Murtha's GOTTA Go--A Viable Candidate Against Him

I, like many others, would love to see Jack Murtha defeated in his next Congressional run. The reasons for this are legion; besides ABSCAM and his unethical bullying of his fellow congressmen, his behavior regarding the Haditha Marines (for which he must answer in a court deposition, his attempt to bully his way out of that a failure) is perhaps the most egregious.

In my sidebar, amongst all my blogrolls, you'll find one entitled "Murtha Must Go"--this blogroll was started by the father of a deployed soldier who could no longer take the bilge flowing from Murtha regarding our Marines. The link to that site, "Murtha Must Go!" is here. I have also been given permission by that father to publish the code to join the blogroll, and will do so at the end of this post; just be sure to email him to be placed on the roll.

Now Murtha has an opponent and from all accounts, this opponent appears to be rather formidable.

His name is William T. Russell and he goes by his middle name of Trower to his family and friends. His qualifications run thus:

Until August 31^st of this year, I was a fulltime Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army Reserve, stationed at the Pentagon and a little over 2 years short of full, active duty retirement. I am also a small business owner and entrepreneur, as well as a husband and father.

In my military career I have served six tours in hostile fire zones including Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and the Balkans. These tours include almost three years in the Middle East (Iraq and Saudi Arabia) and a year and a half in the Balkans (Hungary, Bosnia, Kosovo, Croatia). My wife, Kasia, who was pregnant with our son at the time, and I were also in the Pentagon on 9/11.

His website--William Russell For Congress--can be found here. There is speculation at the "Murtha Must Go!" site--and I must emphasize it's simply speculation AT THIS TIME--Justin Sharrat may run with Lt. Col. Russell in his bid. If you recall, Lance Corporal Justin Sharrat was one of the unjustly accused and smeared Haditha Marines. He was completely exonerated August 9, 2007. His family's website regarding this ordeal can be found here.

What did Murtha do to warrant such an outcry (other than ABSCAM//numerous ethics violations, his history of bullying fellow congressmen and his belief he is above the laws ruling the rest of us)?

He betrayed the uniform he once wore as a Marine. In the entire history of the Marines, only two are considered "ex"--all others are "former". Those two are Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Murtha.

He ran with a false story in a liberal bias magazine, Time, accusing the now famous Haditha Marines of murder of several Iraqi civilians in a firefight, presumably because of the death of one of their comrades. He made a comment to the press that has come back to bite him in the ass:

From Let Freedom Ring:

Rep. John Murtha, an influential Pennsylvania lawmaker and outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, said today Marines had “killed innocent civilians in cold blood” after allegedly responding to a roadside bomb ambush that killed a Marine during a patrol in Haditha, Iraq, Nov. 19. The incident is still under investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and Multi-National Forces Iraq.
———-
“It’s much worse than was reported in Time magazine,” Murtha, a Democrat, former Marine colonel and Vietnam war veteran, told reporters on Capitol Hill. “There was no firefight. There was no [bomb] that killed those innocent people,” Murtha explained, adding there were “about twice as many” Iraqis killed than Time had reported.

Those statements of his have resulted in a defamation lawsuit filed by another Haditha Marine, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich. Despite Murtha's numerous attempts to have the suit quashed, he has been singularly unsuccessful, at one point prompting the judge in the matter, U.S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer, to make this statement (found at The Pirate's Cove here):

"You’re writing a very wide road for members of Congress to go to their home districts and say anything they choose about private persons and be able to do so without any liability. Are you sure you want to do that?" Collyer said, adding later, "How far can a congressman go and still be protected?"

Collyer said she was troubled by the idea the lawmakers are immune from lawsuits regardless of what they say to advance their political careers.

Go read up on Mr. Russell and let's put our collective blogging behind getting the most corrupt congressman out of office and someone with some integrity into office. And, while we're at it, let's pray the rest of Murtha's victims, the remaining charged Haditha Marines, are similarly exonerated.

"Murtha Must Go!" blogroll:

Email psycmeistr@fastmail.fm to be placed in the roll.