Okinawa Jack seems very, very defensive in this article (H/T: Instapundit):
The region’s outspoken congressman is in the national lens again – this time CBS News television cameras – in a report Wednesday that calls him “the king of earmarks who wastes a lot of taxpayer money” and implies that the FBI is investigating.
U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, responded by waving the Constitution at the camera, saying: “What it says is the Congress of the United States appropriates the money. Got that?”
The CBS article in question is here, along with video footage that Murtha is going to regret. You can say and do things to, say, a private citizen with a video camera that you can’t do to a national news organization, and he made no friends in CBS with that antic. As can be seen with the next couple of paragraphs:
What he means is Congress gets to decide how tax dollars are spent. Specifically, Murtha himself often gets to decide. As head of the Defense Spending Committee he has the power to steer hundreds of millions of tax dollars in earmarks to companies of his choice.
[snip]
Republican Rep. Jeff Flake, who’s against earmarks of any kind, is calling for an ethics investigation and says it could dwarf the last lobby mess to hit Washington.
“In terms of contributions and circular fundraising and the involvement of members it’s much bigger [than the Abramoff scandal],” he said. “Much bigger.”
Here’s the video: watch it while it lasts.
If you read the entire CBS article, you’ll see that the reason why this is triggering Murtha’s slightly confused, but full-throated, response: it’s come out that there’s a third company with ties to the Congressman being checked out. Looking back at the original article, Murtha’s office is blaming this whole thing on a ‘disgruntled worker,’ which suggests that they know (and have inadvertently revealed) something about the investigation. Something that worries them. A lot. As it should.
Moe Lane
PS: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ve heard this before: Murtha’s untouchable. You know something? – I heard that about Dollar Bill Jefferson, too. They always are… until, all of a sudden, they’re not.
Crossposted to Moe Lane.
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
Dan McLaughlin
Neil Stevens
Daniel Horowitz
When some power mad freak is in the cross hairs,
USNJIMRET (Diary) Thursday, March 19th at 9:22AM EST (link)it’s a “disgruntled employee”.
When it’s the enemy of a power mad freak, it’s a “Patriotic, whistle blower, risking their livelihood to expose the truth”.
And Murtha fits, every single time, the power mad freak role.
Murtha always reminds me of
Old_Crow (Diary) Thursday, March 19th at 12:24PM EST (link)American’s can tolerate corrupt politicians up to a point. However, Murtha has gone over the edge with his greed.
Snarling, nasty, hate-filled wind bags rarely last long in national politics – too many enemies and even their corrupt money cannot buy enough votes to offset their unsavory character.
“Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.” — James Madison
City Council
ss396 Thursday, March 19th at 12:37PM EST (link)If he – or any of these earmark geniuses – are so intent on directing how funds are to be spent at the municipal level, then they should their Congressional seat and run for City Council.
They can yelp about infrastructure all they want to, but none of them ever direct this money toward potholes, or sewer lines, or flood pumps, or street light maintenance. Buncha puffed-up hypocrites.
If you pay someone to sit on his butt, you can’t be surprised when he does.