This is the kind of man we need in power in the House, A real patriot, not some sniveling son of influence that has no Idea about war or sacrifice!Early life and military service
Murtha was born in New Martinsville, West Virginia, near the border with Ohio, and grew up in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, where as a youth he became an Eagle Scout. He also worked delivering newspapers and at a gas station before graduating from The Kiski School, an all-male boarding school in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania.
Murtha left Washington and Jefferson College in 1952 to join the Marine Corps and was awarded the American Spirit Honor Medal for displaying outstanding leadership qualities during training. Murtha rose through the ranks to become a drill instructor at Parris Island and was selected for Officer Candidate School at Quantico, Virginia. Murtha was then assigned to the Second Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
Murtha remained in the Marine Corps Reserves, and ran a small business, Johnstown Minute Car Wash. He also attended the University of Pittsburgh on the G.I. Bill, and received a degree in economics. Murtha later took graduate courses from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Murtha married his wife Joyce on 10 June1955 — they have three children and live in Johnstown.
In 1959, Murtha, then a captain, took command of the 34th Special Infantry Company, Marine Corps Reserves, in Johnstown. He remained in the Reserves after his discharge from active duty until he volunteered for service in the Vietnam War, serving from 1966 to 1967, serving as a battalionstaff officer (S-2 Intelligence Section), receiving the Bronze Star with Valor device, two Purple Hearts and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. He retired from the Reserves as a colonel in 1990, receiving the Navy Distinguished Service Medal.

[edit] Political career

Murtha was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1968 and served there until 1974, when he ran in a special election for Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district. The seat had come open after 24-year incumbent RepublicanJohn P. Saylor died in October 1973. Murtha won by 122 votes, making him the first Vietnam veteran to serve in Congress. He won a full term later that year with 58 percent of the vote and has been re-elected 14 times without substantial opposition. He chaired the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense from 1991 to 1995, and has since served as its ranking Democrat.
Murtha's lowest percentage came in 1980, when he received 59.6 percent of the vote against Charles A. Getty.[citation needed] This challenge occurred during the Abscam investigation conducted by the FBI.
The sting involved undercover FBI agents posing as representatives of wealthy Arab sheiks willing to pay to obtain asylum in the United States. During the meeting in a Washington, D.C. townhouse, the agent offered Murtha $50,000 cash, and he refused it, stating “I'm not interested...at this point.”[4][5] The charges against him were dropped in return for his testimony against Representative Frank Thompson. A grand jury did not indict Murtha; on a 6-6 tied vote, he was eventually cleared by the House Ethics Committee in July 1981. Murtha has always declared he was innocent and has said, “I met with two men who I believed had a substantial line of credit that could provide up to 1,000 jobs for the district. I broke no law. I took no money.”[6]

On 9 June2006, Murtha informed Minority LeaderNancy Pelosi that he will run for Majority Leader if the Democrats gain control of the House in the 2006 midterm elections; however, the current Democratic whip, Rep. Steny Hoyer, may prove to be competition.[2]

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

This challenge occurred during the Abscam investigation conducted by the FBI.
The sting involved undercover FBI agents posing as representatives of wealthy Arab sheiks willing to pay to obtain asylum in the United States. During the meeting in a Washington, D.C. townhouse, the agent offered Murtha $50,000 cash, and he refused it, stating “I'm not interested...at this point.”[4][5] The charges against him were dropped in return for his testimony against Representative Frank Thompson.

In our hobby, we call that "rolling over on your friends."

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

Regardless of Murtha's attitude or ideas concerning War on Terror, this guy is "damaged goods", he is ethically challenged....
let the games begin......



``If Representative Murtha is selected to be the majority leader, it will be a clear sign that the new Congress has no intention of ending the culture of corruption,'' said Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, a Falls Church, Virginia-based nonprofit group that focuses on ethics in government. ``Murtha personifies what is wrong with Congress.''
excerpted from:
Bloomberg.com: U.S.



