Murtha squeezed out of his clown car a while back, and bargained away his reputation and his(questionable) war status for Pelosi’s support in his public tomfoolery about the Iraq War. He was the willing front man for Pelosi’s medicine show.

Good press and crediblity for an otherwise obscure, dimwitted and repellant person means a lot, but you don’t get it without the signature of the higher-ups on the chit sheet. She gained, he gained, and now he thinks she still owes him. She’ll cave and then gut him later on when nobody’s watching.