Murtha's Second Act

By Robert Novak
Townhall.com

WASHINGTON, D.C. - On NBC's "Meet the Press" last Sunday,
Rep. John Murtha repeated his call for "redeploying" U.S.
troops from Iraq with something new -- and disturbing to
fellow Democrats. Asked by moderator Tim Russert about
sites for redeployment, Murtha replied: "We can go to
Okinawa. ... We can redeploy there almost instantly."

When Russert expressed doubt about "a timely response" from
Okinawa to meet a Middle East crisis, the 16-term congress-
man from western Pennsylvania and new national security
spokesman for his party stumbled: "Well, it -- you know,
they -- when I say Okinawa, I, I'm saying troops in Okinawa.
When I say a timely response, you know, our fighters can
fly from Okinawa very quickly. And -- and -- when they
don't know we're coming."

In fact, a Pentagon spokesman says it would take "under a
month" to prepare and send a 4,500-man Marine Expeditionary
Force 6,000 nautical miles from Okinawa to Bahrain and then
600 more miles to Baghdad.

Murtha's Okinawa answer embarrassed Democratic House
members who would not dream of criticizing publicly the
former backroom pol who became an icon to the party's
antiwar base last November by calling for an immediate
troop withdrawal. His performance on "Meet the Press"
reinforced dismay inside the party that Murtha, at age
74, has announced his candidacy for majority leader if
the Democrats regain control of the House in the 2006
elections.

Jack Murtha proves there are second acts in American
politics. I had forgotten that federal prosecutors
designated him an unindicted co-conspirator in the Abscam
investigation 26 years ago. I was reminded of it after
Murtha became a candidate for majority leader, not by a
Republican hit man but a Democratic former colleague in
the House. In a long political career, Murtha has made
bitter enemies inside his party who are alarmed by his
new stature.

Murtha got into politics in 1968 as a 36-year-old highly
decorated Marine and in 1974 became the first Vietnam
War veteran elected to Congress. By 1980, Murtha was a
lieutenant of Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O'Neill and was
moving to the top in the House when the FBI named him as
one of eight members of Congress videotaped being offered
bribes by a phony Arab sheik.

The other seven congressional targets took cash and were
convicted in federal court. The videotape showed Murtha
declining to take cash but expressing interest in further
negotiations, while bragging about his political influence.
Murtha testified against the popular Rep. Frank Thompson
in the Abscam case, which created lifelong enemies in the
Democratic cloakroom. The House Ethics Committee exonerated
Murtha of misconduct charges by a largely party-line vote,
after which the committee's special counsel resigned in
protest.

That salvaged Murtha's political career but limited his
public exposure. The current Almanac of American Politics
says: "He speaks for attribution to few national or local
reporters, hardly ever appears on television and rarely
speaks in the House chamber." That reticence has disappeared
the last seven months, as he became one of the party's most
visible faces.

Murtha now wears his heroic combat record like a suit of
armor. In recent House debate over the Iraq war resolution,
Murtha dominated the Democratic side -- compensating for a
lack of articulation with vehemence. Rep. Louie Gohmert, a
freshman Republican from Texas, had the temerity to suggest
that had Murtha "prevailed after the bloodbaths in Normandy
and in the Pacific ... we would be here speaking Japanese
or German." Murtha pounced on Gohmert, asking whether he
had been in Normandy, Vietnam or Iraq as a combat solider.
The Republican had not, and he meekly thanked Murtha for
"all that he has done with the wounded."

Murtha disqualifies adversaries who have not tasted combat,
which includes the vast majority in the Congress. He
repeats the comparison between civilian officials in "air-
conditioned chambers" and soldiers carrying "70 pounds
every day facing IEDs." On "Meet the Press," Murtha referred
to presidential adviser Karl Rove "sitting in his air
conditioned office with his big, fat backside, saying,
'Stay the course!'"

The transfer of Murtha's tough-guy rhetoric from the back
row of the hall of the House of Representatives to national
television may not be what Democrats want communicating
their side of the Iraq debate. It is why Murtha's candidacy
for majority leader is cause for concern among serious
Democrats.