Long gone is the notion that Pelosi and crew actually meant to keep their promise to “drain the Congressional swamp of corruption”… hell, they’re not even bothering to try and keep up the facade any longer. Their message is now, loud and clear, “We’re Democrats, we’re corrupt, and to hell with the rest of you.”

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Democrats rejected a Republican bid Tuesday to reprimand Rep. John Murtha, a senior lawmaker accused of threatening legislative reprisals against a GOP member who had crossed him.

Before and after the largely party-line vote, which caused some Democrats discomfort, Republicans taunted Democratic leaders about their campaign promises to run a more ethical and open Congress.

So much discomfort that all but 2 voted against taking ethics action against one of their own.

Murtha, known for his gruff manner and fondness for pork barrel projects, did not dispute claims that he charged across the House floor May 17 to confront Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich.

To make matters worse, the threat violated ethics rules put in place by this very Congress in January.

So what was Rogers doing that got Murtha so mad? He was trying to strike a $23 million earmark Murtha tried to attach to some legislation. You know, earmarks… those pork-barrel appropriations for special interests in a representative’s home district.

Rogers had tried unsuccessfully to strike a $23 million Murtha earmark—a targeted spending item—for a drug intelligence center in Murtha’s district.

In a House speech Monday, Rogers said Murtha threatened him by saying, “you will not get any earmarks now and forever.” Rogers, backed by House GOP leaders, said Murtha’s threat violated congressional ethics rules.

But never fear, according to the AP, Murtha is just “known for his gruff manner and fondness for pork barrel projects.”

And I guess William Jefferson just has a fondness for using freezers as piggy banks and Dianne Feinstein just has a fondness for appropriating government funds through her husband’s checking account. And the most ethical Congress ever just has a fondness for taking money from lobbyists.

“Democrats” and “ethics” go together like “Muslims” and “peace”.

Do you think a story like this about a Republican would’ve been buried in the Christmas Day edition of a newspaper?

For a quarter of a century, Carmen Scialabba labored for Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), helping parcel out the billions of dollars that came through the House Appropriations Committee, so when the disabled aide needed a favor, Murtha was there.

In 2001, Murtha announced the creation of Scialabba’s nonprofit agency for the disabled in Johnstown, Pa. The next year, with Scialabba still on his staff, Murtha secured a half-million dollars for the group, the Pennsylvania Association for Individuals With Disabilities (PAID), and put another $150,000 in the pipeline for 2003, according to appropriations committee records and former committee aides. Since then, the group has helped hundreds of disabled people find work.

But it looks like they were “getting PAID” in more ways than one…

But the group serves another function as well. PAID has become a gathering point for defense contractors and lobbyists with business before Murtha’s defense appropriations subcommittee, and for Pennsylvania businesses and universities that have thrived on federal money obtained by Murtha.

Lobbyists and corporate officials serve as directors on the nonprofit group’s board, where they help raise money and find jobs for Johnstown’s disabled workers. Some of those lobbyists have served as intermediaries between the defense contractors and businessmen on the board, and Murtha and his aides.

That arrangement over the years has yielded millions of dollars in federal support for the contractors, businesses and universities, and hundreds of thousands in consulting and lobbying fees to Murtha’s favored lobbying shops, according to Federal Election Commission records and lobbying disclosure forms. In turn, many of PAID’s directors have kept Murtha’s campaigns flush with cash.
…
Its board of directors includes Scialabba and five government contractors who have received millions of federal dollars through appropriations measures obtained by Murtha. Its advisory council includes three lobbyists from KSA Consulting, which employs Scialabba and employed Murtha’s brother, Kit. Its honorary board members include still more defense contractors.

Have a Murtha Christmas!

Maybe voters should’ve been a little more cautious when Democrats were running on the “Culture of Corruption” campaign. Seems they weren’t really looking to reduce the corruption in Congress so much as reward it.

First example, look who Pelosi is backing for Majority Leader - John Murtha, a Congressman who was taped entertaining bribes from undercover FBI agents in 1980.

Then look at Pelosi’s move on the Intelligence Committee. She is passing on Jane Harman to chair the committee, which will leave, by virtue of seniority, Alcee Hastings, the Congressman and former federal judge who was impeached by a Democrat-controlled Senate for taking bribes. Imagine, someone who’s previously been impeached and removed from office for taking bribes heading up one of the most important Congressional committees while we’re at war.

Allah wonders if Pelosi will endorse William “Bribe-money-in-my-freezer” Jefferson to chair the Budget Committee.

Off to a great start, folks.

