Left In Alabama

Rep. John Murtha Dead at 77

by: mooncat

Mon Feb 08, 2010 at 16:56:42 PM CST


Rep. John Murtha (D, PA) passed away this afternoon at the Virginia Hospital Center.   Murtha was a former Marine and the first Vietnam War combat Veteran elected to Congess.  He was in his 19th term in Congress and chaired the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.

A Marine veteran of the Vietnam War, the 77-year-old Democrat won national fame for standing up against U.S. military involvement in Iraq. But in Congress itself, he also symbolized an old school generation going back to Tip O’Neill and the Democratic heyday of the '70s, when the House was less divided by partisan ideology than by often regional interests.

...

“The thing you most remember is he was a stand-up guy,” Rep. George Miller (D-Cal.), who teamed with Murtha on Pelosi’s race to be Democratic whip, told POLITICO. “They were both operational people. He thought she ‘got it,’ both the policies and policy, and was willing to stand up too.”

 

“He understood the misery of war,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) “Every person who serves in the military has lost an advocate and a good friend today.”

mooncat :: Rep. John Murtha Dead at 77
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RIP - the soldiers' Congressma (4.00 / 2)


It's a sad loss (4.00 / 1)
And an unexpected one.  Murtha wasn't always a particularly progressive vote, but his heart was in the right place and I'll always respect him for taking Bush and Cheney to task on the mess they were making in Iraq.  Murtha took a lot of heat from Republicans over that but he never backed up. 

Work harder and work smarter!

One of the greatest Congressmen to ever serve (4.00 / 2)
And a seat that we gotta hold.

A real American hero (4.00 / 1)

Besides the fact that he served in Viet Nam, he was smart enough to recognize that invading Iraq was wrong when the rest of us were only concerned with what color the (insert cuss words) terror alert was. (which turned out to be mostly fake terror alerts)

 Rest in peace John Murtha. We will miss you.



July 2010 was the 14th consecutive July with sea ice extent below average. July 1996 was the last year that had above-average sea ice extent. N.S.I.D.C.

RIP (4.00 / 1)

There were times I vehemently agreed with Jack, and other times I did not. If the goal of a congressman is to bring as much federal funding / pet projects / pork back to his district, then he succeeded. Bud Cramer had great success in bringing home the bacon.

Yet another reason Parker Griffith has completely screwed up, and us. 



the truth shall set you free

murtha (0.00 / 0)
i dont like to speak against the dead especially when they're not even in the grave, but these hurrahs for murtha are a bit repulsive. murtha was the epitome of the congresional whore. he didnt have an honest bone in his body when it came to defense spending. anybody remember Abscam? He walked around the House floor telling other congressmen about some "arabs" willing to pay a lot for  immigration help. it was an FBI sting and some of its victims still alive still ask themselves why murtha helped the FBI set it up. what was in it for him? He's dead. he can rest in peace so far as i'm concerned, but he was a sorry excuse for a representative.

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