The Heat Is On...

And Jihad Jack Murtha is feeling a bit hot under the collar:

NEW – National media draws Murtha's ire

The Tribune-Democrat
A visibly angry Rep. John Murtha cut his Showcase for Commerce press conference short this morning after a reporters’ questions about Kuchera Defense Systems of Windber, which is under investigation by the federal government.

Kuchera offices were raided in January and the company was suspended from new Navy contracts last month. The Kuchera family and related companies are major campaign contributors for Murtha.

“What’s that got to do with me?” Murtha shot back to a reporter’s question about the investigation. “What do you think? Do you think I oversee these companies? That’s the Defense Department’s job. That’s not my job. You guys write these stories: You don’t have a clue what this is all about.”

But that's exactly what's bothering you, isn't it, Jack Murtha. The media are actually starting to get a clue, the same clue that we at Murtha Must Go!! have had since we started this blog in May of 2006. That you are a self-serving, self-indulgent, arrogant sorry excuse for a public official who thinks he can do whatever he wants to meet his ends, even going so far as to deny Constitutional rights to those who laid their lives on the line to defend them.

But now it isn't so easy, is it Jack. With two Republican challengers, and even a democrat primary challenger, the power you wielded so recklessly is now slipping through your greasy fingers like sands through an hourglass.

When you were giving your party cover when you declared the Iraq war unwinnable in November of 2005, Jack, you were the toast of the town. The darling of every antiwar moonbat, your eyes set greedily upon the majority leader post in Congress, you thought you were untouchable.

And now your plans are unraveling like a cheap $15 suit from the Goodwill, as you finally receive your comeuppance:

Murtha would not answer a question if he would distance himself from Kuchera, and cut the session off when asked if he had hired a lawyer.

“What kind of question is that?” Murtha fumed, leaving the Frank J. Pasquerilla Conference Center, 201 Napoleon St.

The right kind of question, Jack. The kind of question the media should have asked you long ago.

Better late than never, I guess.

Hell's Kitchen's Getting Hotter...

Not only does Murtha have Lt. Col. (Ret). William Russell and Timothy Burns on the Republican side to contend with, but it also looks like Murtha will have a Primary contender on the democrat side to contend with, as well:

Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha -- under fire for steering controversial federal money to his district -- has a Navy veteran with a Harvard degree lining up to challenge him for the Democratic nomination next year.

The race for Pennsylvania's 12th District seat is heating up, with the announcement this week that veteran Ryan Bucchianeri, 34, is challenging Murtha for the Democratic nod. Two Republicans are also vying to run against Murtha.

"I invite the residents of Pennsylvania to continue to research the incumbent and ask if the current office holder, who has held this position the last 35 years, still truly represents the best interests of the people of Pennsylvania," Bucchianeri said.

Bucchianeri, of Monongahela, Pa., is targeting the 35-year incumbent, stressing that his Navy service, experience in private industry and youthful perspective would better serve voters in Pennsylvania's southwest corner.

Feeling a little hot under the collar, Jihad Jack?

DoJ Investigating Contractor With Murtha Ties

This morning, the Washington Post is reporting that the DoJ is investigating a contractor with strong ties to Rep. Murtha:

The Department of Justice is probing a Pennsylvania contractor that has won millions in earmarks and contracts with the help of Rep. John Murtha, according to a new report.

The Washington Post reported Monday that federal investigators are looking into how Mountaintop Technologies got involved in distributing and monitoring local police grants.

The company has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to distribute the money, according to the article, but has received at least $36 million worth of earmarks and military contracts over the past eight years, with the help of Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, and no competition.

According to the article, company executives have donated tens of thousands of dollars to Murtha's campaigns and often distributed the police grant funding on behalf of Murtha before fall elections, and the firm even hired the lobbying company where Murtha's brother worked.

Democrats screamed at the top of their lungs about Halliburton getting no-bid contracts. Nevermind the fact that Halliburton was one of only 2 companies in the world equipped to do the things that they were hired to do.

Now we have a another company in Rep. Murtha's network of cronies who is getting no-bid contracts annually being investigated. Instead of launching an ethics investigation into Rep. Murtha, Speaker Pelosi is doing everything possible to prevent a spotlight from shining on Rep. Murtha's reprehensible behavior.

What's particularly troubling to me is that federal grant money was distributed by Mountaintop Technologies right before elections. If I were a cynic, I'd almost think that that sounds alot like taxpayer-funded walking around money. At minimum, the timely disbursement of grants right before an election served as a reminder to these organizations that Rep. Murtha was their sugar daddy in Washington.

Mountaintop Technologies founder David Fyock told the Post that his company won the contracts on merit. "We are pretty darn good at managing contracts," he said.

But law enforcement sources said the police grants drew attention because the firm was a defense company with little law enforcement experience.

Mr. Fyock's explanation is flimsy at best. Whether they're "pretty darn good at managing contracts" or not, the reality is that they made a fistful of money on no-bid contracts that should've been put up for bid. Why shouldn't other companies have the opportunity to get these contracts? Might it be that Rep. Murtha didn't want other companies who weren't part of Murtha's crony network to get the job of distributing these grants?

Here's the opening paragraph of the Washington Post article:

In tiny, cash-strapped Monongahela, Pa., the city clerk was stunned when federal investigators arrived this fall with a subpoena seeking information on a crime-fighting grant she'd never heard of. She takes pride in tracking every dollar in the municipal budget.

Further down the page, we read this:

Over the past five years, a local defense contractor with close ties to Rep. John P. Murtha, a Democrat who has represented southwestern Pennsylvania for three decades, has selected several small police departments in the region to receive $10 million in Justice Department grants.

The company, Mountaintop Technologies, was selected by the lawmaker in a series of earmarks to hand out and monitor the grants. As it distributed the money to the departments, the firm would explain each time that it was arriving through the largess of Murtha, often just before fall elections.

Imagine that. Mountaintop Technologies would "explain each time that it was arriving through the largess of Murtha" and that that largess often happened "just before fall elections."

My cynical said asks whether Murtha's campaign pay Moutaintop Technologies for the PR work they did on his behalf right before elections. It's one thing to hand out these grants. It's another to hand them out with the reminder that a vote for Rep. Murtha will help the grant money flowing.

Let's take this into account, too:

Once she learned from the investigators that Monongahela's police department was getting money outside of normal channels, City Clerk Carole Foglia was disturbed. "I wasn't happy with the situation at all," Foglia said. "I didn't want to be involved in anything that was done improperly, because that's not the way I work in my office. And this was improper. No question about it."

This clerk did the right thing in reporting the unusual nature of the grant distribution. Though I can't be certain, I suspect that Ms. Foglia thought that this sounded alot like hading out walking around money right before an election.

Let's ask these questions of Rep. Murtha:

Why are these grants disbursed right before an election? When did Mountaintop Technologies get these checks? Did Mountaintop Technologies hold these grant checks until the fall for maximuim impact on elections?

It's time we got some answers. Hopefully, the DoJ's investigation won't be short-circuited by Eric Holder or other political appointees in DoJ.

Technorati: Corruption, John Murtha, Mountaintop Technologies, DoJ, Walking Around Money, Elections, Cronyism, RICO, Investigation

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

Soros-Funded Ethics Group Calls On Murtha to Step Down

From here:

CREW executive director Melanie Sloan said, “It is past time for Congress to put an end to Rep. Murtha’s friends and family program. At a time when there are so many competing priorities for scarce taxpayer dollars, we cannot afford to let Rep. Murtha continue wasting our money on unnecessary projects that do little more than secure his power base. Although the House has long turned a blind eye to Rep. Murtha’s feckless conduct, thankfully the Justice Department is on the case. How many more stories must appear before Rep. Murtha is forced from his perch as chairman of Defense Appropriations and denied further opportunity to feather his own nest?”

Isn't it interesting that when Jihad Jack Murtha served the loony left's purpose when he turned traitor and declared the Iraq war unwinnable, he was just the darling of the fever swamp set; with everyone from the D.U. to the Daily Kos to Code Pink just singing his praises. Now that the Left's objectives have been met, re: the election of Barack Hussein Obama, Jihad Jack Murtha has suddenly fell out of favor with the kook left mainstream of the democrat party.

No doubt when Murtha was busy playing turncoat against the Haditha Marines and busy giving aid and comfort to our enemies, he was being wooed with "riches beyond his wildest imagination." San Fran Nan Pelosi backed him for House Majority leader. Code Pink was giving him awards.

And now, their aims having been realized, the Soros Wing of the Democrat Party have cast Murtha off like a cheap prom date.

And it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Jihad Jack Murtha Voted To Allow These Men to be in the United States

So...PA-12... how's that pork workin' for ya now?

(h/t Traveller in Time)

Megalomaniacal Murtha

ahIFirst he declared the Iraq War all but lost, and more than once called for an immediate withdrawal. Seeing as how the Left just loved him, invited him to all the right parties, and even gave him awards befitting Benedict Arnold, Murtha felt even more brazen in his lust for power, when he declared Marines at Haditha guilty of murder, without any official briefing, again, to further his drive for power.

Then, in 2008, came William Trower Russell. A retired Army Colonel, who still knows the meaning of honor and practices it, Russell had Murtha running scared for the first time in his checkered, scandal-laden political career. So scared was Jihad Jack Murtha that he had to call in Bill Clinton to wag his finger at PA-12 constituents in a last-ditch effort to save his sorry, fat, political backside.

Having won re-election, now Murtha is again usurping his power in another nefarious way:

Russell, a retired Army man who plans another run against Murtha next year, now contends that the congressman’s chief of staff used coarse language while threatening to have the GOP candidate “recalled” to active military duty.

Russell further claims that Murtha’s office has contacted his former commanding officer, also to inquire about a potential recall.

“This is a brazen abuse of power and a threat to the integrity of both the Department of Defense and the Congress of the United States,” Russell wrote in a recent fundraising letter to local voters.

Russell, who last year lost by about 15 percentage points to the veteran congressman, said the encounter with Murtha Chief of Staff John Hugya happened at a March banquet benefitting the National Rifle Association in Washington County.

“To my face, (Hugya) said, ‘What are you going to do when we get the new Secretary of the Army seated and have your (expletive) recalled to active duty,’ ” Russell wrote.

Murtha’s office is not denying that the exchange took place.

But spokesman Matt Mazonkey also claims that Russell’s letter leaves out an important part of the conversation.

“Mr. Hugya, who is a retired Marine Colonel, was reminding Mr. Russell that his conduct while in uniform during the last campaign was in violation of sections of the uniform code of military justice” and a Department of Defense directive, Mazonkey said in a written statement.

That directive forbids those on active military duty from campaigning for federal office.

The contention, apparently, is that Russell should be recalled so that he can face charges for allegedly campaigning while he was on a 90-day, active-duty Army assignment last year.

Those allegations have been brewing since last summer. But Russell still contends they are “absolutely false.”

While he was on duty from April 30 through the end of July, Russell said, “the campaign committee operated independently of me.”

And that, my friends, is absolutely TRUE. William Russell did not personally begin campaigning until his discharge from the Army. His May, 2008 interview on the Michael Savage show was actually taped well before his April activation, and then aired later. But don't let a little thing like the truth get in the way of Jihad Jack Murtha holding on to power like a hooker grasps her last 5 dollar bill.

Bottom line is, to Jack Murtha, the Constitution and the rights it extends may as well be a roll of toilet paper. He will crumple it, trample it, and do anything he can to extend his reach on his power.

Megalomania? You bet.

PA-12-- are you starting to get buyer's remorse yet?

Bill Russell's Tea Party Speech

Yes, PA-12--you do have an honorable choice:

Murtha: To the Highest Bidder?

More pay to play politics?

Also of note about O’Toole are her ties to the Democratic Party and Congressman John Murtha. Since 2003, she has contributed a total of $8,300 to the Democratic National Committee, as well as a number of Democratic presidential candidates, including John Kerry, Wesley Clark, Hillary Clinton, and most recently Barack Obama. The only member of congress to whom she has contributed is Murtha. In 2004 and 2005, immediately before and after Murtha earmarked money for her center under the Strategic Biodefense Initiative, she gave him $1,750.

As I’ve noted before, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center — O’Toole’s center is one of its projects — retains as its lobbying firm Ervin Technical Associates, which has close links to the congressman. UPMC’s PAC and employees have donated heavily to Murtha, including $192,500 in 2006. That was the year after Murtha won an $8.5 million earmark for UPMC -– lobbied for by Ervin Technical -– for a communications network. Ervin Technical is also seeking to win support for a dubious UPMC project which is looking for funding to develop and manufacture biodefense vaccines.

Murtha's Corruption Hitting Closer to Home

According to this Washington Post article, John Murtha's corruption is hitting close to home. VERY CLOSE. Here's what the Washington Post is reporting:

The headquarters of Murtech, in a low-slung, bland building in a Glen Burnie business park, has its blinds drawn tight and few signs of life. On several days of visits, a handful of cars sit in the parking lot, and no trucks arrive at the 10 loading bays at the back of the building.

Yet last year, Murtech received $4 million in Pentagon work, all of it without competition, for a variety of warehousing and engineering services. With its long corridor of sparsely occupied offices and an unmanned reception area, Murtech's most striking feature is its owner, Robert C. Murtha Jr., 49. He is the nephew of Rep. John P. Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who has significant sway over the Defense Department's spending as chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.

Robert Murtha said he is not at liberty to discuss in detail what his company does, but for four years it has subsisted on defense contracts, according to records and interviews. He said Murtech's 17 employees "provide necessary logistical support" to Pentagon testing programs that focus on detecting chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats, "and that's about as far as I feel comfortable going." Giving more details could provide important clues to terrorist plotters, he said.

How can Robert Murtha say with a straight face that Murtech's 17 employees "provide necessary logistical support" to Pentagon testing programs when the John Murtha earmarks say it's sending $4,000,000 a year to Murtech "for a variety of warehousing and engineering services"? That's $235,000 per person per year for doing....what?

How can a big warehouse have no semi traffic to it? How can this warehouse's offices be almost empty?

People wrongfully complained about Haliburton's no-bid contracts. Haliburton at least did important work for the money they got. Based on the Washington Post's reporters' observations, we don't know if Murtech did anything except collect a government check for doing nothing.

Here's something that'll either have you pulling your hair out or laughing uncontrollably:

Murtha said he does not advertise being the nephew of John Murtha and considers it "unfortunate" that some will unfairly assume Murtech received its federal contracts because of his uncle's influence at the Pentagon.

"If we're not doing our job well, we wouldn't be doing our job," he said. "I'm successful at the work I do because of the skill sets I have...You don't know how good someone is unless you work with them."

I won't trust young Murtha because I can't prove that he's done anything other than collect a government check.

This is suspicious:

During an unannounced visit to Murtech headquarters last week, a reporter asking to talk to the owner was waved away by an employee. "He's not here. Come back another day," said the woman who opened Murtech's security door. "Unfortunately, everybody's stepped out."

But a few minutes later, Murtha emerged and answered questions about the company. In an interview, Murtha expressed concern that publicity could be harmful to his business.

This unnamed woman lied to reporters. Are Murtech employees in the habit of lying like that?

Until Murtech can prove that they're doing vital work for the Pentagon, I won't trust them. That's due mostly to Robert Murtha's actions but it's also fair to question the things that Kit Murtha, Robert's father, and John Murtha, Kit's brother, have done in the past.

This sounds familiar:

A spokesman at Murtha's office did not return calls seeking comment. The lawmaker, a former Marine, has said in the past that he is proud of his family's service to the military and the government.

Some things change. Murtha's 'no comment' policy doesn't though.

Technorati: Murtech, Robert Murtha, Kit Murtha, John Murtha, No-Bid Contracts, Corruption, Culture Of Corruption, Democrats

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

All in the Family?

Not only can Murtha be called the earmark king of the Capitol, but it would seem that he's in charge of his own family syndicate:

WASHINGTON — Representative John P. Murtha, chairman of the House military spending subcommittee and a decorated former Marine, has long acted as a protective Uncle Jack to the Marine Corps. [TELL THAT TO THE SHARRATTS--ED]

Now the corps has named one of his nephews, Col. Brian Murtha, to the office charged with advocating for its interests on Capitol Hill, where Representative Murtha, Democrat of Pennsylvania, helps write the military budget. In relocating to be near the Pentagon, Colonel Murtha has even moved into a unit in the same condominium building where his influential uncle lives in Arlington, Va.

[SNIP]

Nor is Colonel Murtha the first member of the Murtha family to be in a position to profit from his uncle’s influence. The congressman earmarked millions of federal dollars to an institution in his district, St. Vincent College, while the Rev. John F. Murtha, his cousin, was its president. He has directed millions more in earmarks to clients of a firm, KSA Consulting, where until about three years ago his younger brother, Robert Murtha, known as Kit, worked as a lobbyist.

Colonel Murtha is one of Kit Murtha’s sons. Another son, also named Robert Murtha, is a former Marine with a master’s degree in engineering. He previously worked for two military contractors who, seeking earmarks, hired a lobbyist with close ties to Representative Murtha.

Over the last three years, the younger Robert Murtha has operated Murtech Inc., a small contractor in Glen Burnie, Md., that runs a warehouse and offers engineering services. It has received more than $3.5 million in military contracts over the last three years, not including subcontracts through other companies.

He is also a founder of another company, Ocean Energy Systems Inc., which is seeking federal financing to support its research into the generation of power from the motion of waves.

There is no evidence, however, that this nephew has received any earmarks or otherwise benefited from Representative Murtha’s position.

Asked if the family name helped Ocean Energy, the company’s chief executive, Brian Cunningham, said, “It does and it doesn’t.”

Representative Murtha is under so much scrutiny, Mr. Cunningham said, that Robert Murtha “can’t raise his head at all on this, for fear that it will be connected with his uncle.