Dems "Swift Boat" Murtha?

If there was ever a poster child for term limits for congressmen, it would be Jack Murtha (D-PA). After 16 terms he has decided to transform himself into the leader of the left wing kook squad. What a legacy to leave behind.

But while his previous 14 terms were spent mostly out of public view, he wasn't lazy. He was busy lining the pockets of family and friends in a way that would make Harry Reid's sons envious.

From the Washington Times:

...Last June, the Los Angeles Times reported how the ranking member on the defense appropriations subcommittee [Murtha] 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.
...
few might recall that after the massive 1980 Abscam scandal, Mr. Murtha was named by the FBI as an "unindicted co-conspirator."

And lest some screeching lefty tries to claim we are "swift boating" Murtha, Robert Novak let's us in on who it was that brought the Abscam connection up again:

Jack Murtha proves there are second acts in American politics. I had forgotten that federal prosecutors designated him an unindicted co-conspirator in the Abscam investigation 26 years ago. I was reminded of it after Murtha became a candidate for majority leader, not by a Republican hit man but a Democratic former colleague in the House.

Thanks City Troll for the Times link.