On Feb 8, 2:07*pm, Drifter wrote:
US Rep, Viet Nam Vet and a dear friend. thanks Jack, for all you did.

Drifter...

You lemmings never cease to amaze. One of the most corrupt pieces of
**** in Congress finally does something beneficial for the nation
(i.e. dies) and the dumb downed American public gushes forth with the
sentimental slop before the carcass is even cold. Really you should
wait awhile before beginning the revisionist history project about
"Abscam Jack".

The only reason the sleazebag didn't finish "serving" his country in
Lewisburg Federal Penitentary instead of the U.S. Congress was because
he was a SNITCH who testified against his partners in crime. A THIEF
and a RAT FINK who personally engineered the theft of $BILLION$ from
hard working Americans to the ruling elite via their military
industrial complex to fund their war racket - corporate welfare
wrapped in the flag.

But don't take it too hard, your masters will probably name a holiday
after him in ten years.


By PETER JACKSON, Associated Press Writer

Murtha was a perennial target of critics of so-called pay-to-play
politics. He routinely drew the attention of ethical watchdogs with
off-the-floor activities, from his entanglement in the Abscam
corruption probe three decades ago to the more recent scrutiny of the
connection between special-interest spending known as earmarks and the
raising of cash for campaigns.

Murtha became chairman of the House Appropriations defense
subcommittee in 1989. The same year Paul Magliocchetti, a former
subcommittee staffer, left Capitol Hill to found the now-defunct PMA
Group. The lobbying firm, which specialized in obtaining earmarks for
defense contractors, was one Murtha's biggest sources of campaign
cash.
In 2007 and 2008, Murtha and two fellow Democrats on the subcommittee
directed $137 million to defense contractors who were paying PMA to
get them government business. Between 1989 and 2009, Murtha collected
more than $2.3 million in campaign contributions from PMA's lobbyists
and corporate clients, according to the Center for Responsive
Politics, which tracks political money.

Shortly after the 2008 election, the FBI raided PMA's offices as part
of a criminal investigation. In a separate development in January
2009, FBI agents raided the offices of a defense contractor from
Murtha's district — Windber-based Kuchera Defense Systems Inc. — that
had received millions of dollars in earmarks sponsored by Murtha while
contributing tens of thousands to his campaigns.

A year later, Kuchera was suspended from bidding on government
contracts because of allegations that it paid more than $200,000 in
kickbacks to another defense contractor.

Around the same time, the House ethics committee was investigating the
link between PMA-related campaign contributions and earmarks, but it
had not named a subcommittee to look into possible violations by
individual lawmakers.
Murtha's critics recall the Abscam corruption probe, in which the FBI
caught him on videotape in a 1980 sting operation turning down a
$50,000 bribe offer while holding out the possibility that he might
take money in the future.
"We do business for a while, maybe I'll be interested and maybe I
won't," Murtha said on the tape.
Six congressmen and one senator were convicted in that case. Murtha
was not charged, but the government named him as an unindicted co-
conspirator and he testified against two other congressmen.