Murtha Method

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For months, a cloud has swirled around Congressman John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, and the relationship that Murtha and other subcommittee members had with the PMA Group, a lobbying firm filled with former subcommittee aides.

Murtha and fellow panel members Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) and Jim Moran (D-Va.) steered a host of earmarks to PMA clients, and those clients and PMA staffers gave campaign contributions to the lawmakers. Aspects of those relationships are the subject of a Justice Department probe, which is thought to be looking at whether there were explicit quid pro quo exchanges of favors for cash, which would make crimes out of relationships that are otherwise legal. The House ethics committee is also looking at the situation, and the PMA Group closed following an FBI raid late last year.

Now, a computer analysis by the Center for Public Integrity has revealed that fully three-quarters of the subcommittee members have been involved in similar patterns of behavior — in circles of relationships fraught with potential conflicts of interest, involving former congressional staffers-turned lobbyists, earmarks, and campaign cash. In these circles, former staffers became lobbyists for defense contractors; the contractors received earmarks from the representatives; and the representatives received campaign contributions from the lobbyists or the contractors.

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Murtha Method

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The House ethics committee ended its investigation of the last two defense appropriators remaining in its crosshairs, according to a report released today. It found no causal link between campaign contributions and earmarking activities of any of the seven members reviewed over the last year. The two members cleared today were Republican Todd Tiarht of Kansas and Indiana Democrat Pete Visclosky.

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Murtha Method

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A review of the 2010 defense appropriations process reveals that most members of a key House of Representatives panel continue to engage in controversial relationships involving ex-staffers-turned-lobbyists, contractors, campaign cash, and earmarks — the sorts of relationships that have led to investigations swirling around several panel members, including its chairman, Pennsylvania Democrat John P. Murtha.

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Murtha Method

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Rep. Roy Blunt’s Congressional Web site notes that “while Washington politicians claim they can spend your money better than you can, the federal government continues to fritter away billions of your dollars each year in the form of waste, abuse, mismanagement, and in some cases: outright fraud.” Sounds good. And yet in 2007, Blunt, a Missouri Republican, was the lone member of the Congressional leadership to participate in a controversial method of providing earmarks to those represented by former-staffers-turned lobbyists.

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Murtha Method

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Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is “trying to break that tight bond between” the “iron triangle of Congress and industry and the bureaucracy in” the Pentagon — which the Center highlighted in its story “The Murtha Method” — according to a Defense Department press secretary. The spokesman was reacting to a question about the Center’s investigation at yesterday’s press briefing.

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