The Final Lowdown On John Murtha's Corruption

Friday's Wall Street Journal featured a shocking article by John Fund.

Apparently based on information Fund obtained from recently deceased, long-time Texas Democratic Representative Charlie Wilson, it revealed also recently deceased Pennsylvania Democratic Representative John Murtha's explicit guilt of corrupt practices as far back as the Abscam sting of the 1970s.

Wilson is now famous for the book and movie portraying his political leadership, with Ronald Reagan, in the war against the Soviets, through our proxies in Afghanistan.

What Fund's piece details is that Tip O'Neill, then Speaker of the House, ended the special prosecutor appointed by the House Ethics Committee, E. Barrett Prettyman, Jr.'s investigation, when it was clear that Prettyman had Murtha in his sites.

To do this, O'Neill named Wilson to the Ethics Committee in order to protect Murtha. Fund refers to CBS producer George Crile's 2003 book about Wilson, Charlie Wilson's War, from which the movie was made. According to Fund, Crile wrote,

"Before Prettyman could fully deploy his investigators to move on the Murtha case, he was informed that the committee had concluded there was no justification for an investigation."

Fund notes that Prettyman resigned his post "the same afternoon the committee voted to clear Mr. Murtha."

He then writes,

"When I called Wilson in 2006 to ask if the Crile account was accurate, he reluctantly confirmed that it was. He also noted, "I hope nothing will hurt" Murtha's bid to become majority leader."

Sickening, isn't it?

I mean, Charlie Wilson did a good thing regarding the Afghanistan war. But look at what he, O'Neill and Murtha did on the ethics front.

They were all scum. They violated their oaths of office, conspired to cover up corruption and extend the career of a corrupt Representative.

Regardless of the party, this is just wrong. Look how the Democrats immediately closed ranks and, from the Ethics Committee, of all places, shut down an investigation, by their own appointed special prosecutor, which they knew would indeed find corruption.

No wonder why Tea Party movement members and supporters distrust Washington politicians. This week's revelations reinforce why we can't trust either party's long-serving, entrenched legislators to abide by their oaths, call out their colleagues for misconduct, or remember whom they serve.