Rep. Murtha apologizes to Rep. Rogers

24 May 2007 // Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) apologized to Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) yesterday, after a motion to rebuke the senior Democrat failed on the House floor Tuesday.

“Of course I apologized for my outburst,” Murtha said in an interview yesterday.

Sylvia Warner, a spokeswoman for Rogers, confirmed that Murtha had sent a letter. “We are not releasing it since it is a private communication between two members,” she said in an e-mail.

Warner went on: “Congressman Rogers does accept the apology, but he is truly hopeful that this whole episode will change the way Congress spends the American taxpayers’ money. He is extremely disappointed in the Democrat decision yesterday to deny members open debate on earmarks and questions of wasteful spending.”

The apology comes a day after Democrats successfully killed the privileged resolution, by a vote of 219-189, that Rogers formally offered Monday night.

Murtha had previously apologized to his Democratic colleagues for the behavior that led to Rogers’s resolution, said sources at a late afternoon closed-door caucus meeting called to discuss the Iraq war supplemental spending bill Tuesday.

The Rogers-Murtha saga began last week when Rogers said that Murtha approached him on the floor and told him “in a loud voice” that there would be consequences for offering a procedural motion, which would have abolished $23 million for the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), which is based in Murtha’s district.

The Appropriations defense subcommittee chairman never disputed his remarks and released a statement last week saying that all members who introduce earmarks are treated fairly and impartially.

Rogers could not be reached immediately for comment.

There was some grumbling in the House Democratic Caucus that Murtha had not apologized to Rogers before the procedural vote. Such an apology might have caused Rogers to withdraw the motion.

Republicans have sought to capitalize politically on Murtha’s comments this Congress. They have noted that Murtha got into a similar earmark confrontation with Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) earlier this month.

Murtha vented his anger against Tiahrt for voting to kill NDIC by unleashing a loud, finger-jabbing, spittle-spraying piece of his mind, according to lawmakers who witnessed it.

C-SPAN cameras captured the video of it, which the National Republican Campaign Committee used in a political ad that was released this week.

Murtha threatened to withdraw support from a defense project associated with Boeing that would convert commercial aircraft into military refueling tankers.

Some Democrats and many Republicans on Capitol Hill say that Murtha’s rhetoric on President Bush’s troop surge in Iraq helped the GOP in minimizing defections on the House resolution that disapproved of the surge.

The measure easily passed the lower chamber, but many on Capitol Hill had anticipated that 30 to 40 Republicans were going to vote with Democrats. Seventeen Republican lawmakers ended up voting yes.

“Murtha was our best whip,” House Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (R-Fla.) said at the time.

Days before House Democrats chose Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) over Murtha to be their majority leader, Murtha told some of his colleagues that the leadership’s ethics bill was “total crap.”

Despite the recent flaps, Murtha is well respected within his caucus and has become a leader in the Democratic Party to end the war in Iraq.