The King of Pork

Watch this short Video, ABC News Reports On John Murtha's Pork Laden Airport.


What would you say if a Congressman was able to steer over $200 million from the U.S. Treasury to build an airport that has virtually no passengers? This is the Pennsylvania version of the “Bridge to Nowhere”, I kid you not!

Located outside a small Pennsylvania city, John Murtha Airport may not see many passengers, but it has seen plenty of arrivals of tax dollars from Washington, most recently economic stimulus funds (an additional $800,000 from the Obama stimulus plan). This “extremely necessary” airport offers 3 commercial flights per day. To Wash. D.C. and back to the John Murtha Airport. I guess this airport has few security and boarding problems and very little wait time to be processed by the TSA (Transportation Safety Administration). A traveler’s nirvana, if you happen to be in Johnstown, Pa.

“When the flights are arriving, there are people, other than that, it’s empty”, said Scott Voelker, Manager of the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport. In fact, the lone rent-a-car Hertz booth is empty most of the time.

Congressman John Murtha (D-PA), is considered one of the “Kings of Pork, so named by the taxpayer watchdog groups. Murtha is right up there with the octogenarian Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), to lay claim to that title. Age has taken its toll on ole Sen. Byrd so Rep. Murtha has gotten the title by default. Quite an accomplishment.

Most of the $200 million that has been received by the airport has come in the form of “earmarks” that are attached to bills in Congress put in by Rep. Murtha.

This is a continuation of the “Culture of Corruption” column I wrote a few weeks ago, just the name is different.

This is the same John Murtha who stated in 2006 that Marines, in the city of Haditha, Iraq, had killed civilians in “cold blood”. This statement was made before the accused Marines were tried in a military court. All have been acquitted and one of the ex-Marines has sued John Murtha in court for slander.

The “Airport to Nowhere” isn’t the only sleazy project That Rep. Murtha has had unethical dealings with. The good fortune that Johnstown has found comes at the expense of taxpayers everywhere. Defense contractors have found that if they open an office in or around Johnstown and if they hire the “right” lobbyist, they can get lucrative defense contracts. By the way, Rep. Murtha happens to be the Chairman of the Defense Appropriations Committee. Gee, I guess that’s just a coincidence?

Over the past decade, Concurrent Technologies, a defense research firm that employs 800, got hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to Rep. Murtha despite poor reviews by the Pentagon auditors. In another “fishy” deal, the National Drug Intelligence Center, now located near Johnstown, with 200 workers, got $509 million even though the White House has tried for years to shut it down as wasteful and unnecessary. What a country!

Of course, all this “pork” translates into generous campaign contributions by the very companies who are the beneficiaries of these “earmarks”. Is this a quid pro quo of a “pay-to-play” scheme on the part of Rep. Murtha? You make the call!

Where is Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and what has happened to her pledge of ending the “culture of corruption” in Washington? I guess if you believe her pledge then you’ll believe that I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you?

The “King of Pork” really has no clothes on, but then again, who cares?

Written by Chuck Lehmann