House Defeats Bid to Reprimand Murtha

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Democrats rejected a Republican bid Tuesday to reprimand Rep. John Murtha, a senior lawmaker accused of threatening legislative reprisals against a GOP member who had crossed him.

Before and after the largely party-line vote, which caused some Democrats discomfort, Republicans taunted Democratic leaders about their campaign promises to run a more ethical and open Congress.

The House voted 219-189 to kill the Republicans' motion to reprimand Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, Iraq war foe and close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Two Democrats - Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Jim Cooper of Tennessee - voted against killing the motion. One Republican - Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania - voted for the motion to table, or kill, the proposed reprimand.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6653302,00.html

[TwilightGardener]

1. Good. Screw the Republicans. I'm in no mood to be noble right now.

Edit-language cleanup

[rodeodance]

8. me either. I am sick of their whinning like babies!

[AX10]

2. Good! The GOP needs to be called on the shit that they make.

They make up shit about anyone who dares to question them.

[leftwingnut]

3. Don't the Repugs have other things to do...

...like help clean up the fucking mess they've made the last 6 years!!!!

Quit whining about Murtha...!

"Get over it!"-Most Repugs circa 2001.

[Redstone]

4. Reprimand Murtha? Reprimand MURTHA? Fuck you. I got your reprimand, right here.

The man is a genuine American Hero.

Anyone who wants to reprimand him has got to go through me first.

Redstone

[Bake]

5. Pukes are a bunch of whiny crybabies!

"That scary Mr. Murtha was MEAN TO ME!"

Boo-freakin'-hoo.

Bake

[MethuenProgressive]

6. Fuck Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Jim Cooper of Tennessee

And good for Tim Murphy (R) Pennsylvania.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

9. Sorry, I love Earl

Blumenauer said in a statement that he voted against killing the motion because the issue "deserved debate or a referral to the Ethics Committee."

"If former Republican House leader Tom DeLay of Texas "had been accused of threatening a Democrat on the House floor, I would expect the same," Blumenauer said.



so there

[happyslug]

16. Don't give Tim Murphy to much credit, it may be the GOP playing with the Rules

I know that the Senate has a rule that the only people who can Vote to bring something back is someone who had voted FOR the action to be tabled. I suspect the house has a similar rule. Thus Tim Murphy may have been selected by the GOp to be its member who voted to TABLE this action, so that he can ask to bring it back later on. Anytime you see ONE member of the minority party voting for something the Majority party is for, the reason is this rule. Generally the Minority party picks one of its own leaders to do the vote (For example I remember Bob Dole, when he was Majority Leader of the Senate voting for a Democratic motion that the GOP opposed. Enough members of the GOP voted for the motion for the motion to pass the Senate, then as time ran out for voting Bob Dole switch his vote to be with the Democrats so he could ask for the motion to be reconsidered at a later date.

My point is Tim Murphy did this vote as a Favor for the GOP leadership NOT for John Murtha.

[Renew Deal]

7. The Republicans let child molesters run wild in their caucus for 6 years

but they get worked up over a petty political disagreement. Oh the irony.

[Tarheel_Dem]

10. Bleachers....you nailed it!

:toast:

[Psephos]

11. In baseball this is called an unforced error

Murtha broke the rule. It's not a big deal, but the right response would have been for him to apologize and then this silly vote would never have come up.

I can't abide us giving a pass to our own and still expecting to maintain credibility next time the offender is a repug.

Note to posters in this thread: Congress has almost exactly the same approval rating as Bush. Think about it.

[Big Pappa]

12. My problem with this is

How much does this bullshit cost the taxpayers. I mean hell you got over 400 rep. making $70 an hour. debating this bullshit?

[Psephos]

13. I hear you, but my point is the whole thing could have been avoided

The Great Decider can't ever admit when he's wrong. I like to think we're different.

Murtha could have disposed of this in one minute flat, and this asinine resolution would never have been floated. The public doesn't care that Murtha blew his stack and technically violated an ethics rule; they do care that he couldn't man up to it afterwards. This business about him holding court on the House floor and laughing during the proceedings seems more like a scene out of the Gladiator movie.

It's not a huge issue, but again, why make an unforced error?

[Big Pappa]

14. Your absolutely correct.

But it seems all these guys whether Dem's or Repubs get a big head and forget who put them there. Besides for each ones pet issue it is becoming very difficult telling some of these guys apart.

[Tara_NM]

15. our tax dollars at work

I'm glad it was defeated but for goodness sake this kind of thing ( usually started by those oh so self righteous GOP folks- remember the Ken Starr investigations) is such a HUGE WASTE of our tax dollars. Grr!

[Orsino]

17. Oh, great.

The Dem majority is useless in stopping a war, but they can at least cover their own asses.