The More Things Change

The lovely and beauteous Nancy Pelosi, soon to be the Speaker of the House, has decided she wishes the equally-beauteous and sensible John P. Murtha to be House majority leader.

You recall John "Jack" Murtha -- I made a few, ahem, "posts" about some of his proclivities and beliefs in the past. Those who recall know I typified Mr. Murtha, a war veteran, as one who is well grounded, logical, rational and having perspective and proportion. And then there was that Moonbat Of The Week thing.

A couple times.

Once I read of this decision, the little girl's voice from Poltergeist rang in my head: "they're here."

From WorldNetDaily:

Some Democratic lawmakers and watchdog groups say they are baffled that Pelosi would go out of her way to back Murtha's candidacy after pledging to make the new 110th Congress the most ethical and corruption-free in history.

Oh c'mon, what's the issue? -- more crap spread by GOP fuddy-duddies? Perhaps something like this:

Though only 13 seconds of those tapes are available publicly showing Murtha conditionally declining a $50,000 bribe "at this point," in his words, a 1980 Washington Post report by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative columnist Jack Anderson revealed a shocking transcript of recordings never released to the public.

Anderson characterized the Pennsylvania Democrat's interaction with the FBI as "perhaps the saddest scene on the secret Abscam videotapes. ... He refused to take the money, but his reason was hardly noble."

"I want to deal with you guys awhile before I make any transactions at all, period," Murtha explained. "After we've done some business, well, then I might change my mind. ... I'm going to tell you this. If anybody can do it – I'm not B.S.-ing you fellows – I can get it done my way. There's no question about it."

Murtha went from boasting about his ability to get things done in Congress to explaining his hesitation about taking money.

"All at once, some dumb [expletive deleted] would go start talking eight years from now about this whole thing and say [expletive deleted], this happened," Murtha says, according to the transcript. "Then in order to get immunity so he doesn't go to jail, he starts talking and fingering people. So the [S.O.B.] falls apart."

The FBI undercover officer then suggests: "You give us the banks where you want the money deposited."

"All right," agreed Murtha. "How much money we talking about?"

"Well, you tell me," says the FBI undercover operative.

"Well, let me find out what is a reasonable figure that will get their attention," said Murtha, "because there are a couple of banks that have really done me some favors in the past, and I'd like to put some money in."

Here's what Murtha says after the public video cuts off: "…You know, we do business together for a while. Maybe I'll be interested and maybe I won't. Right now, I'm not interested in those other things. Now, I won't say that some day, you know, I, if you made an offer, it may be I would change my mind some day."

The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, CREW, questioned Pelosi's endorsement of Murtha, listing the congressman in its report "Beyond DeLay: The 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress (and five to watch)."

Just like Clinton: the "most ethical administration ever."

Yeah right.

BZ