PrairiePundit

The Hill: A new poll has businessman Tim Burns (R) leading former Murtha aide Mark Critz (D) 46-40. Republicans appear to have a real opportunity to take over the seat of the late Rep. John Murtha's (D-Pa.), as another poll shows their candidate in the lead. The Research 2000 poll for the liberal website Daily Kos has businessman Tim Burns (R) leading former Murtha aide Mark Critz 46-40. It's the biggest lead yet for Burns, who edged Critz 44-41 in a recent Public Policy Polling (D) survey . The newer poll backs up several key data points from the PPP poll, particularly how unpopular President Obama is in the district. R2000 has Obama's favorable rating at just 38 percent, with 55 percent unfavorable. And Obama isn't just unpopular: Among those 55 percent, more than half say their opinion of the president is "very unfavorable." ... Voteres in the district also favor repeal of the health care law. The Democrat oppose repeal. It is also easy to s...

Andrew Malcolm: ... As the former owner of a car wash in Johnstown, it's only natural that Murtha's name would go on a combat amphibious transport dock as the first not named for a city. Actually, what .... ... Obama appointee Mabus likely had in mind was Murtha's several years in the Marines. Murtha was, in fact, the first House member who served in combat in the Vietnam War, which was unfortunately lost. He received a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts. The keel-laying for the Murtha ship is still a year away, and it won't be doing anything worthwhile for three years after that. But there's a problem. And it's growing. Back in 2005 as part of Murtha's late-breaking opposition to the Iraq war he was for before he was opposed, when a few fellow Marines were accused of killing some Iraqi civilians in Haditha, ex-Marine Murtha announced the soldiers had done it "in cold blood." Never mind that there hadn'...

Washington Times: A retired Florida couple would appear an unlikely source to have given $83,000 in campaign donations over a five-year period to members of Congress from all over the country. Both in their 80s, they lived in a $118,000 Daytona Beach house they didn't own; they each voted only twice since 1992; and they seemed to lack the financial means to make the contributions. Yet, both were listed as having given dozens of donations to lawmakers, nearly half of which went to members of the House Appropriations Committee - legislators who were especially important to their then-son-in-law, superlobbyist Paul Magliocchetti, who owned the house in which they lived. Mr. Magliocchetti is now the focus of a federal investigation into whether he made illegal campaign contributions by reimbursing people, or "straw donors," who made contributions in their names to his favored candidates - helping the lobbyist avoid federal limits on his personal donations. In addition to the...

Washington Times: When software firm MobilVox wanted to break into the lucrative world of defense contracting, it pursued an unmistakable strategy: It expanded operations from its Northern Virginia base in Rep. James P. Moran's congressional district to the southwestern Pennsylvania district of Rep. John P. Murtha. Working with two of the most powerful members of a House subcommittee that controls Pentagon spending, the company also hired lobbying firms that employed former top aides of both the Democratic lawmakers and Mr. Murtha's brother. Company executives and their lobbyists donated thousands of dollars to the two congressmen. Soon, money flowed the other way. Between 2003 and 2009, Mr. Murtha and Mr. Moran helped deliver $12 million to MobilVox in earmarks — money that is set aside by lawmakers for pet projects in the government's annual spending bills. The latest House defense spending bill introduced and pushed through by Mr. Murtha includes an additional $2 milli...

The Hill: A former Air Force contractor pleaded guilty Monday to a false statement and conflict-of-interest charge in a widening case involving several defense companies with ties to Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.). Mark O’Hair faces up to 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine for omitting any reference to his position as a director of a defense company on financial disclosure forms required for his position as a civilian program officer. The company received more than $200,000 in government contracts while O’Hair was in charge of awarding contractors for the Air Force Research Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. After retiring from the Air Force in 2001, O’Hair became the senior electronic engineer with the Air Force Research Lab Munitions. Two years later, he became the contracts program manager for the Battlefield Airman program, which was designed to improve the military’s battlefield communications systems.

NY Times Editorial: ... The Murtha money trail is far from fully explored but already features a second tangent of Congressional appropriations staff members’ exiting through the golden door to defense lobbying and scoring big contracts from their old bosses. Taxpayers should press the question of what all this has to do with Mr. Murtha (who has also used his gavel to create a luxury supermart of defense contractors in his Pennsylvania district). Beyond the criminal investigation, a full-scale ethics inquiry should be pressed by House Democrats and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. If not, the Murtha money trail could lead them back to the minority. Pelosi is not pushing an ethics investigation because she fears the results of the investigation will led Democrats back to the minority. Having won the majority by campaigning against a "culture of corruption" she and the other Democrat leaders are determined to cover and hide their own corruption.

