WASHINGTON--U.S. Democratic Representative John Murtha, chairman of the House of Representatives defense appropriations subcommittee who exercised enormous influence on defense issues, died on Monday.
Murtha, 77, died peacefully at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington with his family by his side, a statement from his office said. He had been hospitalized recently with complications related to gallbladder surgery.
As the top Democrat on the House panel that oversaw defense appropriations, Murtha wielded big clout in the Democratic-majority Congress, making decisions affecting billions of dollars in Pentagon spending. But he also stunned his fellow hawks in 2005 by urging a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, transforming the debate over the 2003 invasion launched during the administration of former President George W. Bush and making opposition to the war a respectable conservative position.
Murtha, a former Marine, had served in the House since 1974, when voters in working-class Johnstown, Pennsylvania, made him the first Vietnam war veteran elected to the chamber. He was a close associate of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and his impact on U.S. military matters was noted on Monday by President Barack Obama and Pentagon chief Robert Gates.
But analysts said his party could have problems retaining the seat in November's election now that Murtha is gone. "This is going to be a difficult hold for Democrats," said David Wasserman with The Cook Political Report. The district is closely divided between Democratic and Republican voters, "but it has been moving in the Republican direction," he said.
A social conservative, foreign policy hawk and classic old-school politician, Murtha was chummy with lobbyists. The gruff pro-labor Democrat worked to funnel defense projects to his district and those of his friends in the House, a practice that got him dubbed "King of Pork" in the media.
But this nickname did not seem to bother him much. He once reportedly referred to proposed ethics reforms as "total crap." Earlier, in 1980, he was an unindicted co-conspirator in an FBI corruption sting known as Abscam; a House ethics committee cleared him of any wrongdoing.
