Emphatically not running for re-election

(Props to Mark)
John Murtha, master earmarker, has died following complications of gallbladder surgery at the age of 77. The Congressman used his clout as the ranking Democrat on the Appropriation Committee’s military subcommittee to secure $100 million in federal funding a year for his backwater southwestern Pennsylvania district full of, in his words, “redneck” “racist” constituents. Murtha was the first vet from Vietnam, where he earned a Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry, to be elected to Congress and ended up as the longest-serving congressman in Pennsylvania history. Murtha was not shy about throwing his weight around, telling reluctant reps: “Let me tell you the facts of life: If you vote against this bill, you won’t have any input at all the next time.” Murtha nearly got nabbed in the Abscam sting in the early 1980s when an undercover FBI agent posing as a sheikh offered him a bribe, which he declined, but said he was willing to talk later. Twenty years later, little had changed, and he was annually rated one of the most corrupt members of Congress (no mean feat, that) for his backroom dealing. So in his first campaign slogan for Congress,” One Honest Man Is Enough,” he apparently was not referring to himself.