Best part:
He’s the guy who, brought into the deal by two other House members—Frank Thompson (D-N.J.) and John Murphy (D-N.Y.)—agreed to meet with men offering money in return for official action. He’s the guy who knew these two colleagues expected a payoff and even vouched for them with the would-be bribers (“Both of them are solid.”).
He’s the guy who, when offered a bribe, still wanted to do a deal. “I’m delighted to do business with him and do every goddamn thing I can within bounds, you know, so I don’t get myself in jail, in order to get him into the country and whatever needs to be done,” he says on the video, unearthed by the conservative American Spectator. (You can watch at http://www.spectator.org/.) He’s the guy who—as a member of the House ethics committee– did nothing to stop the scheme.
Sorry, but I’m not buying Murtha’s argument that he’s the victim of a “Swift-boating attack” over “unfounded allegations that occurred 26 years ago.” On its own, Murtha’s Abscam conduct is disqualifying
Typical wingnuttery:
Murtha is one of 12 Democrats who voted against the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill. He’s one of four who killed a strong Democratic ethics package earlier this year. He is a one-man earmarking factory whose beneficiaries have included a lobbying firm that employed his brother and another founded by a former top aide.
What “swiftboating” really means is that someone’s hounded by the misdeeds of his past; the Ancient Greeks called swiftboats erinyes.
UPDATE: WSJ supplies more of the details on how Murtha got off the hook
UPDATE x2: Kerry won’t be hosting the Academy Awards (and I’m still not starring in a lesbian movie with Eva Longoria, Beyonce or Salma, dammit)
Hmmm.
I thought th eGreeds calles swift boats Triremes.
But I could be wrong.
Greeks.
It’s spelled Greeks.
Preview is my friemd.
Unfounded? Ok, roll the tape and have him narrarate…
So, we’ll have Lott and they’ll have Murtha. This result is living proof that the vast majority of the people in the legislative branch are complete idiots.
If Lott and Murtha are the new leadership, can we just ask for a mulligan on the last election.
“Okay, idiots, you obviously didn’t hear us the first time…..”
Actually, the Hellenes would say he suffers from akrasia, as in, “that Murtha sure is akrasia.”
How about Kristanna Loken and Michelle Rodriguez?
CLICK
Nuke DC from orbit. It’s the only way to ensure the infection doesn’t spread.
I mean, you wouldn’t want all that stupidity to infect the rest of the country, would you?
Dammit, there goes San Fran! We’re too late!
Voting against this abomination is definitely not a strike against him.
Agreed, but I left it in to demonstrate the wingnuttery.
I’m sure Senile Jack thought McCain-Feingold would actually do what the media hype claimed it would do, and that’s why he voted against it.
If he’d only known.
McGehee: Could be. Of course, the media was just, like, psyched about it, because it gives them a near-total monopoly over political speech in the last 60 days leading up to an election.
Corruption was a huge issue along with Iraq. One polling result that Dem’s are ignoring is this one:
It’s astonishing to me that Pelosi would give Republicans a 1/2 punch shot like this. If they are operating under the assumption that the majority of Americans are so disillusioned by the Iraq war that they will support the kind of defeatism that Murtha is a poster child for, then they are in for a rude awakening. That doesn’t even count the implied hypocrisy of Murtha, Hastings, et al as Pelosi was beating the “Republican culture of corruption” carpet. If Abramoff does implicate 6 -7 Dem senators then the whole shebang could blow up in Pelosi’s face. I suspect that voters will notice the betrayal despite some MSM spin to the contrary.
I would smile knowingly at this point but the ‘Thugs are talking about Trent Lott and Mel Martinez for leadership. This is not a happy place event.
I’ve said it before…
Congress is the most expensive lunatic asylum on the planet.
Jim, yeas the media were psyched about it, but they were careful never to tell the casual observer (i.e., their audience) what it was really going to do. The mediacrats may be arrogant and elitist, but they know what happens when the
two-year-oldsvotersthrow a temper tantrumdecide they’re being hoodwinked.Murtha, though a member of Congress, is scarcely even a casual observer. He observes while wandering the snowy woods in his robe and slippers.
– Just to make sure they’re on the same page Mutha Murtha shows his support OPENLY for Pelosi’s lobbying bill. Sort of one ass wiping another you might say, partucularly the way he decribes it….
Oh. Bad Bad Murtha.