Washington Post: When an Air Force command in north Florida sought new battlefield technologies, Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) steered millions in federal dollars its way to hire defense contractors. The research effort at the Pensacola Air Force base fell apart, however, when investigators found evidence that it was used to improperly pay a series of companies linked to Murtha. A handful of defense firms were paid for work that was never done or not called for in the contracts. Some of the companies involved, based in Wyoming, Florida and Murtha's home district in Pennsylvania, had hidden owners, prosecutors allege; one was secretly owned by the Air Force official who helped approve the payments. As prosecutors reveal new details of their criminal probe into the $8 million earmark that Murtha arranged for the Air Force project, one familiar player is never mentioned by authorities. Several of the companies had hired the lobbying firm of the lawmaker's brother, Robert C. ...

Kimberley Strassel: Picture a freight train roaring down the tracks. Picture House Speaker Nancy Pelosi positioning her party on the rails. Picture a growing stream of nervous souls diving for the weeds. Picture all this, and you've got a sense of the Democrats' earmark-corruption problem. This particular choo-choo has the name John Murtha emblazoned on the side, and with each chug is proving that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Republicans got tossed in 2006 in part for failing to police the earmarks at the center of the Jack Abramoff and other corruption scandals. Mrs. Pelosi is today leaving her members exposed to an earmark mess that might make Abramoff look junior varsity. Federal investigators are deep into a criminal investigation of PMA Group, a now-defunct lobby shop founded by a former aide to Mr. Murtha, Pennsylvania's 18-term star appropriator. The suspicion is that some members of Congress may have peddled lucrative earmarks to PMA clients i...

Washington Post: Inside the LBK Ranch, a private game preserve on a scenic hilltop here, guests mingle at a stone lodge after hunting deer and wild boar. Signs posted at intervals along the fence warn: "No Trespassing: U.S. Govt. Testing Facility." Defense firm owner Bill Kuchera and his wife, Lena, the owners of the 161-acre property, live in an upscale log home within the preserve and go to extensive efforts to keep out strangers. There are no visible signs of government testing, but behind the 10-foot fence and electronic gate lies the answer to a politically sensitive question now under federal scrutiny: whether Kuchera's companies padded their Pentagon billings and diverted taxpayer money to their own pet projects. In January, federal agents raided the ranch, along with the homes of Bill Kuchera and his younger brother Ron and the offices of two Kuchera companies. Federal authorities are investigating tips from company insiders suggesting that taxpayers were bille...

Politico: Seeking to head off Republicans , Democratic leaders on Wednesday pushed through a resolution requiring the House ethics committee to disclose what actions it has taken in responding to the controversy over the PMA Group , a once prominent lobbying firm now at the center of a Justice Department criminal probe. The largely partisan vote was 270-134, with 17 members, including members of the ethics committee, voting “present.” Led by Rep. Jeff Flake (Ariz.), have been calling for a PMA investigation by the ethics committee for months, but Democrats have resisted, arguing that it is not necessary and just an attempt by the GOP to cause political problems for the majority. Most Democrats have held firm in voting against resolutions calling for investigations, although some junior members have joined with Republicans on the measure. GOP leaders strongly objected to the Democratic leadership’s resolution, branding it a “stunt’ and a “worthless piece of paper,” and noting ...

CBS: CBS News has learned the FBI is investigating a little-known not-for-profit organization called Commonwealth Research Institute. It's located, like a lot of Rep. John Murtha's, D-Penn., pet projects, in his hometown, Johnstown, Penn. Commonwealth gets the same benefits as the Salvation Army or any other charity: It doesn't have to pay taxes. But its line of work may be surprising. It's a defense contractor. "It certainly raises a question," says Dean Zerbe, a former top Senate investigator. He questions Commonwealth's tax exempt status, saying it seems to do business just like any for-profit defense contractor. ... Commonwealth officials responded in a Dec. 3, 2000 letter saying they anticipated their research would be for the "Department of Defense, Justice Department, National Science Foundation or the National Institute of Health (sic)." Commonwealth officials told the IRS that they may have some classified work but that only, "some...

From the Washington Post: Rep. Murtha Defends Earmarks to His District What else is new?

Airport for Rep. Murtha. Instead of having a private jet, he has a private airport. This is even better as an issue than the bridge to now where. Too bad Palin is not in a position to kill Murtha's boondoggles.

Politico: As the House prepared to vote this week on Republican Rep. Jeff Flake’s push for an ethics investigation involving Rep. John Murtha and other senior appropriators, Democratic leaders sent an unmistakable message to their members: “Don’t be a Flake.” That was the subject line of an e-mail that staffers for first- and second-term Democrats received Tuesday from Rep. Chris Van Hollen , assistant to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The message said that Democrats would once again be “voting to table another Flake resolution” — and it made clear that leadership would have its eyes on any Democrats even thinking about defecting. Not that they needed reminding. In another pre-vote e-mail, the office of House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) warned Democrats that they would suffer in 2010 if Republicans succeeded in forcing an ethics investigation into the relationships Murtha and other veteran Democratic lawmakers had with the PMA Group. “If the Flake resolution is referred to the Ethics C...