Soon-to-be-Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi said Democrats “intend to lead the most honest, the most open and the most ethical Congress in history.” Interestingly, this reminds me of another newly elected Democrat back in 1992 that promised “the most ethical Administration in the history of the Republic.”

Let’s just take a look at Pelosi’s “honest, ethical” Congress.

It includes William Jefferson (assuming he wins his December 9th runoff), the Democrat who hid $90,000 in bribery cash in his freezer at home.

It includes the soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who enjoys illegally using campaign donations, shady million dollar land deals, pushing legislation through Congress to benefit his 4 lobbyist sons, breaking campaign finance laws, and aiding clients of Jack Abramoff.

It will include Alcee Hastings, who was convicted by the U.S. House on two Articles of Impeachment: perjury and conspiracy to obtain a bribe. He’s so “honest and ethical” that it’s rumored Pelosi will get him to Chair the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

It includes Congressmen who run gay prostitution services from their Capitol Hill apartments, engage in public corruption and love to pass legislation benefitting family members and crash their cars while drinking and driving and kill others.

It includes dozens who associated with or helped Jack Abramoff and his clients.

It includes several who like to assault security personnel.

And of course, the new leader of this “honest, ethical” Congress, herself, enjoys skirting finance laws every now and then. Not to mention her fondness for providing political favors to top donors.

If Pelosi’s party is hellbent on “draining the swamp” of Congressional corruption, they better put on some lifejackets themselves.

Welcome to a new election with the same old results…

UPDATE:
The Pelosi swamp is getting murkier.

Others:
Jim has what Paul Harvey would call The Rest of the Story…

It’s getting harder and harder to distinguish between the propaganda of our terrorist enemies and the rantings of U.S. Democrats.

Here’s an example.

American presence in Iraq is more dangerous to world peace than nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran…

…the war cannot be won militarily…

…the more than 100,000 troops in Iraq should be pulled out immediately…

…the shooting of 24 Iraqis in November at Haditha, a city in the Anbar province of western Iraq that has been plagued by insurgents, was wrongfully covered up…

No, these weren’t from the latest Osama bin Laden videotape. These were from Rep. John Murtha at a town hall meeting organized at Florida International University’s Biscayne Bay Campus.

With Congressmen like this… who needs enemies?

Support Diana Irey today.

They both served in the military. They’re both named John. They’re both put forth by the Democrats as an unquestionable mouthpiece on the Iraq war. And they both advance completely contradictory positions for the sake of political advancement. No, this isn’t John Kerry vs. John Murtha. This is John Murtha vs. John Murtha.

This is from the Epilogue of Murtha’s 2004 book, From Vietnam to 9/11:

a war initiated on faulty intelligence must not be followed by a premature withdrawal of our troops based on a political timetable. An untimely exit could rapidly devolve into a civil war, which would leave America’s foreign policy in disarray as countries question not only America’s judgment but also its perseverance.

(Hat tip to Michelle for the story and video from ExposeTheLeft)

But here’s a press release from Murtha’s own Congressional website on November 15, 2005:

I believe before the Iraqi elections, scheduled for mid December, the Iraqi people and the emerging government must be put on notice that the United States will immediately redeploy.

And here’s the actual resolution he put before Congress:

Therefore be it

1) Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in
2) Congress assembled,
3) That:
4) Section 1. The deployment of United States forces in Iraq, by direction of Congress, is
5) hereby terminated and the forces involved are to be redeployed at the earliest practicable
6) date.
7) Section 2. A quick-reaction U.S. force and an over-the-horizon presence of U.S. Marines
8) shall be deployed in the region.
9) Section 3. The United States of America shall pursue security and stability in Iraq
10) through diplomacy.

And then his followup statement on December 23, 2005:

We have to give the Iraqis a timetable to take charge of their own destiny.

So, according to John Murtha, we should give the Iraqis a “premature political timetable for our withdrawal” that will help Iraq “rapidly devolve into a civil war, which would leave America’s foreign policy in disarray as countries question not only America’s judgment but also its perseverance.”

Of course, let’s not forget, this is the same John Murtha than advocated cutting and running from Somalia.

There’s a sound foreign policy from the Left.

Patriotism sickening.

Terrorists winning.

Terrorists are freedom fighters.

Troops are murderers.

9/11 was an inside job.

Illegals & felons should vote…for Democrats.

Traitors are heroes.

After the death of islamonutjob, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, troops found documents indicating the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq was losing confidence in their ability to be successful.

The situation and conditions of the resistance in Iraq have reached a point that requires a review of the events and of the work being done inside Iraq. Such a study is needed in order to show the best means to accomplish the required goals, especially that the forces of the National Guard have succeeded in forming an enormous shield protecting the American forces and have reduced substantially the losses that were solely suffered by the American forces. This is in addition to the role, played by the Shi’a (the leadership and masses) by supporting the occupation, working to defeat the resistance and by informing on its elements.

