The Facts of Life
John Murtha explains Article I of the Constitution:
The region’s outspoken congressman is in the national lens again – this time CBS News television cameras – in a report Wednesday that calls him “the king of earmarks who wastes a lot of taxpayer money” and implies that the FBI is investigating.
U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, responded by waving the Constitution at the camera, saying: “What it says is the Congress of the United States appropriates the money. Got that?”
“The money,” says Murtha. The money. There’s just this money out there, floating around in the magic zone, and Congress appropriates it. At least that’s how Congressman Murtha seems to see things.
Well — guess what? We make the money that senile, corrupt, and anti-American bastard appropriates. Our work gives it its value. And so I’d like to think we get some say in how it gets spent. And we even get some say in who spends it.
If the Republicans can’t get their act together long enough to make Murtha their Number One Incumbent to Beat in 2010, then they deserve to stay the minority party for a very, very long time.
(Hat tip, Insty.)
I’m seeing twitches of life from the Republican party. But not much in the way of “Getting their act together”
Murtha has a lock on his district for as long as he wants the job. It is not hospitable to Republican congressional candidates, and the people in the Johnstown and Cambria County area in particular are delighted to have his prominence and power to dispense Federal dollars their way.
The chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party is an insurance broker from Johnstown, and a Murtha ally in many respects. Outsiders will have little influence on the 12th District’s voters. Their region is aging and declining, and they have no intention of changing.
There comes a point where you can’t blame Murtha. This is the fault of the people in his district, who clearly prefer kleptocracy to responsible government. I can only hope that when the Republicans come back into power, they remember the good people of Pennsylvania’s 12th district (HT to Dan for the research).
Dan D.
That’s a true but unfortunately very sad statement on our political system today. I’ve always wondered how a Ted Kennedy or John Murtha fails to embarrass his home town badly enough to lose their office. Same old answer. Money.
I’m about 60 miles east of his district, but one of my co-workers grew up there, and still has family in the area. He says, if anything, the folks there are actually MORE proud of Murtha now.
The attitude is something like, “Hey, Detroit and Wall Street are getting billions, and we deserve a share too. And we’re lucky to have someone at the peak of power now who can deliver the goods.”
In a lot of ways, it’s a microcosm or maybe a prototype of what the Dems can achieve on a larger scale. The local economy there is so dependent on government jobs (many through pseudo-private entities), that the people are afraid to vote for a Republican. They can’t risk having their economic life blood cut off.
That’s a damn tough nut to crack.
I’m beginning to think that many member of Congress can run through the streets nakes smearing goat blood on themselves and still get reelected. Out here in California, we’re so gerrymandered it is like far too many of these knuckleheads are in for life.
It doesn’t surprise me to see Murtha doing what he’s doing. He thinks he’s invincible. You know what, after all that he’s gotten away with, I’m beginning to think he is!
Guys – I got tired of sitting around and watching Murtha and his ilk get away with their crap, so I decided to have some fun with it and created http://www.corruptiondatabase.com – its a wiki tracking corruption info for any politician you’d like to throw in there. Feel free to mess around with it – I find it cathartic!
RB, how much space does your database hold? Exabytes might be too small for the collection of misdeeds you’ll find in political corruption–and that’s just in Chicago alone.
Doug: Thats funny. Its shocking how egregious its all getting – the smarmy holier-than-thou Dodd to the President of all 57 (or is it 58) states.
I’m planning to keep Corruption Database up, and hopefully a community will congeal around it, so that the next time you type ‘Barney Frank’ on google, something like this might pop up and shine a light on his misdeeds, rather than his atrocities getting lost in the last news cycle. Here they can be preserved for posterity.