Ed Morrissey uses the New York Times to lay out the corruption that is John Murtha. You could had Diana Irey, you know? But, no… you had to reelect this trash.

In any other context, Murtha would lose his job. If a businessman in the private sector received gifts like this from vendors, his company would kick him to the curb. Not so in Congress; on Capitol Hill, Murtha’s colleagues on both sides of the aisle aspire to such low ethical behavior and compete to gain access to the federal treasury for their own political ambitions. And their constituencies reward them for bringing home pork and keep the vicious cycle in motion.

It will not stop until the constituents make it clear that they want Representatives and Senators who won’t be bought or even rented.

John Murtha had plenty to say when it came to talking about retreating from Iraq. Nothing to say about John Kerry’s slander of American troops in harm’s way. Retire John Murtha.

Diana Irey is close to winning. Closer than John Murtha would like. His record of pork and provocation looks pretty sad in Pennsylvania’s 12 Congressional District.

Here’s the latest financial report.

On November 7, retire John Murtha. 32 years is enough.

This is the last report we’ll see before the election.

Diana Irey is still in the fight. The people of Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District still have a clear choice. Our suggestion – retire John Murtha. Elect Diana Irey.

Why? Murtha has spent 32 years in Congress. He’s been a politician nearly his entire adult life. He’s lived off the tax dollars that you and I pay, voted to increase those taxes and voted to raise his own pay. I don’t get to raise my own pay. Do you? I don’t get to force other people to give up money so that I can spend it. Do you?

Murtha is one of the kings of pork. He’s a wheeler and a dealer, and the gray areas seems to be where he loves to hang out.

Retire John Murtha.

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

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has released a list of “corrupt” members of Congress.

Who is CREW?

Since the 1970′s, citizens’ groups have been increasingly active in government investigations ranging from Watergate to Iran-Contra to the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill matter. But it was not until the 1990′s that some watchdog groups hit on the strategy of using private investigation and litigation to parallel and support government investigations. This began with Whitewater, continued through the campaign finance investigations, and culminated in the Paula Jones litigation and the presidential impeachment proceedings. The groups that have pioneered this type of legal advocacy are avowedly conservative: Judicial Watch, the Rutherford Institute, and the National Legal and Policy Center, to name just a few.

Conservative groups such as these have no real parallel in the progressive arena. There are a number of non-partisan groups that address government honesty, including Common Cause, Public Citizen, the Center for Public Integrity, and Democracy 21. While we applaud their efforts, we have noted that these groups focus principally on research and legislation. They do not use litigation to target outrageous conduct, nor do they bring the message of injustice to the people the way their conservative counterparts do. Because these public interest organizations focus mostly on policy issues and not on obstacles faced by ordinary citizens, these groups have not mobilized a shift in public opinion on the issue of government honesty. CREW fills that niche.

From that, we may deduce that most of the “corrupt” members of Congress will be Republican and they are.

However, there is one interesting non-Republican.

John Murtha

John Murtha is a seventeenth-term member of Congress, representing the 12th district of Pennsylvania. His ethics issues stem from abuse of his position as Ranking Member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee to benefit clients of his brother, Robert “Kit” Murtha, a registered lobbyist.

KSA Consulting

In 2002, Kit Murtha was hired by KSA Consulting, a firm that lobbies the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee on behalf of defense contractors. Mr. Murtha joined the firm at the invitation of top KSA official Carmen Scialabba, who had worked for Rep. Murtha on the House Appropriations Committee for 27 years.

In 2004, Congress passed a $417 billion defense appropriations bill that went through Rep. Murtha’s subcommittee. The bill benefitted at least 10 companies represented by KSA and KSA directly lobbied Rep. Murtha’s office on behalf of seven of those companies, which received a total $20.8 million in earmarks.

PMA Group

Paul Magliocchetti worked with Rep. Murtha as a senior staffer on the Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Defense for 10 years. After leaving the committee, Mr. Magliocchetti founded the PMA Group, which has become one of the most prominent Washington, D.C. defense lobbying firms. In the current campaign cycle, the PMA Group and 12 of the firm’s clients rank in the top 20 contributors to Rep. Murtha, having made campaign contributions totaling $274,649. In turn, many of PMA’s clients have benefited significantly from Rep. Murtha’s earmarks. In the 2006 Defense appropriations bill, PMA clients received at least 60 earmarks, totaling $95.1 million.

House ethics rules prohibit members from taking any official actions for the prospect of personal gain for themselves or anyone else. In addition, Rule XXIII of the House Ethics Manual requires all members of the House to conduct themselves “at all times in a manner that reflects creditably on the House.” By earmarking funds for companies represented by Kit Murtha and Paul Magliocchetti, Rep. Murtha has violated House rules.

There’s a five page PDF document available at the Murtha link with more details.

The people of his district should retire John Murtha and replace him with Diana Irey. Not just because of his horrible statements about our soldiers in Iraq. Not just because he is one of the kings of pork. Not just because he may have been corrupt as long ago as Abscam. He should be denied reelection for all of these reasons and those demonstrated by the CREW report.