BREAKING: Congressman Jack Murtha dead at 77

Conflicted emotions at best.
May the Good Marine in him find rest.
As for the rest of him,,,

I wonder if Jack Murtha had alzheimers. I am having a hard time reconciling his early life and career with the Jack Murtha of the 21st century. He had a definite personality shift. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family. I choose to remember the Murtha who served as a DI on Paris Island and who fought for increases in military budgets as opposed to the Murtha who built an unused airport and falsely accused Marines of criminal activity.

He died from complications from gall bladder surgery? I thought gall bladder surgery was simple and straightforward. I understand the gall bladder is removed laparoscopically. It should have just been 3 small incisions.

Sympathy to all of his campaign contributors, now forced to seek taxpayer pork from some OTHER unscrupulous, thug politician. It has been reported that his personal Pa. airport might cancel its entire flight schedule–that being 3 daily to DC–as jet fuel will no longer be provided free of charge.

Willy…Such as his eventual opposition to the war in Iraq”

Look, stop right there… Once in a war, we’re all in a war. The democrats believe in political wars. They vote for war and then change they’re minds. They actively talk against the troops and leak information that undermines the troops effort… if it works to the dems political aims.

What Murtha did to prejudge and tarnish the Haditha Marines speaks volumes above and beyond his service as a marine. This man had no character. The democrats have no character. If it’s their war, good to go. If the republicans are in charge…. they’ll do anything they can to undermine and delegitimize the effort. They see a line in the sand. All good patriots should see none.

War and military operations should not be entered into lightly and when done so, they should be supported until our troops have prevailed and are out of harms way. Then if a pol wants to whine, well, have at it.

Snipe at Cheney all you want.. apples and oranges. Murtha was a dirty pol and was traitorous during wartime. The sedition act . Never . should. have. been. shelved. period. Of course, we’re in enlightened times.. when all of that kind of stuff is so… 1800’s. Well,… it matters to a lot of us.

Those who say we should forget, at least for a day, the John Murtha that was so despicable; ABSCAM, Haditha Marines.

I would take this time to remind you of another American warrior who also fought bravely and honorably for this glorious nation, until he sold out’ Benedict Arnold.

To his family I say “My sympathies go out to you”; to him I say RIP (roast in perpetuity)

The first thing that came to my mind when I heard the news was: did Murtha ever recant saying our Marines in Haditha were murderers?

I wouldn’t want to meet my maker with that calumny on my conscience.

His death will require a special election which may very well turn out to be yet another referendum on Obama. It’s certainly another opportunity to return this seat to the GOP.

The special election will likely take place on the same day as the Pennsylvania primary. I wonder if Lt. Col. Bill Russell, who ran against Murtha in 2008 will get back in the race? http://russellbrigade.com/

Democrats are demanding we shut up and let them use Murtha’s death for their political benefit:

“This is not the time for political opportunism,” said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee communications director Jennifer Crider. “Out of respect for Congressman Murtha’s family and his decades of service to our country, Republicans should put their partisanship aside and allow Mr. Murtha’s family, friends, and constituents time to celebrate his life and mourn his passing.”

No doubt they’d love it if we just rolled over and let them annoint Murtha’s replacement “out of respect.” SCREW THAT!

Here’s the Saturday Night Live skit about Murtha and Bumbling Joe Biden:

Another thought: Will Obama go to the funeral and delivery the eulogy? If so, watch to see if he says “Marine Corpse” when talking about Murtha’s military service.

“His “fighting for funding to protect the American Soldier,” was little more than a political ruse.”

Tell that to American soldiers who finally got some decent body armor and hardened HumVees as a result.

“Hell is filling up fast with the likes of Teddy Kennedy and now Murtha.”

The quickest road to hell is hate. Mixing hate with politics is a good way to grease the rails.

I hope Obama pays a grand tribute to this great Marine Corpse.

Willy said; “Tell that to American soldiers who finally got some decent body armor and hardened HumVees as a result.”

Tell that to the vast majority of United States soldiers who felt they always had good support from home when it came to their combat gear. “Finally got some good armor?” OE Tech, Tango Down, and Voodoo Tactical have all been making great armor and plate carriers for more than a decade, hardly because of Jack Murtha. And the efficiency of their MARPAT and ACU vest lines have only increased in combat performance and versatility when the MOLLE gear webbing was developed and added to their products for police and military personnel.

As for Iraq being a counter weight to Iran, this argument wouldn’t be the straw man that it is, hadn’t it been for the fact that a majority of Iranians are making a stand against their president. In March of 2007, it became clear that most Iranians were opposed to Ahmedinejads ideology when his party lost their majority in the national and most local governments. Slightly less than two thirds of the provinces of Iran are now under the control of the opposing party, and this includes the hometown of Ahmedinejad.

