America's North Shore Journal

NY Times profiles John Murtha.

“You just need to get the things done, so you give them the votes to get the things done,” he said in an interview. “There is no question that some projects come out of it for our members, and that is not a bad thing.” He added, “Deal making is what Congress is all about.”

Mr. Murtha can punish lawmakers, as well. Those who do not support the defense spending bill, for example, discover their next earmark requests go nowhere. “Let me tell you the facts of life,” Mr. Murtha said he tells balky legislators. “If you vote against this bill, you won’t have any input at all the next time.” [snip]

Members have watched with envy as Mr. Murtha has used earmarks to remake Johnstown, Pa., an impoverished former steel town that now includes a Murtha highway, a Murtha airport and Murtha health centers. He has steered billions of dollars to his district over the years, including more than $80 million in the defense spending bill passed Friday, according to a preliminary tally.

Mr. Murtha’s patronage has transformed Johnstown into a national hub of the defense business, attracting giants like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. He even built one contractor from scratch. In 1988, Mr. Murtha asked the chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh to set up a nonprofit that could use Navy money to establish a Center for Excellence in Metalworking in Johnstown.

Since then, Mr. Murtha has delivered earmarks to the organization, now called Concurrent Technologies Corporation, for work like consulting on counterterrorism, designing ejection seats for pilots and developing software. The military and other federal agencies have paid Concurrent nearly a billion dollars in grants and contracts since 1999. In the most recent defense bill, Mr. Murtha inserted $1.3 million for Concurrent to research Army tank designs.

“It is Murtha’s pet rock,” said Stephen Gage, chief executive of an Ohio economic development organization that once worked with Concurrent.

Concurrent’s executives, in turn, have given more than $114,000 to the congressman’s campaigns over the last three elections, making it one of his biggest corporate donors. The organization pays about $500,000 a year to a lobbying firm, the PMA Group, whose executives and clients have given Mr. Murtha more than $1.2 million in donations since 1999.

Mr. Murtha’s brother, Kit, recently retired from a smaller lobbying firm, KSA Consulting, that sought defense earmarks and represented many companies in Mr. Murtha’s district. From 1998 through 2003, he received more contributions from military contractors than has any other member of the House, according to the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan group.

Time for John Murtha to be retired. Remember, it’s your money he is spending, not his.

Via Captain’s Quarters