Murtha has no business being a Dem leader if he can't grasp the import of Pelosi's legislation

[KittyWampus]

or the necessity of passing her proposed legislation.

For Murtha to try and spin his way out of saying that Congress shouldn't need new ethics rules put in place to control behavior of both Congress and lobbyists shows he's out of touch.

Especially since American's top issue in the last election, the issue Democrats won on, is corruption.

Pelosi's legislation will influence American's perception of both Congress and Democrats favorably.

Murtha has no business vying for leadership if he doesn't see this.

On what planet does he reside if he thinks Congresscritters and lobbyists will all police themselves?

[skipos]

1. Slightly OT, but I would like Murtha supporters to explain why they aren't bothered by this:

Amoroso: Let me ask you now that we're together. I was under the impression, OK, and I told Howard what we were willing to pay, and I went out, I got the $50,000. OK? So what you're telling me, OK, you're telling me that that's not what you know....

Murtha: I'm not interested.

Amoroso: OK.

Murtha: At this point, you know, we do business together for a while. Maybe I'll be interested and maybe I won't.... Right now, I'm not interested in those other things. Now, I won't say that some day, you know, I, if you made an offer, it may be I would change my mind some day.

[Sammy Pepys]

4. Let's be realistic...

..if Murtha was a Republican, we'd be all over this. But he's not, and is anti-war, so we let it slide. To be fair, if this were Murtha's only run-in with ethical difficulties, it could be forgiven. But it's not.

[longship]

2. He explained his comment on Wiffleball w/ Tweety yesterday.

He was not saying that the ethics rules were crap. He was saying that the ethics failures--the crap--were distracting the House from their legislative purpose.

[KittyWampus]

3. And a big part of the their legislative purpose is addressing the CORRUPTION

and then there is managing the public's perception of both Congress and Democrats.

[rinsd]

8. He actually gave two explanations which he had obviously worked on

The first was what you cite.

The 2nd was not bad political theater as he stated this is crap compared to getting out of Iraq.

He lost. Its over. Time to unite behind the leadership so we can ram thru some progressive legislation, probably starting with raising minimum wage.

[LaurenG]

5. I heard him say we need it but it's crap that we have to have it

he was saying it's "Crap" that we have to have it not that it isn't needed. This seems like another Kerry type gaffe to me.

[KittyWampus]

6. My point, is it "crap" that corporations and adolescents need rules, regulations & punishments?

[grizmaster]

7. His point was it's crap that free lunches are the priority

rather than getting our boys out of the clusterfvck in Iraq. And he's right.


Also he has made clear he DOES support that legislation. His complaint is only about the order of priorities.

Do you think our troops safety and an exit strategy are more important than the price of the free lunch a congressman can accept, or the other way around?