PA Rep. John Murtha (D) Passes away at age 77 Today

Democratic Congressman John Murtha of  Johnstown,Pennsylvania, age 77, has just passed away early this afternoon in Arlington, VA, following complications from gall bladder surgery he had earlier.                    

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

Murtha, a Vietnam era Marine veteran who was recently best known for being one of the first more “establishment type” Democrats to have enough cajones to criticize President George W. Bush on his Iraq war policy.  Murtha was Chairman of the House Appropriations Sub Committee on Defense.  He served in Congress from 1974 to 2010.  In November of 2005, Murtha, who had visited many injured troops at Bethesda’s military hospital, whose suffering made a deep impression on him, submitted a resolution in Congress calling for the redeployment of US troops in Iraq.

“The United States cannot accomplish anything further in Iraq, militarily. It is time to bring them home. ”

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J…     This statement set off a MSM Faux Outrage Conservative Shitstorm, and helped push some of the nation out of its complacent stupor on Bush’s war in the Middle East.

Altho Murtha was pro- life, he came at it from a respectable viewpoint, in that he was politically liberal on many other issues such as labor and civil rights. Considering his district was conservative western Pennsylvania, which can be been rather “redneck” (Murtha himself used that gloriously un P.C. term to describe some of the less than socially progressive attitudes of some of his district’s residents), he was a leader.  

Murtha is survived by his wife, Joyce, and 3 children, John, Patrick, and Donna, and 3 grandchildren.  

May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. And may you find yourself in heaven, 5 minutes before the Devil knows you’re gone.  RIP, John Murtha