Owners look like their pets. Murtha looks like pork.
The way we distribute our defense contracts needs serious overhaul, something a Washington Post article highlighted yesterday. I’ve written about this before and this particular instance focuses on John Murtha D-Pa and how he directed millions of dollars to companies for the development of military technology. The problems arose when:
“A handful of defense firms were paid for work that was never done or not called for in the contracts. Some of the companies involved, based in Wyoming, Florida and Murtha’s district in Pennsylvania, had hidden owners, prosecutors allege; one was secretly owned by the Air Force official who helped approve the payments.”
And guess what else? Some of the companies had hired John Murtha’s brother to do their lobbying. It’s a cozy family.
The Post notes that there is nothing to suggest Murtha knew anything illegal or improper was going on, but in Murtha’s case this standard caveat is irrelevant for two reasons. The first, is that an executive of one of the companies that received Murtha’s earmarks has decided to play narc and detail the crimes he [the exec.] committed. Ed Morrissey at HotAir.com looks at the mounting evidence and sees the writing on the wall, predicting Murtha may retire before more of his former confidants decide to roll over. Murtha is no stranger to corruption controversies either. The PMA Group, a lobbying firm with heavy connections to Murtha, was raided by the FBI in February of 2009 and Murtha been connected to corruption scandals dating back to the 1980s.
The second, is that no Congressman has an excuse to be surprised by the cesspool of waste in defense contract appropriations given what we know about how the system works. Murtha allegedly sponsors these projects to bring jobs to his district, but with no accountability, it’s akin to throwing money away. The Post quotes Steve Ellis at Taxpayers for Common Sense, “These earmarks, because there is very little accountability, provide a petri dish for corruption.”
If Murtha’s defense is that he didn’t know what was going on, then he’s the only person on Capitol Hill, and probably most of the country, who didn’t have a clue. When the options are to either admit corruption, or profess ignorance and incompetence, it’s probably time to take a break.
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