Posted at Villainous Company:

Long-time readers of VC know the half vast editorial staff is no fan of Representative Jack Murtha. And indeed, such is the stature of the beatific Congressman from Pennsylvania that it is well-nigh impossible to venture even the mildest criticism of his frequent choleric broadsides against our troops without being accused of endangering his life, his fortune, even his sacred honor.

One can't help but wonder, however, if his own side are allowed to criticize him?

For more than a decade, Representative John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania has operated a political trading post in a back corner of the House of Representatives.

A gang of about two dozen Democrats mill around his seat. A procession of others walk back to request pet spending projects, known as earmarks. And Republicans come by, asking him to enlist some of those Democrats to join them on close votes. ''Whether they get what they want in the bill or they get the votes they are looking for, nobody ever leaves completely disappointed,'' said Representative Paul E. Kanjorski, a Pennsylvania Democrat often found in what is known as the Murtha corner.

Outside Washington, Mr. Murtha, a Vietnam veteran and longtime hawk, may be best known for his break with the president over the Iraq war last fall. But inside the Capitol, he is best known for turning earmarks into power. As the top Democrat on the House military spending subcommittee, he often delivers Democratic votes to Republican leaders in a tacit exchange for earmarks for himself and his allies.

In the last year, Democratic and Republican floor watchers say, Mr. Murtha has helped Republicans round up enough Democratic votes to narrowly block a host of Democratic proposals: to investigate federal contracting fraud in Iraq, to reform lobbying laws, to increase financing for flood control, to add $150 million for veterans' health care and job training, and to exempt middle-class families from the alternative minimum tax.

In one case that particularly irked Democratic partisans, Mr. Murtha led three others in voting against a politically vulnerable Louisiana Democrat's proposal to divert money intended to be spent on base closings to research prosthetic limbs for veterans. It failed by one vote.

For their ''nays'' on that and other matters, all four Democrats were rewarded. In the weeks after the vote, they claimed credit for a total of more than $250 million in earmarks in the 2006 appropriations bills. Mr. Murtha alone brought home about $80 million for his district and $120 million for his state, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan group that tracks such projects.

Mr. Murtha, who announced a bid this spring to become the next House Democratic leader, acknowledges that some Democrats grouse about his history of leading others across the aisle. (Several Democrats said as much, but none would speak publicly.) He confirmed working with Republicans on the Iraq war spending vote that blocked the Democratic corruption investigation, but said he did not remember the others. He said he always acted on principle, working with Republicans either because he agreed with them or to uphold private agreements about spending bills.

''You just need to get the things done, so you give them the votes to get the things done,'' he said in an interview. ''There is no question that some projects come out of it for our members, and that is not a bad thing.'' He added, ''Deal making is what Congress is all about.''

The Party in Opposition likes to talk about the culture of corruption. If they are looking for corruption, they might try looking a bit closer to home:

The Los Angeles Times reported last year that Murtha's brother, Robert, runs a lobbying firm that represents 10 companies that received more than $20 million from last year's defense spending bill. Another official of the lobbying firm is a former Murtha congressional aide. Murtha is the ranking member of the House subcommittee that appropriates this money.

Murtha's role in the culture of corruption also implicates Pelosi herself. Roll Call reported last year that Murtha "reportedly leaned on U.S. Navy officials to sign a contract to transfer the Hunters Point Shipyard to the city of San Francisco." Pelosi's nephew, Laurence Pelosi, was an executive of the company that owned the rights to the land. Roll Call also reported that Murtha has been behind millions of dollars worth of earmarks in defense appropriations bills that went to companies owned by the children of his fellow Pennsylvania Democrat, Rep. Paul Kanjorski. And the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan campaign finance watchdog group, lists Murtha as the top recipient of defense industry dollars in the current 2006 election cycle.

His record of denial and deception stretches back to 1980, to a long-forgotten encounter in a townhouse in the nation's capitol:

For more than 26 years, Congressman John P. "Jack" Murtha (D-Penn.) has not been truthful about his involvement in Abscam, court records and the complete video of his meeting with the FBI show.

In recent years, only a 13-second video of Murtha's videotaped meeting with the FBI agents was publicly available. TAS has obtained a copy of the full, original video from a source close to the Abscam investigation on the condition of anonymity. The court transcript is publicly available at the National Archives. (To see the full video, click here. For a transcript of the meeting, click here.)

Oddly however, our unbiased press, the same evenhanded media who spend reams of ink on a single idiot macaca remark while nuclear bombs are going off in North Korea, have no interest in a Congressman's taped admission that while he doesn't need any money right now, he isn't exactly ruling such transactions out in the future either:

MURTHA: I'll tell you how I feel about my part of it. My part is that you don't need to spend a goddamn cent on this thing. That's my feeling. Howard feels differently about it. These other two guys have as much influence with the administration and in Congress as anybody. There's no question about it. There's no question about these other two guys being long-term members, being chairmen of the right committees. They're the right people. But -- you gotta look at it realistically, you gotta know all the facts before you can do anything at all. Now, as I told Howard, I want to deal with you guys awhile before I made any transactions at all, period. In other words I want to say, "Look put some money in these guys," and I, just let me know, so I can say, you know, these guys are gonna do business in our district. Then there's a couple businesses that I'm not personally involved in but would be very helpful for the district, that I could make a big play of, be very helpful to me. After we've done some business, then I might change my mind. But right now, that's all I'm interested in. [12:00:40] Period. And I'm gonna tell you this. If anybody can do it... and I'm not bullshitting you fellas, I can get it done my way. There's no question about it. I can get it done. And the thing you gotta remember is, what happened to [South Korean agent Tongsun?] Park and those guys, you can't start going to people that you don't know, that don't level with you, that bullshit you, that don't look into it. For instance, I may tell you in a week after I look into it can't be done. It cannot be done. And I'll tell you. I won't bullshit you. When I make a deal, it's a goddamn deal. That's all there is to it.

As Walter Cronkite would say, "And so it goes..."

Move along. Nothing to see here.]]>

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