The Man From Johnstown, Still Corrupt
I’m not sure if the people of Western Pennsylvania just aren’t paying attention, or if too many of them have nice jobs brought to the district by Democrat Congressman John Murtha’s pork-barrel projects to vote him out. I had hoped that Murtha was going to get knocked out of his House seat, but he won another round. The question is, will an investigation into a lobbying firm with close ties to Murtha be enough to do him in? His influence is strong:
More than 100 House members secured earmarks in a major spending bill for clients of a single lobbying firm — The PMA Group — known for its close ties to John P. Murtha , the congressman in charge of Pentagon appropriations.
“It shows you how good they were,” said Keith Ashdown, chief investigator at the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense. “The sheer coordination of that would take an army to finish.”
PMA’s offices have been raided, and the firm closed its political action committee last week amid reports that the FBI is investigating possibly illegal campaign contributions to Murtha and other lawmakers. . . . In the spending bill managed by Murtha, the fiscal 2008 Defense appropriation, 104 House members got earmarks for projects sought by PMA clients, according to Congressional Quarterly’s analysis of a database constructed by Ashdown’s group.
Those House members, plus a handful of senators, combined to route nearly $300 million in public money to clients of PMA through that one law (PL 110-116).
And when the lawmakers were in need — as they all are to finance their campaigns — PMA came through for them.
According to CQ MoneyLine, the same House members who took responsibility for PMA’s earmarks in that spending bill have, since 2001, accepted a cumulative $1,815,138 in campaign contributions from PMA’s political action committee and employees of the firm.
Now, in comparison to the $1.1 trillion stimulus package that just was signed by President Obama, $300 million looks like chump change. Still, looking at it, that money was used to buy something, more money. These Congressmen used our tax dollars to buy themselves campaign contributions. The story says the Representatives involved were primarily Democrats, including many of the Democrat leadership, but a handful of Republicans slipped into this corrupt business also. None of the Republican House leadership is associated with PMA. When this investigation completes, every House member that “bought influence” needs a plane ticket back to their home district for good, and that ticket shouldn’t be paid for with taxpayer dollars.
Categories: Politics
Leave a Reply