House Republicans Target Murtha

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Baltimore Sun
May 19, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Republicans will seek a House vote next week admonishing a senior Democrat who they say threatened a GOP member's spending projects in a noisy exchange in the House chamber, Minority Leader John A. Boehner said yesterday. Their target is Rep. John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, a 35-year House veteran who chairs the appropriations subcommittee on military spending. Murtha, 74, is known for his gruff manner and fondness for earmarks - carefully targeted spending items placed in appropriations bills to benefit a specific lawmaker or favorite constituent group. During a series of House votes Thursday, Murtha walked to the chamber's Republican side to confront Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan, a 43-year-old former FBI agent. This month, Rogers had tried to strike a Murtha earmark from an intelligence spending bill. According to Rogers' account, which Murtha did not dispute, the Democrat angrily told Rogers he should never seek earmarks of his own because "you're not going to get any, now or forever."
 
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