Resolution to rebuke Murtha dies in House

All but two House Democrats backed Rep. John P. Murtha yesterday, killing a resolution that suggested he be reprimanded for threatening a Republican member over earmarks.

The House voted 219-189 without debate to kill a privileged resolution offered by Rep. Mike Rogers, Michigan Republican, detailing his confrontation with Mr. Murtha, Pennsylvania Democrat.

Mr. Murtha sat in the back of the House chamber during the vote, laughing and accepting pats and handshakes from at least two dozen Democrats.

“This is for John Murtha,” announced Rep. Henry Cuellar, Texas Democrat, as he voted.

“Thank you,” Mr. Murtha, 74, told Rep. Diane Watson, California Democrat, after kissing her hand.

Two Democrats — Reps. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Jim Cooper of Tennessee — were not so willing to embrace Mr. Murtha, a 34-year veteran of the House who has faced criticism for being a bully.

Mr. Blumenauer said that because the facts aren’t known, “the issue deserved debate or a referral to the ethics committee.”

“If [former Majority Leader] Tom DeLay had been accused of threatening a Democrat on the House floor, I would expect the same,” he said, noting the discussion “is in order if we are going to be the most ethical and transparent Congress in history.”

The resolution had accused Mr. Murtha of violating House rules in an exchange with Mr. Rogers, who attempted to strip Mr. Murtha’s $23 million earmark for the National Drug Intelligence Center earlier this month.

Mr. Murtha confronted the Republican on the floor during a vote and said any earmarks that Mr. Rogers had submitted for the defense appropriations bill are “gone” and that the Republican would not get any earmarks “now and forever.”

House rules state that earmarks cannot be subject to how a member votes on legislation.

Mr. Murtha, a decorated Vietnam veteran and vocal Iraq war critic, is chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on defense and controls that important spending bill.

There were 13 members who voted “present,” instead of casting a “yea” or “nay” on the resolution. Of those, eight serve on the ethics panel.

Because the panel’s work is done in secret, it is not known whether it is investigating Mr. Murtha. Chairman Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio did not vote yesterday, but panel member Rep. Mike Doyle, Pennsylvania Democrat, voted to kill the resolution.

Rep. Tim Murphy was the only Republican to join the chamber’s Democrats in supporting his Pennsylvania colleague.

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