Roll Call (subscription) has the latest on the investigation in to Rep. John Murtha's sahdy dealings. It appears that Black Jack has been funnelling money to clients of his brother's lobbying firm. Some of these companies may no longer exist and there is evidence that some of them never did.
Murtha has almost — but not quite — single-handedly created a new economy in his district, with start-up companies getting Murtha earmarks, getting contracts from other companies that have gotten Murtha earmarks or getting trained on how to get government money by other institutions that have gotten Murtha earmarks.Just remember, folks, this is the most open and most honest Congress in history...and Black Jack was Speaker of State Nancy Pelosi's choice for Majority Leader...
A good guide to the patterns of Murtha’s largesse is the client list of KSA Consulting, a lobbying firm that employs a former Murtha staffer and used to employ Murtha’s brother, Kit Murtha.
News stories have highlighted KSA’s success in getting earmarks for its clients, but there is more to the story than that. KSA’s client list consists largely of small businesses that are either based in Johnstown , Pa. , or have opened offices in Johnstown , plus a significant smattering of companies that no longer exist and may never have existed at all.
The pattern that appears dominant is that the companies’ federal contract dollars expand shortly after they open an office in the 12th Congressional district — though it is not entirely clear how much of their work is actually conducted in the district.
Kit Murtha, who says he retired from KSA a year ago, told Roll Call that he doesn’t believe there is any connection between the earmarks and the companies’ move to the Johnstown area. “You can’t really answer that ... which comes first, the chicken or the egg?” he said. KSA represents “people that are in Johnstown , and some came to Johnstown , and which came first, and why, you can’t say.”
But KSA’s client list indicates a pattern. Applied Ordnance Technologies was a Maryland-based firm that signed up with KSA in 2001, opened a Johnstown office in 2004 and saw the value of its government contracts jump from $12 million in 2003 to $21 million in 2004 and $24 million in 2005.
No wonder Congress has a lower approval rating than the President...
UPDATE: From the vault... See if the above doesn't have a familiar ring to it...
Transcript:
“I'll tell you exactly what I'd like. I'd like to be able to tell you that there's some places I'd like you to invest some money, in banks, on my district, uh and I'd say some, you know, some substantial deposits…”Emphasis added...
”I think that in order to introduce legislation, you have to have a real tie to the district.”
“I’ll give you maybe a list of businesses that I think would be the appropriate businesses that would be very helpful to me if you could see your way clear any one of those... you know, that you might -- this then would make a tie, which we'd have to make a little bit of a fuss about, maybe the guy doesn't wanna do this, but you have to remember this, you have to look down the road -- public relations.”
...the most open and ethical Congress in history, folks, don't forget it!
UPDATE 2: Total Federal Contracts in Murtha’s District from FY2004 to FY2006: $564,816,799
That's over a half a BILLION dollars worth...
