Congressman John Murtha (D-PA) died  Monday at the age of 77:

The Pennsylvania Democrat had been suffering complications from gallbladder surgery. He died at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., spokesman Matthew Mazonkey said.

In 1974 Murtha, then an officer in the Marine Reserves, became the first Vietnam War combat veteran elected to Congress. One of Congress’ most hawkish Democrats, he wielded considerable clout for two decades as the ranking Democrat on the House subcommittee that oversees Pentagon spending.

Murtha voted in 2002 to authorize President George W. Bush to use military force in Iraq, but Murtha’s growing frustration over the administration’s handling of the war prompted him in November 2005 to call for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Murtha had been the center of controversy in recent years. In 2006 he accused U.S.Marines of murdering Iraqi civilians “in cold blood” at Haditha, Iraq, after one Marine died and two were wounded by an IED. Charges were eventually dropped against seven of the eight Marines involved.

In 1980 Rep. Murtha became involved in the Abscam investigation, in which undercover FBI agents posed as brokers for Saudi nationals attempting to bribe their way through the immigration process into the U.S. Murtha was caught on video tape refusing an offer of $50,000, but saying that he might be interested in accepting the offer at a later date. He agreed to testify against two Congressmen, and he was not charged with a crime.

Murtha has been named by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a left-leaning watchdog group, as one of the 20 most corrupt members of Congress. In 2008, he was named by Esquire Magazine as one of the 10 worst members of Congress for his historical opposition to ethics reform and his practice of garnering $100 million a year in earmarks for his Congressional district. The Wall Street Journal has called him “one of Congress’s most unapologetic earmarkers.”

The Congressman caused another dust up in January, 2009, when he said that he would be willing to house prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in his congressional district when President Obama closes Gitmo prison. Murtha’s district only has a minimum security prison, and he was accused of making the offer to try to get a new maximum security facility built in the district.

He joined the Marine Corps in 1952 during the Korean War, and served until 1955. Murtha returned to Johnstown, PA to run the family business and finish his undergraduate degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1962, and he signed up for the Marine Corps Reserve. During the Vietnam war, he volunteered for combat and served near Da Nang in 1966 and 1967.

Murtha had been a member of the U.S. House of of Representatives since 1974. In 2006, with the support of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, he made a bid to be elected House Majority Leader, but lost to Steny Hoyer of Maryland. Murtha had chaired the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee from 1989 to 1995, and he served as the panel’s ranking Democrat from 1995 to 2007. In 2006 he became chairman of that subcommittee for the second time.

Update: A special election will be held to determine a successor to fill out the remainder of Murtha’s term:

According to state law, the governor has ten days once the vacancy is officially declared to decide on the date for the special election, which can come no sooner than 60 days following that proclamation.

That likely means the special election will be held on May 18, which is the date already set for federal primaries around the state. (Special elections costs the state huge sums of money and it’s likely that Gov. Ed Rendell will choose to go with an already established election day to save some cash.)

Murtha’s passing comes at a tenuous time for House Democrats as they seek to convince some of their older members to re-up for another term in the face of what looks to be a difficult national political environment for the party.

- JP

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