The Culture Of Corruption II: The Sequel

From CNN comes this article:

In routing the GOP in the November 7 elections, Democrats attacked what they called a Republican "culture of corruption."

Now a Washington watchdog group is questioning the party's sincerity, alleging Murtha steered Pentagon contracts to businesses that hired his brother as a lobbyist.

"How can Americans believe that the Democrats will return integrity to the House when future Speaker Pelosi has endorsed an ethically challenged member for a leadership position?" Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, asked in a written statement. "Rep. Murtha is the wrong choice for this job."

CREW's scathing opposition to Murtha becoming House Majority Leader is found here.

Rep. Murtha was listed in CREW’s report Beyond DeLay: The 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress (and five to watch). As reported in the study and by the news media, Rep. Murtha has been involved in a number of pay-to play schemes involving former staffers and his brother, Robert “Kit” Murtha.

Note that this is the same watchdog group that Dems used as a resource for their "culture of corruption" sales campaign and lists more Republicans as corrupt, than Dems. So, screaming that this is a "neo-con" organization will not get it.

I don't know about you. But as an independent, this doesn't seem to be the best move the Dems could make.

Overall, Murtha has been one of the more conservative Democrats over the years. He is pro-life and anti-gun control, just to name a few conservative principles he supports. That, alone, should be enough for an extremely liberal Speaker to disqualify him. But what got him this job, was his opposition to the Iraq War and the energy he devoted to the cause, which is one factor in the Dems re-gaining control of Congress.

Political parties usually reward their own, when they are instrumental in the engineering of a takeover, such as this. This is nothing new. But where this all breaks down for the Dems, is rewarding someone that was so heavily involved in the ABSCAM scandal. (Especially after Pelosi's committment to clean up the place up.)

Do they think we forgot about ABSCAM? Or do they just not care? Either way, it insults the integrity of all Americans that stand for true integrity, and want their elected officials to show it. So get ready. The brand new sequel is soon to be released.

To quote Pete Townsend: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.