Politico: The Republican who challenged Rep. John Murtha in 2008 says a top aide to the embattled Pennsylvania Democrat threatened to have him recalled to active duty in the U.S. Army so he could be court-martialed for engaging in politics while serving in the armed forces. Bill Russell — who challenged Murtha in 2008 and intends to do so again in 2010 — said Murtha chief of staff John Hugya made the threat during a National Rifle Association event in mid-March. Ret. Col. Gregory Ritch, a former Army Reserve officer who served as Russell’s commanding officer, said he heard Hugya make a similar threat in January. “[Hugya] said, ‘When the [new] secretary of the Army comes in, we’re going to call his ass back to active duty and we’re going to prosecute him under the [Uniform Code of Military Justice],’” Ritch said Hugya told him during their January conversation. Ritch said he reported the incident to a military lawyer at that time, although he didn’t think Hugya was serious until ...

NY Times: So powerful was Representative John P. Murtha at one time that he used to put up billboards in his Western Pennsylvania district declaring that “the P is for Power.” Few in Congress dared disagree: he doled out or withheld billions in federal money each year for lawmakers’ pet projects, better known as earmarks. Now, however, a string of federal criminal investigations of contractors or lobbyists close to Mr. Murtha, the top Democrat on the defense appropriations subcommittee, are threatening to undermine his backroom clout. In the weeks since the news that prosecutors had raided the offices of the PMA Group — a lobbying firm founded by a former Murtha associate that became a gateway to his office and his biggest source of campaign money — about two dozen rank-and-file Democrats have risked his wrath by calling for a House ethics investigation of the matter. One Democrat has even foresworn seeking earmarks for the military contractors in his district because of ethical conce...

Washington Post /MSNBC: The John Murtha airport sits on a windy mountain two hours east of Pittsburgh, a 650-acre expanse of smooth tarmac, spacious buildings, a helicopter hangar and a National Guard training center. Inside the terminal on a recent weekday, four passengers lined up to board a flight, outnumbered by seven security staff members and supervisors, all suited up in gloves and uniforms to screen six pieces of luggage. For three hours that day, no commercial or private planes took off or landed. Three commercial flights leave the airport on weekdays, all bound for Dulles International Airport. The key to the airport's gleaming facilities -- and, indeed, its continued existence -- is $200 million in federal funds in the past decade and the powerful patron who steered most of that money here. Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) is credited with securing at least $150 million for the airport. It was among the first in the country to win funding from this year's stimulus package...

The Hill: Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) is immune from a defamation suit filed against him by a U.S. Marine, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday. Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich filed a suit against Murtha, claiming that the veteran lawmaker damaged his reputation when he told the press that Wuterich's squad in 2005 killed civilians in cold blood in Haditha, Iraq. ... Murtha, a former Marine, used his congressional immunity as defense, arguing that he made those statements to the press in his official capacity as a member of Congress. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Tuesday ruled that Wuterich cant sue Murtha. ... So an anti war puke congressman can slime Marines at will according to this ruling. It appears there is no justice justice when it comes to Murtha who was using these Marines as a prop for his desperation to lose in Iraq. It is unlikely the voters of his district will give the Marines any justice by rejecting him. But, we should still seek his def...

Politico: A trickle of defections has Democratic House leaders wondering how long they can hold off calls for an investigation into the PMA Group and its ties to Pennsylvania Rep. John P. Murtha. Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) got only 17 Democratic votes when he introduced a privileged resolution in February calling for an ethics investigation into “the relationship between earmark requests already made by members and the source and timing of past campaign contributions.” But Flake has kept trying — the sixth version of his resolution comes up for a vote this week — and he’s picked up support from eight Democrats who voted against his initial resolution. And that has Democratic leaders worried. “We are keeping our ear pretty close to the ground on this,” said a senior Democratic aide. The aide noted that there has been “no groundswell of support” for Flake’s resolutions — and that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) remains dead set against an investigation. Still, he said, House Democrats — w...

Washington Post: Marvin Hoffman is listed in campaign finance records as one of the many lobbyists with the powerful PMA Group donating money to lawmakers. But Hoffman is actually a soon-to-retire information technology manager in Marina Del Rey, who has never heard of the Arlington lobbying firm or the Indiana congressman to whom he supposedly gave $2,000. "It's alarming that someone is stealing my identity somewhere," Hoffman, 75, said in an interview. "I've never heard of this company." Another contributor listed as a PMA lobbyist is, in fact, a sales manager for an inflatable boat manufacturer in New Jersey. John Hendricksen said he did make some campaign donations, but never worked at PMA and doesn't know how he ended up listed in records that way. These errors, along with a series of other unusual donations linked to the firm, come as the Justice Department examines allegations that PMA may have violated campaign finance laws. The offices of P...