The Washington Post reports that Tara O’Toole is poking around at the Department of Homeland Security, and apparently anticipating the Senate will confirm her nomination soon:

The Department of Homeland Security directorate of science and technology is moving office furniture around these days, apparently to fit more folks into available space. Buzz has it that the musical chairs is even going on in the suites on the Vermont Avenue side reserved for the top officials. We’re told that Tara O’Toole, whose nomination to be undersecretary of that operation is being held up in the Senate, has picked out some snappy blond furniture to grace the potential undersecretary’s office.

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John Murtha is a backer of universal, single-payer, government-run health care. He serves as one of Nancy Pelosi’s chief lieutenants in the House of Representatives, and she endorsed his bid to serve as House Majority Leader - effectively her right hand man. Yet despite Murtha’s power in Congress, and the importance of the debate over health care, he is ignoring calls in his district to meet with constituents. So far there’s no explanation from Murtha of what else is so important, but I’m willing to take a guess.

But while nationalized health care, ethics charges, the economic slowdown, and the early failures of the Obama administration may make Murtha reluctant to talk to the people he works for, a Republican challenger is stepping up to the plate. I’ve just received notice that Tim Burns today sent Murtha the following letter:

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A quick survey of today’s news brings some encouraging signs for those who support choice in health care. First, CNN reports that Nancy Pelosi’s most trusted ally has moved dramatically off message:

Speaking in Bentleyville, Pennsylvania, Murtha said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wanted a health-care bill passed before the current August recess.

“She said we’re going to have it before we left,” Murtha said. “We said, ‘No, no, we want some time to think about this.’ We’re taking some time to make sure it’s done right. I don’t know that we’ll get something done before January, and even then we may not get it done. We’re going to do it right when it’s finally done…”

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Tomorrow, the United States Senate’s Homeland Security Committee just might vote Tara O’Toole out of committee and send her to the floor for confirmation.

The committee may want to look again. Nominated by Janet Napolitano, there is a late breaking disparity in Ms. O’Toole’s testimony — disparate enough to suggest she is hiding some very close times to John Murtha. And the tangled web of lobbyists, high dollars, and corruption just might infiltrate the Department of Homeland Security.

Ms. O’Toole is the head of the very well respected Center for Biosecurity. According to written testimony to the United States Senate on June 10, 2009, in response to a question about ties between Ms. O’Toole’s Center for Biosecurity and a group called the Alliance for Biosecurity, Ms. O’Toole told the Senate

the Alliance for Biosecurity [is] a group initiated by the Center for Biosecurity in 2006. . . . The Center for Biosecurity receives no money from any member of the Alliance and funds all costs associated with running the Alliance out of our philanthropic funds. No biotech or pharmaceutical firm provides the Center with financial support of any kind.

Odd, in new written testimony to the Senate — testimony not even fully publicly available — Ms. O’Toole now claims there are no “financial connections” between the Center for Biosecurity and the Alliance for Biosecurity. In fact, Ms. O’Toole now disavows all connections between the Center and Alliance.

Why?

Well, let’s follow the money.

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Wow. I wonder if Chairman Murtha - the one who delivered all the earmarks - knew that his brother was apparently somehow implicated in this fraud. I also wonder who else on the House Appropriations Committee knew. After all, the entire committee is responsible for vetting earmark requests and at least making a minimal attempt to determine that they are spent in compliance with the law:

A contracting firm that had hired the brother of Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) as its lobbyist took the proceeds from a Murtha-provided, $8.2 million Air Force earmark and distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to other companies represented by the Congressman’s brother for items that were not part of the project, the Justice Department charged Thursday…

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No surprise here:

The House ethics committee indicated Thursday that it was reviewing the links between a number of lawmakers and the now-defunct lobbying firm The PMA Group.

The Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, as the panel is called, issued a statement responding to a resolution (H Res 500) the House adopted June 3. The resolution directed the ethics committee to notify the chamber if it was examining the PMA matter.

The Democratic lawmakers with links to PMA include John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee; Peter J. Visclosky of Indiana, a senior member of Murtha’s panel who was recently subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in regard to his ties to PMA; and James P. Moran of Virginia, another senior member of the subcommittee. Dozens of other lawmakers have sponsored earmarks for PMA clients.

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John Murtha just never gets old. Just when you think there’s nothing more that he could possibly do to earn an ethics investigation, he goes and surprises you. Today Roll Call reports that Murtha redirected an earmark away from a company that had dropped his brother as its lobbyist, and to a current client of his brother - a firm that pocketed the money instead of spending it on Navy R&D programs:

The bill included a “technical corrections” section, which transferred $8.2 million to “other procurement, Air Force” for a project called the “mobile common data link gateway.” This project — later called the “ground mobile gateway” — was an effort to build a unified battlefield communications platform for the Air Force by a Pennsylvania company called Coherent Systems.

Six months earlier, Murtha’s brother Kit Murtha and his firm KSA Consulting had registered to lobby for Coherent systems.

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Update: Since I posted on this earlier, Roll Call reports that Visclosky’s Chief of Staff has resigned his post. Does he know something about the pave and possible outcome of the DoJ investigation?

Chuck Brimmer, chief of staff to Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.), has resigned, leaving the lawmaker without a longtime senior aide as he confronts a federal investigation into his ties to the now-defunct lobbying firm PMA Group.

Visclosky spokesman Jacob Ritvo confirmed Brimmer “has retired,” citing “respect for the process” in declining to comment further.

Visclosky on Friday announced that some staffers — and his Congressional and campaign offices — had been subpoenaed as part of a federal grand jury probe of PMA, a lobbying shop with close ties to the Indiana Democrat. It is not yet clear which aides were served.

