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Representative John Murtha Passes Away At The Age of 77

02/08/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Word has come down the wire that Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania has died. Murtha, who was 77, was strongly opposed to the Federal Marriage Amendment. What his views on broader LGBT rights is hard to gauge, but it is known that he was a pro-life Democrat. Murtha was the first Vietnam Veteran to be elected to Congress. He was first elected in 1973.

Murtha was a former Marine who first joined the service in 1952. In 1955, he was discharged and joined the Marine Reserves. in 1966, he volunteered for active duty in Vietnam and served there for a year. He would finally retire from the Marine Reserves in 1990 with the rank of Colonel. During his service in Vietnam, he received a Bronze Star with Valor, and a Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry as well as two Purple Hearts.

His time in Congress has always been a tad rocky. He was known for being more than willing to hand his vote to the Republican Party to get funding for his projects at home. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington listed him consistently as one of the most corrupt Congress members every year. In 1980, he was involved in a scandal which had the FBI investigating whether or not certain politicians were taking bribes from Saudi Arabia. He was latter cleared.

Murtha was nominated to be the House Majority Leader by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. He was not elected to that post. Instead, it went to Representative Steny Hoyer.

He was one of the strongest and most vocal opponents to the Iraq War. While his stance resonated with many from within the Democratic Party, he faced severe criticism from many Republicans. Representative Jean Schmidt even attacked Murtha on the House floor by questioning his courage. Murtha caused even more outrage with his comments regarding the Haditha incident in which he stated “It’s much worse than reported in Time magazine. There was no fire fight. There was no IED that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood. And that’s what the report is going to tell.” The charges against the soldiers were eventually dropped.

Murtha is survived by his wife, three children and three grandchildren. They were at his beside when he quietly passed away. He had been in the hospital for a short while before passing away. No exact cause of death has been released.

Update: Representative Murtha died from complications from gall bladder surgery.

Update 2/9:
Both Politico and the Pittsburg Post-Gazette have reported that Representative Murtha died from an infection caused by doctors inadvertently cutting his intestine while removing his gal bladder.