"Pelosi's endorsement suggests to me she was interested in the culture
of corruption only as a campaign issue and has no real interest in
true reform," Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a Democratic-leaning group,
told the Post. "It is shocking to me that someone with (Murtha's)
ethics problems could be number two in the House
leadership." [UPI
article]
Washington
Post warns of Murtha’s corruption
 Nov. 14, 2006… Following our
editorial
yesterday, today’s
Washington Post sends up a red flare of warning regarding
Nancy Pelosi’s endorsement of Rep. John Murtha for Majority Leader:
[EXCERPTS:]
House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi's endorsement of Rep. John P.
Murtha's bid for House majority leader set off a furor yesterday on
Capitol Hill, with critics charging that she is undercutting her
pledge to clean up corruption by backing a veteran lawmaker who they
say has repeatedly skirted ethical boundaries
Pelosi (D-Calif.) directly intervened in the heated contest between
Murtha (D-Pa.) and House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) on
Sunday by circulating a letter to Democratic lawmakers. The letter
voiced her support for Murtha and put her prestige on the line in a
closely fought leadership battle. 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.
Murtha, a longtime senior Democrat on the House Appropriations
Committee, has battled accusations over the years that he has traded
federal spending for campaign contributions, that he has abused his
post as ranking party member on the Appropriations defense
subcommittee, and that he has stood in the way of ethics
investigations. Those charges come on top of Murtha's involvement 26
years ago in the FBI's Abscam bribery sting.
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