But several members are privately aghast that Mr. Murtha, a pork-barreling opponent of most House ethics reforms, could become the second most visible symbol of the new Democratic rule. "We are supposed to change business as usual, not put the fox in charge of the henhouse," one Democratic member told me. "It's not just the Abscam scandal of the 1980s that he barely dodged, he's a disaster waiting to happen because of his current behavior," another told me.
As for Abscam, a recent book by George Crile, a producer for CBS's "60 Minutes," provides damning evidence that Mr. Murtha escaped severe punishment for his role in the scandal only because then-Speaker Tip O'Neill arranged for the House Ethics Committee to drop the charges, over the objections of the committee's outside prosecutor. The prosecutor quickly resigned in protest.
Outside observers are equally aghast that Mr. Murtha could win tomorrow's election. Thomas Mann, a Brookings Institution scholar who is co-author of "The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track," told the Los Angeles Times that "John Murtha is not the right poster child" for a Democratic House that says it wants to sweep away corruption.
Melanie Sloan, the liberal head of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, was cheered on by Democrats six weeks ago when she helped reveal the Mark Foley scandal. Now she says that "Ms. Pelosi"s endorsement of Rep. Murtha, one of the most unethical members of Congress, show that she may have prioritized ethics reform merely to win votes with no real commitment to changing the culture of corruption."

excerpted from:
OpinionJournal - John Fund on the Trail

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If you wind up with a boring, miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest or some guy on TV telling you how to do your shit, then YOU DESERVE IT.
~ Frank Zappa ~

Liberty means responsibility, that is why most men dread it.
~George Bernard Shaw~

sure nice to see there's healthy opposition to any common sense here!

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

Sorry med, but at least half of these ethical questions and concerns are coming from the left side of the aisle!
This is why we need to get rid of the Dems and Repubs....scoundrels all of 'em......or at least, most of 'em

__________________
If you wind up with a boring, miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest or some guy on TV telling you how to do your shit, then YOU DESERVE IT.
~ Frank Zappa ~

Liberty means responsibility, that is why most men dread it.
~George Bernard Shaw~

Alas, I must agree with you on that! The question is: what do we replace them with? Outside of a street oriented Revolution, the politicians that make it to national promenance, are so tainted by the corporate structure that no matter whom you put in, it will be same old, same old! They are in it for themselves (Mostly) and when you find a fresh face, (Arack Obama), the old guard tears him down (ViRedd) and disses them to bits. Is there a solution? I don't know. But like you I'd be willing to try some fresh faces, they couldn't do much worse!

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

Arack YoMama Obama is about to be exposed for fraudlent real estate dealings himself. So, hold onto your hat Med.

Obama Questioned About Sweetheart Real Estate Deal (11:32 pm)


Lyn Sweet for the Chicago Sun Times reports

For the first time, Sen. Barack Obama was playing defense with the press. It was after a get-out-the-vote rally on Monday. Instead of the usual fawning Washington reporters tossing softballs as they worked up adoring stories about him running for president in 2008, Obama was taking questions from the City Hall news crew about his astoundingly bad judgment.

They drove up to Waukegan to find out for themselves why on earth Obama had anything to do with the shady, recently indicted Tony Rezko.

WLS radio reporter Bill Cameron put it this way in the lead-off question: “What in the world were you doing in a real estate deal with Tony Rezko?”
(…)
To recap: Obama inked a book deal after winning election to the Senate in 2004. With his new wealth, in June 2005, Obama bought a $1.65 million mansion in Kenwood, some $300,000 below asking price. Rezko’s wife Rita paid $625,000, the list price, for an adjacent empty lot the Rezkos may develop.

The deals closed the same day because the seller insisted both parcels be sold at the same time.

When the deals went down, Rezko — who befriended Obama when he was a nobody Harvard law student — was already cast in news stories as a controversial figure and political fundraiser.

By January 2006, when Obama bought a strip of Rezko’s yard, Rezko’s status was elevated to politically radioactive, since it was known he was under investigation by federal prosecutors.
(…)
Obama, in a written reply to questions submitted to him from the Sun-Times about Rezko last week, said he made a mistake and “I regret it.”

The only hope we have at this junction, is that the newly elected, conservative Democrats, will side with the more moderate members of the Republican Party to keep the ship of state stable.

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

What is so unusual about that transaction. Obama had a longtime friend help him in a land deal, probably because Obama could not afford the price. Now you have to prove that Obama made a promise of favors to Rezko to substantiat any shady doings, otherwise it was just a friend helping a friend!

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

A friend helping a friend? RIGHT ....

If Obama were a Republican, the NY Crimes would have banner headlines reading: "Corporate Corruption Continues Under Bush's Watch!"

I'm tellin' you ... you libbies are WAY too transparent.

Vi

__________________
Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

Transparency, what a novel idea! Maybe you're right wing plutocrats ought to try it!

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.