John Murtha's Greasy Pork

Most recently, John Murtha has gained the sort of notoriety that politicians crave by smearing the troops. But he is finally gaining the notoriety he deserved all along, as one of Congress's most corrupt members and most prolific wasters of federal dollars.

The National Defense Center for Environmental Excellence opened its doors in 1991 with a $5 million earmark from a powerful lawmaker. Operating in Johnstown, Pa., the privately run center has received at least $671 million worth of federal contracts and earmarks since then to research and develop pollution-abatement technology and other systems for the Defense Department.

The center's researchers have examined scores of software systems and other gear, including groundwater monitoring equipment, gun cleaners and ultrasonic devices, according to its managers. They said the center had delivered nearly 500 technology products and tools to protect the environment, improve safety and cut Pentagon costs.

But a months-long examination by The Washington Post, including a review of documents and interviews with Pentagon officials, found that little of the center's work has been widely used or deployed by the Defense Department.

The National Defense Center for Environmental Excellence is administered by Concurrent Technologies, another tax squandering entity created by Murtha that enriches his friends and who in turn pour money into Murha's campaigns.

Murtha also helped start Concurrent Technologies, the tax-exempt charity that manages the center. Established in an old high school in 1988, Concurrent has grown into a contracting powerhouse. Its annual revenue is now nearly $250 million, most of it from an eclectic array of Defense Department contracts.

Investigations by The Post this year have shown that in the last four years Concurrent has received $226 million in congressionally directed funding, known as earmarks, from Murtha and other lawmakers, including those who represent districts where Concurrent has opened offices.

Unfortunately, the Post fails where most Democrat-leaning media fail, at the point of assigning blame. By the end of the article, the Post manages to find faulty with the military, and not John Murtha et al, who directed the military to give money to campaign contributors.