Who's Corrupt? Another Democrat?

Over the weekend Rep. John P. Murtha , D-Pa. had an interview. Considering he's a member of congress, and a senior one at that, an interview isn't surprising. One thing though that may not be known is his history and a quote from that interview.

Murtha's history is known enough that he makes the top 20 of a list of corrupt politicians; you can view Murtha's record here. One of the main reasons he makes this list is his involvement in something called the Abscam scam. Basically the FBI established a bogus business called "Abdul Enterprises, Ltd" which they used as their front to offer great sums of money to politicians in exchange for political favors. Some of the political favors were money laundering, investment schemes and U.S. asylum. Because the FBI had no videotaped exchange of money with Murtha, they got him to roll on his cronies...other U.S. Senators. In exchange for his testimony, charges against Murtha were dropped and he was allowed to run for reelection to the U.S. Congress. His tenure now spans 3 decades.

Not necessarily related, but close, was Murtha's comment in an interview with The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last weekend. Murtha was quoted very distinctly as saying, “If I’m corrupt, it’s because I take care of my district.” Thank you Congressman Murtha. I am grateful that corruption has helped you take care of your district. What exactly have you done? Well Murtha has been able to secure $225 million in government grants to his PAC contributor, Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC). Contracts like these have helped CTC make their $125,000 PAC contribution to Mr. Murtha. This is just one example and it's very hard to figure exactly how many earmarks Murtha has generated for his district or his campaigns, but the title of the Post-Gazette article cited previously is: "Critics claim John Murtha is capitalizing on a corrupt system, but he's not apologizing."

When will this country wake up?

The "20 most corrupt members of Congress" report has both Republicans and Democrats, so neither is without fault. But his comments and this article also come at a time when Obama promised no earmarks: "We can no longer accept a process that doles out earmarks based on a member of Congress' seniority, rather than the merit of the project" Obama, April 15, 2008.

So what do we do?

At the time of the Abscam, Senator Larry Pressler (R-SD) was called a hero by Walter Cronkite for refusing to be involved in the scam and reporting it to the FBI. Pressler scoffed and asked: "what have we come to if turning down a bribe is 'heroic'?"

If Obama is serious about earmarks, lets make penalties for them comparable to bribing a public official.