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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(Via The American Thinker, via Instapundit) The bolded part is the part that you want your eyes to linger over.

Ex-contractor with Murtha ties charged over kickbacks

Federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh have charged a former executive for a defense contractor with ties to Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) with taking nearly $200,000 in kickbacks from a subcontractor.

Richard Ianieri, former president and CEO of Coherent Systems International Corp., is accused of accepting the kickbacks from a subcontractor identified only as “K” in court documents filed Monday. The charges came in the form of a criminal information, an indication that Ianieri is working with prosecutors and plans to plead guilty.

As you might remember from the Rezko trial - and that saga isn’t over yet; it’s just still in its Blagojevich phase - these kind of cases take time to build up and play out; so now is the time that you’d be wanting to see the first corruption cases go down.  Is Murtha involved?  That’s an interesting question… and, given that this is the first election cycle since 2002 where the man has had a primary challenger, the answer to that is probably of interest to more people than myself, or even the rest of the Republican party.

As to opponents in the general: it’s been reported (and assumed) that Bill Russell’s planning on another shot at this seat; and there’s also Tim Burns.  Local businessman, looks decent on the issues, not notably involved in blatant acts of federal money patronage and unashamed pork-barrel appropriations; all in all it would make for a refreshing change.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.