wrong that if you didn't know who was saying such a thing you would have to conclude the man was joking.  And therefore any American leader who would say such a thing, by definition is himself a joke.

It's that same withdrawal that Osama Bin Laden has pointed to as a sign of American weakness.

Bin Laden has strategic reasons to believe in terrorism, too. The Muslim victory over the Soviet Union in Afghanistan showed him that superpowers are not so superpowerful. And the ignominious American withdrawal from Somalia—following a Bin Laden connected attack—convinced him that the United States is morally weak. The U.S. soldier is "a paper tiger" who crumples after "a few blows."

Mr. Murtha is, other than Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the leading House Democrat spokesperson on the Iraq war, and his idea for 'redeployment' can easily be characterized as "insane," as Jack Kelly does, as a joke.  This does not bode well for November, when the American people will head to the polls during wartime, when terrorists continue to espouse designs on an attack within our borders.

Mr. Murtha's ideas would not lead to American victory, and so it can only be concluded that he's not the fighter his fellow Democrats would like us to believe he is.  He has used up his credibility, and has too much baggage, and he hurts the Democrats in the two areas where they need credibility to win.  He may find that Diane Irey is a tougher competitor than he'd like.

7/6/06 1145: A comment to this post indicates that the story of Mr. Murtha's comments about the US being a greater threat in the world than Iran or North Korea may not be as initially presented.  I should first note that I didn't quote those comments in this story, for several reasons, not the least of which was that they were not presented in context.  So may I assume my other points are unassailable?

The context is presented by Kevin Aylward at Wizbang!, who has the video of those comments.  Let's just say that, although Mr. Murtha seems to have been presenting polling data rather than his own opinion, it's not clear from his comments that he differs from that opinion.

Comments

[chancuff]

As of the date and time stamp of this posting the following is correct:
The original first paragraph written by Elizabeth Baier at the Sun-Sentinel has been removed. Since their original correction to their story and my constant vigilance and the constantly updated reporting at theinfozone.net, they have rewritten this entire original article.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-ctownhall25jun25,0,7119684.story

What distinguishes this as unique is that though newspapers certainly update stories all the time, but when doing so, they are required by standard journalism practice to make clear it’s a revision, stating prominently at the top this story is a revision and updating the date of the article to the date of the revision. They have done neither.

Any impression created by this posting that this indicates that the Sun-Sentinel is covering up what they started by making all the uproar of this week over something that “never happened” is not my intent here. (legal disclaimers have become necessary)

Wait until you hear the new development today. The video of Murtha's speech in Miami has been released.

Cliff Hancuff
The World of Journalism Is Flat, Too

[chancuff]

There are a whole lot more things going on behind the scenes with this story than have yet been reported, anywhere. Quite a few people far beyond Ms. Baier and her editor Ms. Rosenhause have shot themselves in the foot.

Write Diana Irey, John Murtha's Republican oponent, asking her about the letter I sent her today.

email: [email removed]

Cliff Hancuff
The World Of Journalism Is Flat, Too

[chancuff]

Looking at the large number of blog posts I've placed throughout the blogsphere in the last 2 weeks, I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking they look like spam.

My apologies to all.

Some interesting happened today. I received an email response from Bill Pasco(e) of Diana Irey's campaign against John Murtha for the 12th District of Pennsylvania seat in the House of Representatives.

In responding Mr. Pascoe's email, I found it useful to CC that response to him to Elizabeth Baier and her editor Ms. Rosenhause (Managing Editor Sun-Sentinel).

The topic of those emails was "Rovian Architecture Unplugged". If you are interested to learn more, feel free to write them.

Make "Rovian Architechure Unplugged" your subject heading so they know what your inquiry is about.

Their email addresses:

Bill Pascoe

[email removed]

Elizabeth Baier

[email removed]

Sharon Rosenhause

[email removed]

Cliff Hancuff
The World of Journalism Is Flat, Too

[chancuff]

THE ANATOMY OF BOOTMURTH.COM's and DIANA IREY's Crash & Burn

http://community.cnhi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/38410611/m/134103794?r=134103794#134103794

(Click all the links, or you'll get/be lost.)

Cliff Hancuff
The World of Journalism Is Flat, Too

[chancuff]

"Swift Boat Veterans for Themselves" ignored a couple issues CRITICAL to our troops at war during the run-up to the 2004 election.

First, they sat silent knowing full well that Bush NEVER USED the number of troops he incessantly claims his generals asked for. Turkey would not allow the 40,000 troops of the 4th to pass through and participate in Bush's invasion of Iraq.

Bush waged war KNOWING our troops were 40,000 short.

Second, these same Lookatme! Showboaters sat silent when this very same troop shortage resulted in America's greatest tragedy of the war in Iraq.

EVERYONE who's ever gone through basic training knows that when you find your enemies weapons, you keep them secure.

Hundreds of tons of high explosives that our troops had captured at Al Qaqaa were abandoned specifically due to troops shortages, CREATED by Bush's incompetence in war.

These explosive stolen from Al Qaqaa are the weapons that have been used to blow our troops into too many parts to count each and every day of this war.

When some pasty butt wimp, like [name removed] of bootmurtha.com, decides to pass his "gimme' some money" collection plate to support his concept of patriotism for a circus tent performance at The Cambria County War Memorial on October 1st of this year ...

