Murtha Pounded by the Press

Before the election Rep. John Murtha could do nothing wrong in the eyes of the press. He was the "conscience" of the House in calling for U.S. troops to be removed from Iraq.

Well, the election's over and Murtha wants the Majority Leader position, with the active promotion of San Fran Nan. Suddenly Murtha is radioactive as far as the press is concerned. All the scandals that could have been reported when Murtha first jumped in front of the cameras were held back...until now. This is what the Washington Post has to say:

Mr. Murtha’s candidacy is troubling for several reasons, beginning with his position on the war in Iraq. A former Marine, Mr. Murtha deserves credit for sounding an alarm about the deteriorating situation a year ago. But his descriptions of the stakes there have been consistently unrealistic, and his solutions irresponsible. Just last week he denied that the United States was fighting terrorism in Iraq, though al-Qaeda is known to play a major part in the insurgency. He said the United States should abandon even the effort to train the Iraqi army and should “redeploy as soon as practicable,” an extreme step that most congressional Democrats oppose. He claimed that “stability in the Middle East, stability in Iraq,” would come from such an abrupt withdrawal; in fact, virtually all Iraqi and Middle Eastern leaders have said that it would lead to a greatly escalated conflict that could spread through the region.

Mr. Murtha would also be the wrong choice as majority leader after an election in which a large number of voters expressed unhappiness with Washington business as usual. Mr. Murtha has been a force against stronger ethics and lobbying rules. He was one of just four Democrats whose votes helped kill a strong Democratic package of lobbying reforms this spring.

As a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, he has been an avid participant in the orgy of earmarking, including numerous projects sought by a lobbying firm that employed his brother. During the Abscam congressional bribery investigation in 1980, Mr. Murtha was videotaped discussing a bribe with an undercover FBI agent. (“You know, we do business for a while, maybe I’ll be interested, maybe I won’t, you know,” Mr. Murtha said.) He wasn’t indicted, but it’s fair to say the episode raised questions about his integrity.

Murtha has also taken an aggressive approach to criticizing Steny Hoyer, his opponent for Majority Leader. Murtha frankly looks petty and small in these rants, and Hoyer is doing a good job of staying above the fray. The vote on Thursday should be entertaining.