I'm Sooooooo Disillusioned, Part III

I may need to have a new feature on the continuing antics of ethically-challenged (no, I'm not questioning his patriotism) of Pennsylvania's pork king extraordinaire, Congressman Jack Murtha...

On May 16, Democrat lawmakers held a news conference in Washington, DC, where more than two dozen freshmen announced a push for stronger ethics enforcement. The members followed up that event with local media, garnering widespread attention for vowing to reform Congress.

"Members of Congress must know that if they break the rules,” Ohio’s Zack Space told C-SPAN, “they will be caught and punished.”

But when Space was given the chance to punish one of his own, Pennsylvania Democrat Jack Murtha, he refused. Murtha contributed $2,000 to Space’s campaign last fall.

Murtha was accused in a privileged resolution sponsored by U.S. Representative Mike Rogers, R-MI, of violating House ethics rules. According to Rogers, Murtha threatened him when Rogers opposed a $23 million Congressional earmark to fund a controversial project in Murtha’s district.

“I hope you don’t have any earmarks in the appropriations bills,” Murtha is reported to have said, “because they are gone and you will not get any earmarks now and forever.” Murtha has not denied the exchange.

The House Code of Official Conduct states that a Member “may not condition the inclusion of language to provide funding for a congressional earmark…on any vote cast by another Member.”

Rogers sought a reprimand of Murtha by the House for the apparent ethics violation. On an overwhelmingly party line vote, Democrats tabled the Rogers’ resolution, effectively killing it. Two Democrats, Earl Blumenauer, D-OR, and Jim Cooper, D-TN, voted against their party’s leadership.

Among those refusing to reprimand Murtha were the 23 Democrats who last week vowed tougher ethics enforcement.

“One of the messages voters sent last November was that the time had come to change the way business was being done in Washington,” Iowa’s Bruce Braley said on May 16. “The American people deserve to have the highest confidence that their Representatives are doing their jobs in a professional and ethical manner.”

Like Space, Braley voted against reprimanding Murtha. He, too, received $2,000 from Murtha last fall.

Another freshman publicly calling for tougher ethics enforcement was Connecticut’s Chris Murphy.

“Too often the ethics process has been used by Congress to protect its own,” Murphy told his hometown paper, the New Britain Herald. "People are tired of the scandalous headlines coming out of Washington, and Congress should move forward soon to clean up its act.”

Murphy, who claimed in that interview to have “organized and led…the freshman class” on ethics reform, also voted to kill the reprimand; and, like his colleagues, collected $2,000 from Murtha in 2006.

In fact, twenty-two of the twenty three freshmen who spent last week promoting tougher House ethics voted on Tuesday to kill the reprimand. One, North Carolina’s Heath Shuler, voted “present.” Shuler did not receive any funds from Murtha during his campaign.

In addition to the members already mentioned, the following freshmen who vowed tougher ethics rules, yet refused to rebuke Murtha, received the following contributions from the Pennsylvania Democrat. They are: Patrick Murphy, PA, $7,000; David Loebsack, IA, $4,500; Peter Welch, VT, $4,000; Yvette Clarke, NY, $4,000.

(hat tip: Instapundit) Heath Schuler's vote in Congress on this issue sounds suspiciously close to his Redskins' career -- he was present, and little more can be said that's any good (Gus Frerotte clearly would have voted for the reprimand). With that joke out of the way, kudos to the two Dems who decided that Murtha's sleazy actions were worthy of a reprimand. Unfortunately, there seems to be very little praise we can offer any other Democrat. in fact, their tenure in Congress is starting to resemble the late 1990's Redskins -- a lot of bluster, a lot of money spent, and little to show for it.