Not Now John, We've Gotta Get On With the Show

David Weigel | October 27, 2008

TNR House race guru Eve Fairbanks assesses the self-inflicted political damage of John Murtha, asks whether he will win re-election, then asks a better question: Who cares? Let 'im drown.

Murtha has always been a sore spot in Democrats' efforts to claim they want a cleaner Washington -- a shameless porker in the Don Young tradition and one of only three Democrats to make Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's "Most Corrupt" list every year. (The other two are Bill "Cash In My Freezer" Jefferson and Alan "Too Crooked To Sit On the Ethics Committee" Mollohan. Fine company!) Even if you forgive Murtha for the long-ago sins of ABSCAM, the CREW complaint details many more recent abuses, like leveraging his Defense Appropriations Subcommittee chairmanship to "benefit the lobbying firm of a former long-term staffer and ... threatening to block earmarks of other members for political purposes."

Murtha's courage on Iraq used to counterweigh his ethical shadiness for a lot of Democrats: It's easy to forget how tough it was for a congressman who was also a veteran to be as critical of the war as he was in November 2005. But the party has plenty of strong military voices on Iraq now, people like Representative Patrick Murphy and Senator Jim Webb. Murtha's just not as crucial a dissenting veteran voice he once was.

Fairbanks also whacks Murtha for buying into the "real America is different" meme. I'd add another problem to the pile: I have been hearing for two years that the 76-year old Murtha is getting a little dotty. He's never been especially coherent (at the height of his public profile in 2006, his Iraq answers were usually a word salad of facts and assertions), but he's gotten worse since he lost a bid for majority leader. There's nothing at all keeping declining seniors from being re-elected again and again to Congress, as they can pass the work onto their staffs. In the last half of his final term, Strom Thurmond's staff was basically manipulating a southern icon-shaped muppet. But it's not a strke in Murtha's favor.

That said, it's possible that the worst porkers in Congress will survive tight races: Murtha and Alaska's Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young. We won't know until the day after the election whether Alaska's corrupt Republicans beat the odds to return to Congress. If they do it, Murtha's probably doing it too.

Comments

|10.27.08 @ 2:00PM|#

I don't think it is fair at all for Reason to come out against Murtha. Opposition to the Iraq war clean all sins in Reason's eyes for other politicians why not Murtha? It is not like he is the only crook out there. The guy agrees with Reason on the most important issue for Reason, the Iraq war. How can they possibly hope he loses re-election to veteran who no doubt supports the war?

|10.27.08 @ 2:19PM|#

Murtha's courage on Iraq used to counterweigh his ethical shadiness for a lot of Democrats: It's easy to forget how tough it was for a congressman who was also a veteran to be as critical of the war as he was in November 2005.

That's what's so exceptional about Murtha's dissent back in 2005: he's never done anything before of since that would lead somebody to think he'd show that kind of leadership.

He seems to have been nothing but a longstanding hack for the entire rest of his political career, but then towards the end, he did one exceptional thing.

|10.27.08 @ 2:20PM|#

That's right -- Murtha is a war veteran, people! How can a war veteran ever be a bad politician, or be wrong about anything?

|10.27.08 @ 2:21PM|#

for serious tho, i agree w/ joe on this one.

|10.27.08 @ 2:25PM|#

It makes me wonder if it wasn't that same onset of senility that gave him the attitude to decide not to just go along, but to speak his mind.

|10.27.08 @ 2:29PM|#

definition of a gaffe

zoltan|10.27.08 @ 3:03PM|#

Ugh, is John going to splooge everywhere about freedom in Iraq again?

The Extispicator|10.27.08 @ 3:06PM|#

A Congressmen's corruption is directly proprtional to the number of highways and other crap named after him in his state. Drive through WV and see how much stuff is the "Robert Byrd ________" and you'll see what I mean. I've never been through Murthaland, but I bet it is the same there.

|10.27.08 @ 3:18PM|#

To be honest, if [name here] would simply restrict himself to the serious business of amassing a personal fortune based on his Beltway connections, and refrain from trying to "save" me from everything which terrifies him, I'd be okay with that.

Warty|10.27.08 @ 3:36PM|#

Murtha is a cocksucker extraordinaire. Drive through his sorry excuse for a district sometime and marvel at all the buildings named Murtha ____, paid for with his lootings.

Too bad the FBI didn't manage to get him in the Abscam sting all those years ago.

|10.27.08 @ 3:45PM|#

To be honest, if [name here] would simply restrict himself to the serious business of amassing a personal fortune based on his Beltway connections, and refrain from trying to "save" me from everything which terrifies him, I'd be okay with that.

That would be a big step up for too many of Our Masters.

|10.27.08 @ 5:07PM|#

Props for the Roger Waters, performed by Pink Floyd, title.

John, hyperbole aside, which politicans has Reason absolved of sin after their position on the war?

Syd Henderson|10.27.08 @ 5:08PM|#

I would think Ted Stevens being a convicted felon would hurt his re-election chances.