Some would say there's nothing more patriotic than putting a moron who's never given a hoot about our troops at war (or he would have spoke up about those 40k troops left behind and Al Qaqaa IN 2004) in his proper place ...he's a coward.

To make matters even MORE entertaining, [name removed] actually thinks having John O'Neill, the original Lookatme! Show Boater, as his surprise guest speaker is a feather in his cap.

You may not like the stand John Murtha has been making, but for anyone who supports our troops at war, there's no way to respond to these idiot Swiftboaters' Reunion in Murtha's home town of Johnstown, Pa, than a chorus of Bronx raspberries.

I hope this clarifies.

Cliff Hancuff
The World of Journalism Is Flat, Too
---------------------------------------------
Things are JUST NOT GOING WELL for the folks at the "Diana Irey for Congress" camp.

Diana Irey Press Release UPDATE!

http://community.cnhi.com/eve/fo...611/m/911101894
(read first 4 posts, the rest if you fancy to)

http://community.cnhi.com/eve/fo...611/m/631100794

http://community.cnhi.com/eve/fo...611/m/134103794
(click all links found in post, or you will get/be lost)

http://community.cnhi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/38410611/m/197109694

[chancuff]

RE-POST WITH EXPLANATION. THE LINKS ABOVE ARE TRUNCATED AND NOT CORRECT. THE LINKS HERE MAY APPEAR THE SAME, BUT THEY POINT TO THE PROPER PLACES.
------------------------------------------------------------------

"Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth" ignored a couple issues CRITICAL to our troops at war during the run-up to the 2004 election.

First, they sat silent knowing full well that Bush NEVER USED the number of troops he incessantly claims his generals asked for. Turkey would not allow the 40,000 troops of the 4th to pass through and participate in Bush's invasion of Iraq.

Bush waged war KNOWING our troops were 40,000 short.

Second, these same Lookatme! Showboaters sat silent when this very same troop shortage resulted in America's greatest tragedy of the war in Iraq.

EVERYONE who's ever gone through basic training knows that when you find your enemies weapons, you keep them secure.

Hundreds of tons of high explosives that our troops had captured at Al Qaqaa were abandoned specifically due to troops shortages, CREATED by Bush's incompetence in war.

These explosive stolen from Al Qaqaa are the weapons that have been used to blow our troops into too many parts to count each and every day of this war.

When some pasty butt wimp, like [name removed] of bootmurtha.com, decides to pass his "gimme' some money" collection plate to support his concept of patriotism for a circus tent performance at The Cambria County War Memorial on October 1st of this year ...

Some would say there's nothing more patriotic than putting a moron who's never given a hoot about our troops at war (or he would have spoke up about those 40k troops left behind and Al Qaqaa IN 2004) in his proper place ...he's a coward.

To make matters even MORE entertaining, [name removed] actually thinks having John O'Neill, the original Lookatme! Show Boater, as his surprise guest speaker is a feather in his cap.

You may not like the stand John Murtha has been making, but for anyone who supports our troops at war, there's no way to respond to these idiot Swiftboaters' Reunion in Murtha's home town of Johnstown, Pa, than a chorus of Bronx raspberries.

I hope this clarifies.

Cliff Hancuff
The World of Journalism Is Flat, Too
---------------------------------------------
Things are JUST NOT GOING WELL for the folks at the "Diana Irey for Congress" camp.

Diana Irey Press Release UPDATE!

http://community.cnhi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/38410611/m/911101894
(read first 4 posts, the rest if you fancy to)

http://community.cnhi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/38410611/m/631100794

http://community.cnhi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/38410611/m/134103794
(click all links found in post, or you will get/be lost)

http://community.cnhi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/38410611/m/197109694

[chancuff]

---------------------------------------
[name removed] of bootmurtha.com's private email address can be found at the top of this letter. Take a moment to drop him a note to ask if he's going to cut&run from my challenge.
For some samples of Diana Irey's Cut&Runs, go here:
http://community.cnhi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/38410611/m/524108205?r=587104305#587104305
----------------------------------------

Subject: RE: Iraqi Governemt Kicks Dubya's "Stay the Course" TO THE CURB!
Date: 9/14/2006 10:16:18 A.M. Eastern Standard Time
From: JournalismIsFlat
To: [email address removed]
CC: [email addresses removed]

It's "Show Time", wimp.

http://community.cnhi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/38410611/m/628102694?r=262105205#262105205

Cliff Hancuff
The World of Journalism Is Flat, Too

[Giacomo]

Mr. Hancuff:
You're busy writing expansive and preposterous challenges to someone I don't know and have no relationship with, on a web site which has never entered into the battles you are fighting, regarding a race that is 1000 miles away from me. This is officially spam, and I won't have it. You want to challenge someone at bootmurtha.com? Fine. Do it directly, not through my site on a 3 month old post. You are officially banned.

[Giacomo]

Oh, and I'm stripping out the private email addresses you listed above.

[C]

(Comment Deleted)

[chancuff]

(comment deleted)

Mr. Hancuff, you've been banned for spam, not for your political opinions. Has it occurred to you that this website author you've been spamming on a 3 month old post hasn't responded to your jihad? Have you thought of why that is?

I left up your earlier rants, minus the email addresses, and only have blocked further comments since banning you.

Fanatic: marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion