John Murtha In Trouble

John Murtha had a bit of a tussle with Senator Rogers today over an earmark that Murtha wanted for his home district. Senator Rogers is fighting back and asking that the House look into Murtha for House rules violations. Below is a transcript of what was said:

“I hope you don’t have any earmarks in the defense appropriations bills because they are gone, and you will not get any earmarks now and forever,” Murtha told Rogers, according to the draft transcript given to The Politico.

“This is not the way we do things here – and is that supposed to make me afraid of you?” Rogers replied.

“That’s the way I do it,” Murtha said.

Makes him sound like an asshole doesn't it? Unfortunately for Murtha it's against the rules to do that. Those rules, which forbid members from blocking earmarks based on how a colleague votes.

About the earmark though. It seems to be just pandering to Murtha's constituents.

President Bush’s budget cut $23 million from the budget to force the agency to close the office, which has received repeated low marks from several federal review boards.

If they aren't doing their job and getting proper work done, then it gets shut down. Simple as that. That sounds like responsible spending to me. But Murtha's pissed that Bush is shutting it down. What's worse is that Senator Rogers is actually trying to spend our money wisely and Murtha is trying to bully him.

“This is exactly why Americans are disgusted with out of control federal spending,” Rogers said in a statement.

“In order to restore the faith of the American people in Congress, we must do better," he said. "We can’t allow members to be threatened and intimidated when they stand up for hard-working taxpayers’ money.”

But then of course, we have the obligatory statement from Murtha's office.

“The committee and staff give every Democrat and Republican the same consideration,” Murtha said in a statement sent out by his office. “We have extensive hearings and every request is given careful consideration. We will continue to do just that.”

Uhhh...that's not what you said Murtha. You said: "I hope you don’t have any earmarks in the defense appropriations bills because they are gone, and you will not get any earmarks now and forever"

That sounds like you're playing politics with American taxpayer money and propping up poor performing government agencies. People are sick and tired of government waste and the deficit, and when someone challenges you in your blatant attempt to appease your constituents, you try to bully them. You violated House rules, and now you should rightfully pay for that.

Travis
travis@rightwinglunatic.com