"John Murtha Rewards Contributors -- Big Time!"

Rep. John Murtha (D) of PA, the winner of the “Benedict Arnold, Traitor of the Year Award (2007), led the House in earmarks last year, giving $162 million in “pork” to his congressional district.

Mr. Murtha earned the Benedict Arnold Award for “His false accusations naming several marines as murders, his false statements about the war in Iraq, and his treasonous acts of giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

The powerful chairman of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee secured earmarks for 26 beneficiaries. According to the newspaper Roll Call., each of them had contributed to his campaign. Collectively they contributed in excess of $413,000. That is nearly a 400 times return on investment, not bad if you can get it!

The New York Times stated that this is “a gross example of quid pro quo”.
In 1991, Murtha used a $5 million earmark to create the National Defense Center for Environmental Excellence, the largest city in his district. The company was allegedly created to develop anti-pollution technology for the U. S. military.

The National Defense Center for Environmental Excellence has received more than $670 million in contracts and earmarks. But the Washington Post reported that little of the centers output has been used by the Defense Department.

The Center is managed by Concurrent Technologies, a research firm that was also created by Murtha as a tax-exempt charity. The Washington Post says that, Concurrent has annual revenue of nearly $250 million, and that the top three executives earn an average $462,000 a year.

“Murtha’s ‘universe’ is a costly creation of interlocking contractors who continue to feed at the public trough despite reviews questioning their performance.” –New York Times

Wasn't it the House Madam, Nancy Pelosi that stood before the nation and told us that "Earmarks are a thing of the past"?