Yeah, Right

We pledge to make this the most honest, ethical, and open Congress in history.

By Nancy Pelosi

…….The American people called for greater civility in how Congress conducts its work, and Democrats pledge to conduct our work with civility and bipartisanship, and to act in partnership - not partisanship - with the president and Republicans in Congress.

Nancy Pelosi in a letter published by the Christian Science Monitor on November 14, 2006. AP report on May 18, 2007: GOP target Murtha over spending exchange

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 Boehner said Friday. Their target is Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., 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, R-Mich., a 43-year-old former FBI agent. Earlier this month, Rogers had tried unsuccessfully to strike a Murtha earmark from an intelligence spending bill. The item would restore $23 million for the National Drug Intelligence Center, a facility in Murtha's Pennsylvania district that some Republicans say is unneeded.

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."

"This was clearly designed to try to intimidate me," Rogers said in an interview Friday. "He said it loud enough for other people to hear."

The unindicted ABSCAM co-conspirator (video of Murtha caught in the sting here) is Nancy Pelosi's right hand crook man, of course. So much so that she tried to elevate him to the number two position in the House. (Which, while strangely fitting when describing Murtha, didn't work out for either of them.) Well, it was certainly an open threat, so that part of Pelosi's pledge is correct. It's the honest and ethical that are more than a bit challenged. The civility and bi-partisanship - right out. Why am I not surprised?