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MURTHA UPDATE: New York Times: House Heavyweight Feels Threat to Power. ?In the weeks since the n?

By Glenn Reynolds

MURTHA UPDATE: New York Times: House Heavyweight Feels Threat to Power. “In the weeks since the news that prosecutors had raided the offices of the PMA Group ? a lobbying firm founded by a former Murtha associate that became a gateway to his office and his biggest source of campaign money ? about two dozen rank-and-file Democrats have risked his wrath by calling for a House ethics investigation of the matter. One Democrat has even foresworn seeking earmarks for the military contractors in his district because of ethical concerns about the process. . . . Now Mr. Murtha lost another fight to block a new rule requiring competitive bidding on earmarked contracts. Furthermore, one of his usual lieutenants ? Representative Peter J. Visclosky, Democrat of Indiana and member of the defense subcommittee who is chairman of the energy and water panel ? unexpectedly switched sides to back the new restrictions, perhaps because he too is under new scrutiny for his ties to the PMA Group. . . . Even among donors, mainly defense interests, Mr. Murtha?s standing appears to be slumping.”

UPDATE: Obama’s revenge?

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on April 26, 2009 (boomark / email).