Bye Bye Jack
My enmity toward Jack Murtha (D-Bag, Pennsylvania) is no secret to anyone reading Thought Docket. So I especially enjoyed Research Center’s Role Faces Scrutiny in today’s Washington Post.
A Pennsylvania defense research center regularly consulted with two “handlers” close to Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) as it collected nearly $250 million in federal funding through the lawmaker, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post and sources familiar with the funding requests. The center then channeled a significant portion of the funding to companies that were among Murtha’s campaign supporters.
The two advisers included a lobbyist for PMA Group, a firm with close ties to Murtha that is the subject of a federal investigation into whether it made illegal contributions by reimbursing donors to the Pennsylvania lawmaker and other members of Congress. The Electro-Optics Center also relied on advice from a longtime Murtha friend who now works on the congressman’s appropriations staff.
Federal agents are also exploring how the center obtained its funds after they received dozens of internal documents last year. It is unclear whether the records have become a central focus of the Justice Department’s probe, but they open a window into a largely hidden process in which powerful lawmakers can direct funds to pet projects.
The PMA Group appears throughout the news these days. In the Hawai’i Free Press of February 26, Business as Usual: Neil Abercrombie Votes to Kill Motion to Investigate Pay-to-Play Earmark Schemes tells of the effort of democrats to kill investigations into pay-to-play schemes involving PMA.
Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) today continued to back-track on his empty promises to clean up corruption in Congress when he voted to kill a resolution introduced by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) that would “investigate the relationship between earmark requests already made by Members and the source and timing of past contributions.”
The resolution came after a series of reports in the media indicated there was a vast network of corrupt Democratic lawmakers engaging in pay-to-play schemes on behalf of the PMA Group. As indicated in the resolution, the Washington Post reported on February 14, 2009 that they “examined contributions that were reported as being made by [the firm’s] employees and consultants, and found several people who were not registered lobbyists and did not work at the lobbying firm.” (Washington Post, 02/14/2009)
Yet Neil Abercrombie voted to block the ethics investigation despite Speaker Pelosi’s pledge that Democrats would “drain the swamp” from Washington’s culture of corruption:
“That’s why we need a new direction here. That’s why we must sever the link between lobbyists and legislation so that we’re here for the people’s interest, not the special interests.” (Press Conference, September 29, 2006)
I never really understood the doom and gloom that hung over the Republican party after their defeat in November. The Democrats are so high on power right now, there’s now way they could pass a drug test. But there’s no reason to believe that Reagan democrats and independents - and maybe even more - won’t tire of Reid, Pelosi, Murtha, Abercrombie, Frank, and Dodd, and fast. In fact, it is already starting to happen. Today on Rassmussen Reports, Generic Congressional Ballot says
Support for the Democratic Congressional candidates fell to a new low over the past week, allowing the GOP to move slightly head for the first time in recent years in the Generic Congressional Ballot.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 41% said they would vote for their district’s Republican candidate while 39% would choose the Democrat.
Investors now favor Republicans by a 46% to 36% margin, while non-investors would vote Democratic by a 45% to 33% margin.
Democrats began the year holding a six or seven point lead over the GOP for the first several weeks of 2009. Over the past month, the gap has been smaller, with Democrats holding a two-to-four point lead. It remains to be seen whether the current results reflect lasting change or statistical noise.
Stay tuned.
By the way. If you would like to help redeploy Jack Murtha, please pay a visit here.
