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The Pat Murphy - Jack Murtha - Bill Kuchera connection grows:
Kuchera is a convicted felon
The
Washington Post just revealed that
Bill Kuchera who leads Kuchera
Industries, a defense contractor that has
received tens of millions of earmarks from Congressmen Pat Murphy and
Jack Murtha, is a convicted felon
and drug runner. This is just after it was reported in
the
Bucks County Courier Times that Kuchera had been barred from doing
business with the Navy and that Murphy had accepted $9200 from the
Kuchera's last year. Murphy in turn supported a
$2.4 million earmark to the company based in Johnstown, PA more
than a four hour drive from Murphy's district. He has since
stated that a subsidiary of Kuchera was to employ people in a small
office in Doylestown, PA but this has yet to be verified. The Bucks
County Courier Times went into more detail here about Bill Kuchera's
past conviction as a felony drug dealer.
The Bucks County Courier Times has been covering the
story of how lobbyists tied to Jack Murtha are under investigation by
the FBI. Read
"FBI raids firm that contributed to Murphy, Schwartz" which
indicates that Murphy took money from PMA's lobbyists and their
spouses for a total of $30,750 to become his second largest campaign
contributor. The story also points out that the firm PMA was
founded in 1989 by Paul Magliochetti, a former top aide to Jack
Murtha. ABC News reports how the firm's offices have been raided
by the
FBI: EXCLUSIVE: FBI Raided Lobbying Firm Connected to Murtha.
The FBI in January 2009 also raided the offices of Kuchera Defense
Systems in Windber, PA which is in Murtha's district as reported in
the Wall Street Journal:
Agents Raid Two Pennsylvania Defense Contractors.
Not surprisingly campaign finance reports show Pat Murphy accepted
large campaign contributions from executives with Kuchera and their
families as well as and Kuchera family members have donated nearly
$130,000, nearly all to Democrats from Pennsylvania, since 2002.
In the 2008 defense budget alone Kuchera received $8.2 million in tax
dollars from earmarks put forth by members of Congress including Pat
Murphy as reported by the
Seattle Times.
What is of more interest is how Murphy has submitted earmark requests
for Kuchera Defense Systems even though
their offices are not in his district but in Murtha's as are many
of PMA's clients. Maybe this is because Pat Murphy called Jack
Murtha "one of his heroes?" This is the same Murtha who in late
March 2009 stated
"If I'm corrupt, it's because I take care of my district."
Murphy Watch spokesperson Paul Salvatore does a great job
connecting the dots between Murtha, donations from contractors seeking
earmarks and where the earmark money is going. The guest opinion
can be found at the website for
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and is
printed below. 
Pat Murphy and Jack Murtha share a laugh
while Nancy Pelosi smiles with approval
Murphy talks the talk on reform but doesn’t walk the walk
By: PAUL SALVATORE Bucks
County Courier Times
You may recall that in
one of Congressman Patrick Murphy’s first votes after the Democrats
gained the majority in the House of Representatives he supported
fellow Pennsylvania Congressman Jack Murtha for majority leader.
This is the same Jack
Murtha who was named by the FBI as an unindicted coconspirator in the
ABSCAM scandal in 1980. The same Jack Murtha that Gary Ruskin of the
Congressional Accountability Project stated “when it comes to
institutional policing of corruption in Congress, John Murtha is a one
man wrecking crew.”
When Murphy ran for
Congress we saw television ads of how he was going to go to Washington
like Mr. Smith and “clean up” the place. He stressed how too often
politicians go to Washington and rather than change what’s wrong they
get changed.
It is quite evident that
either Washington changed Murphy only a few days after he landed there
or he was not forthright about his commitment to changing the culture
of Washington.
Thankfully, Jack Murtha,
who famously called his constituents in Western Pennsylvania “racists”
and our Marines “cold blooded killers,” did not receive enough votes
from Democrats to become majority leader; but, unfortunately, he
appears to still have much influence over our own congressman.
Now it is reported that
the second largest group of political donors to Murphy work for the
PMA lobbying group. A group that, you guessed it, has a strong
connection to Murtha as it is headed up by a former senior staffer on
the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee for 10 years for Murtha.
The watchdog group
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has
labeled Murtha one of the 20 most corrupt members of Congress and
writes that “In the Fiscal Year 2008 Defense Appropriations bill, Rep.
Murtha helped steer at least $100.5 million to PMA clients.” They also
state Murtha received $1.3 million in donations from PMA’s clients in
the last two election cycles. Not too bad an investment I guess.
An analysis of Murphy’s
earmarks show that he steered $5.6 million to PMA clients in just the
2008 and 2009 appropriations bills, including $2.4 million to Coherent
Systems, a company in Doylestown, the parent company of which, Argon
ST, has a presence in Murtha’s District in Windber, Pa. Yes, the
district of one Jack Murtha who Patrick Murphy said “has long been a
hero of mine.”
Like hero, like hero
worshipper? The question is how much of that $2.4 million is really
being spent by the Doylestown office as opposed to being used outside
of our district?
The final insult to
taxpayers is Murphy’s attempt to benefit politically by donating these
tainted campaign contributions to charity? How does that right a
wrong?
If taking the donations
was wrong, Murphy should return them to the individuals who gave them
to him and vow not to take donations from anyone seeking an earmark.
Furthermore, as a self described “conservative Democrat,” he should
state that he will no longer seek earmarks entirely as they corrupt
the proper federal appropriations process and invite these kinds of
donations.
I want to learn more
about how these donations influenced Murphy’s decisions to steer
millions of dollars of no-bid contracts to PMA clients. I don’t want
to hear the spin of how worthy they are. I want to know why they were
selected and other projects were not. The taxpayers are owed this
explanation.
If Congressman Murphy was
truly concerned about transparency and open government, he would have
listed all of the people and organizations requesting earmarks from
him last fall before the general election so we could trace the donors
to the earmarks. In fact, as noted in Phil Gianficaro’s Feb. 19
column, Murphy will not be listing them until he is compelled by law
later this year.
We the people of Bucks
County deserve more from our elected officials than a lot of talk. We
need people, who when they say something, back it up with actions.
Unfortunately, Congressman Murphy appears to be a talker when it comes
to reform.
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