As an overall picture, time has been an element in affecting negatively the forces of the occupying countries, due to the losses they sustain economically in human lives, which are increasing with time. However, here in Iraq, time is now beginning to be of service to the American forces and harmful to the resistance for the following reasons:

1. By allowing the American forces to form the forces of the National Guard, to reinforce them and enable them to undertake military operations against the resistance.

2. By undertaking massive arrest operations, invading regions that have an impact on the resistance, and hence causing the resistance to lose many of its elements.

3. By undertaking a media campaign against the resistance resulting in weakening its influence inside the country and presenting its work as harmful to the population rather than being beneficial to the population.

4. By tightening the resistance’s financial outlets, restricting its moral options and by confiscating its ammunition and weapons.

5. By creating a big division among the ranks of the resistance and jeopardizing its attack operations, it has weakened its influence and internal support of its elements, thus resulting in a decline of the resistance’s assaults.

6. By allowing an increase in the number of countries and elements supporting the occupation or at least allowing to become neutral in their stand toward us in contrast to their previous stand or refusal of the occupation.

7. By taking advantage of the resistance’s mistakes and magnifying them in order to misinform.

But despite the terrorists documents of despair, John Murtha is there, right on cue, to boost the terrorists’ morale.

“We’re not making progress,” said Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), a Marine Corps veteran who has emerged as his party’s leading opponent of the war.

Murtha then joined 189 of his Democrat colleagues to vote against a resolution that would “declare that the United States will prevail in the Global War on Terror.”

(Isn’t it ironic that good news for America coincides with bad news for Democrats? Isn’t it also ironic that it’s almost impossible to distinguish between Democrats’ and terrorists’ view of who’s winning the war on terror? It’s not a coincidence.)

So, terrorists, have no fear, some in America want you to know that, despite your own lack of confidence, all is not lost.

Moveon.Org is calling for President Bush to send troops into Sudan:

On Sunday, tens of thousands of concerned Americans will gather at the Save Darfur rally in Washington DC to demand that Congress and President Bush call for a real United Nations peacekeeping force to protect civilians and stop the genocide — now.

George Clooney is complaining that the U.S. is waiting too long to send troops into Sudan:

“Is the American government slow to act? Of course we’re slow to act, we always are,” Clooney said…

And here is a picture from the “antiwar” protest this weekend in New York City:

So now they want to send troops into an oil-rich, predominantly Muslim country, with suspected ties to al-Qaida and WMDs, that’s experiencing genocide?

How very chicken-hawkish of them.

Update: NY Sun:

We’d be remiss, however, if we didn’t say that we also hope that the Darfur rally yesterday helps to illuminate the hypocrisy of some of those on the left. They want military action now to oppose a genocidal regime in Sudan and to protect its victims. Yet they opposed military action in Iraq to oust a regime, in that of Saddam Hussein, that had engaged in ethnic cleansing of Iraqi Kurds and Shiites and had rained scud missiles on Israeli cities.

This Darfur double standard was underscored by the list of announced speakers for yesterday’s “Save Darfur” rally. They included at least three members of Congress - Nancy Pelosi, Donald Payne, and Michael Capuano - who voted against the liberation of Iraq. Mr. Payne, a Democrat of New Jersey, has reportedly gone so far as to say of the Iraq war, “I have never seen such a misuse of our power.” Ms. Pelosi, a Californian who is the Democratic leader in the House, has endorsed Rep. John Murtha’s demand for an immediate American withdrawal from Iraq.

The scheduled speakers at yesterday’s Save Darfur rally also included the Reverend Al Sharpton and the Democrat who lost in 1997 to Mayor Giuliani, Ruth Messinger. Rev. Sharpton and Ms. Messinger have marched against the Iraq war in New York behind the banner of United for Peace and Justice, an anti-Israel front group whose steering committee includes a representative of the Communist Party USA.

Just to underscore the double standard, Rev. Sharpton reportedly marched against the Iraq war in New York on Saturday, then marched in Washington on Sunday for more intervention in Sudan. Even worse, the Saturday march was organized by United for Peace and Justice, which has moved well beyond opposing the Iraq war. It now opposes any American action against Iran. “United for Peace and Justice opposes any military action against Iran, as well as covert action and sanctions,” the organization’s Web site says. The site includes letters for activists to send to Congress, saying, “Iran does not present a threat to the United States” and calling for taking away Israel’s nuclear weapons.

____________________

Others:
Michelle reminds us to not question their “patriotism”.