Brimmer has worked for Visclosky on and off since at least 2000, according to salary figures posted on LegiStorm, a Web site that tracks Congressional information. While on Visclosky’s payroll, Brimmer mostly split his time between the lawmaker’s personal office and the Appropriations Committee.

Up until now it seemed that the investigation into the PMA Group would ultimately hurt John Murtha more than anyone else. Now however, Congressman Pete Visclosky (D-IN) has stepped aside from his position of power, after he was the subject of a subpoena:

Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.), who announced last week that his office had been subpoenaed as part of the Justice Department’s criminal investigation in the PMA Group, will temporarily relinquish control over a powerful appropriations committee while he’s under investigation.

Viscclosky, in a statement Tuesday afternoon, said he will let Rep. Ed Pastor (D-Ariz.) assume control of the energy and water appropriations bill as it makes it’s way through the House. Visclosky is chairman of that subcommittee on the House Appropriations Committee, controlling more than $30 billion in sewer, water, and infrastructure projects, as well as the Army Corps of Engineers budget…

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John Murtha has disgraced his office in a host of ways since he was first elected to Congress: from his willingness to entertain bribes during the Abscam investigation, to his delivery of millions in taxpayer dollars into the hands of friends and associates, to his slandering of former Marines. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that he’s also willing to forego some of the responsibilities of his office.

One of the jobs of a Member of Congress is to attempt to ensure that federal funds are spent honestly and wisely. Some elected officials take this seriously; others more or less ignore it. I can’t recall a Member of Congress who specifically claimed that it was not his responsibility - until now:

Mr. Murtha is treated like a god throughout the two-day event, with contractors literally bending down almost on their knees to talk to him. He is forced often to sit, due to recent knee surgery. That ended at a brief news conference Friday morning.

His office had just announced $110 million in federal contract awards to local firms, but a reporter wanted to get his reaction to the federal investigation of Kuchera Defense Systems, which is among the congressman’s biggest campaign contributors. The imposing, white-maned 76-year-old flashed some righteous anger.

“So what’s that got to do with me?” the 6-foot-6-inch former Marine replied. “What do you think, I oversee these companies? That’s the Defense Department’s job. That’s not my job. You guys write these stories [but] you don’t have a clue what this is all about.”

“Jesus Christ,” he exclaimed, then left out a back door…

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Looking back at recent political history, one of the common features of wave elections is a nationally-known, toxic incumbent who becomes the face of the unpopular incumbent party. In 2006, Tom DeLay and Mark Foley were the unpopular faces of the Republican party whom Americans were forced to look at and hear about on the news each night. In 1994, it was people like Dan Rostenkowski. Can Republicans gain seats by tying endangered incumbents to John Murtha, and forcing them to defend their votes for his agenda? There’s no way it can hurt.

To that end, the NRCC has launched a series of radio ads in swing seats represented by incumbent Democrats who voted for the ’stimulus’ - including funding for the John Murtha airport. You can listen to the sample ad here, and get Jim Geraghty’s take on it at Campaign Spot.

A move like this one pays a number of benefits. It should make Democrats worry about associating themselves with their party’s leadership. It helps keep Murtha in the news in a negative light. It reminds the 9 targeted Members (Kissell, Shea-Porter, Herseth-Sandlin, Childers, Schrader, Arcuri, Snyder, Schauer, and Teague) that they are in the NRCC crosshairs, and may lead them to vote against the leadership more often. And lastly, it helps in recruiting by signaling to potential candidates that the NRCC is willing to spend money to defeat these Members.

If you’re represented by one of these Members, and have the chance to ask why they’re voting for Murtha’s agenda, feel free to share the response you get.

The craptacular porkulus bill passed Congress with almost no Republican votes. That prevents them from running around the country and taking credit for things like this:

The blank expression on the face of the manager of Murtha Airport - just after 1:40 - is priceless. And even this manager - whose job clearly depends on Murtha’s willingness to rob from the taxpayers - can’t help but throw Murtha under the bus when it comes to a multi-million dollar air traffic control center that has been unstaffed for years.

That’s two hundred million dollars of federal tax money for an airport that handles 3 commercial flights daily, and which is generally unstaffed. And what CNN fails to mention is that the 3 daily flights are all between John Murtha’s district and Washington Dulles airport. I wonder whether anyone rides these flights except for Mr. Murtha and his staff.

This is how the Democrats revive economic growth.

I know it’s not a “scientific” poll but the numbers at the poll regarding the recent award to Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) by outgoing Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter earlier this month are nothing short of gobsmacking.  Vote now to see for yourself.  And if that feels pretty good, there’s a petition you can sign, too.

Fishy, fishy, fishy stuff. Of course, it is more than a little terrifying to think that a group of people may have had their identities appropriated for the purpose of hiding campaign donations. And the following is important to emphasize:

Federal election laws limit the amount of money individuals may contribute to candidates, but lobbying firms often show their clout by collecting and bundling contributions. It is illegal for employers to reimburse donors for their contributions.The Washington Post examined contributions that were reported as being made by PMA employees and consultants and found several people who were not registered lobbyists and did not work at the lobbying firm. It is unclear whether the donors misidentified as PMA associates are part of the federal probe. A PMA spokesman said the firm’s management does not know Hoffman or Hendricksen and doesn’t know how the errors were made in reports to the Federal Elections Commission.

“It’s up to the [candidates'] campaigns to report contributions in their FEC filings,” said PMA spokesman Patrick Dorton. FEC spokeswoman Mary Brandenberger said she has not often seen such misidentified donations, but if a complaint were received, the commission would first question the campaign about its record-keeping.

So there are clearly some due diligence issues for John Murtha’s office to clear up. Any chance that we could make sure that pressure will be exerted on him until he does so, and that he pays a political price if he refuses?