Ever since the Democrats regained the majority in the House of Representatives, Congressman John Murtha has been a train wreck. Whether it was the attention paid to his role as unindicted co-conspirator in AbScam, his promise to use a back-door way to ‘slow-bleed’ the war effort in Iraq, his push to reinstate the draft, his threats to colleagues, or his breaking of House rules, Murtha seems unable to avoid embarrassing his conference. Now it’s reported that Congressman Murtha has informed the House Intelligence Committee that jurisdiction over the No-Fly List and the terror incident training program are to be transferred to the National Drug Intelligence Center–which is located in Murtha’s district. If you’re surprised that the Department of Justice would give the NDIC jurisdiction over programs that seem to have little to do with drug intelligence, you’re in good company–the Justice Department was surprised as well:
The DoJ has been trying to shut down the NDIC for several years, but has been frustrated by Murtha’s use of earmarks to keep the center open. In light of the opposition from the DoJ, one can only conclude that Murtha was either lying to the committee, or is planning to use another secret earmark to force the Justice Department to make work for the NDIC. Which would be worse?