To add to this, Iran is surrounded by our military in the countries to the north, east, west, and south (who by the way, all oppose Ahmedinejad) with the rest of the world pressuring them to comply with international laws. Tell me, whether they make a bomb or not, how do they send it out of their country knowing that it would result in the bomb being intercepted or shot out of the sky, and possibly a NATO invasion? Your point on Iraq being Irans counterweight would only stand a small chance at being a valid argument against the removal of Saddam Hussein had Irans current president been that serious of a problem. But since he is not, your argument is what it is; unreliable donkey fodder!

my sympathy to the family. i hope we have a good repub to run for this position now. we need all the good folks we can get in there to turn the tide back again.

You might want to have a look at the article below before you jump to any conclusions, Ryan.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/07/politics/07armor.html

Many were aware of this situation long before the story finally broke in the national news. As a matter of fact a collection had been taken up here by the police department to buy body armor for some local guys who were serving in Iraq. We were also hearing that they were jerry-rigging their transport vehicles with salvaged steel plates they were welding on. We had a letter-writing campaign going to try to get such problems corrected.

Sorry if I shifted the topic. It was only in response to some of the previous comments that I thought were unfair to a guy who just died. I had a few of my own issues with Jack Murtha. What he tried to do for the troops wasn’t one of them.

For his service, I salute Murtha…

For his blatant treason…. rot in hell.

Enough said.

@Willy:

The body armor issue was always B.S. The last thing anyone in the desert wants is another 75 pounds of equipment, which will add to the heat and de-hydration. While screaming for new equipment to be added to the BEL, Murtha and his fellow Libtards voted to completely defund the war effort. So, to sumarize, Murtha and his merry band of cohorts stated they wanted to send kevlar vests while stopping the shipment of food, amunition, gasoline, medical supplies, etc. Body Armor for the combat troops is still in an experimental state, and only people who have no idea what they are talking about were ever asking for it in the first place. The entire issue was created to make the Bush Administration look bad.

During every election cycle, there are liberals who claim to speak for the troops, while members of the military are more than capable of speaking for themselves. The military overwhelmingly votes the Republican ticket, usually 80/20. My bet in 2012, 95% against your guy Nobama. I will say this, it is entertainment gold to watch the attempts to villify the troops, while claiming to care. May Congressman Murtha take the memory of the Haditha Marines into eternity with him.

I too have mixed feelings and certainly don’t have all of the facts to make firm judgments.
What I do know is that Murtha certainly started out as a good guy. The Haditha situation was as great of an enigma to me as his last re-election, until I spent some recent time in Western PA. I doubt I’ll ever figure out where he was coming from on Haditha (short of an Alzheimer’s post mortem diagnosis), but having spent considerable time this year in the Western part of PA, I totally “get” why he is so easily reelected; JOBS! I detest “pork”, but if it’s legal and legit and keeps the district working, is it really pork?

John Murtha brought major defense companies into Johnstown, two of them Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, as well as a cancer center. I certainly don’t know all of the details, but I do know that NG and LM are excellent companies, and keep a lot of folks in the district off of the welfare handouts.

I also took a drive to the airport. It’s totally over the top for the amount of use it gets, however I know the National Guard and maybe some other military use it. IF we have a major terrorist attack on the US, it would be my assumption that the Johnstown Murtha Airport would play a major role, and finally be worth its salt. From what I understand, it’s highly sophisticated, equipment-wise, and would be an ideal spot for active national security defense should we ever need it.

Sure there are a lot of things I could think of that Murtha probably could have done better, but let us not forget that he did a lot of things right. I recently visited Vietnam (as a tourist). The heat was so stifling that I couldn’t handle China Beach in a bathing suit. All I could think about was our Vietnam Vets, and how much they endured for their love of country. Murtha volunteered to go to Vietnam. Regardless of what any of us think about the Vietnam war, it took real men to fight it.

Today I would just like to honor him as a veteran, a husband, and a father, and let God sort out the “justice” part of his political life.
R.I.P. John Murtha

I read over at the Washington Times that he wouldn’t release his military records. The poster doubted any heroic accomplishment. Wow! Just like Odumbo, whose Ivy League records would show that he applied as a foreign student and a dumb^$$.

I like the terseness of what one poster said at the Washington Times:

Yes!!!!!

Mr. Murtha crossed the line for me when he tried to “whack -n- slam” the Heditha Marines calling them killers and criminals. Even after their acquittals, he wouldn’t back down or apologise.

Yes Willy, exactly how many times was it that Murtha voted to defund the Iraq effort?

And how exactly is it that since Iraq is a free democrat state they no longer provide a counterbalance to Iran? Are you blind? How can you be so ignorant of the rioting for democracy in Iran for the last two + years?