John Fund has the lowdown (and it’s pretty low) on potential incoming Majority Leader John Murtha:

Mr. Murtha has said his only interest in the purported Saudi sheiks’ money was that he hoped it would be invested in businesses in his district. But the full tape makes clear that Mr. Murtha was primarily interested in talking about such investments as a possible cover should he later decide to have the money transferred.

“And what I’m sayin’ is, a few investments in my district, a few you know, is big to me, to this guy apparently is not too big, to a couple of banks which would get their attention. And investment in a business where you could legitimately say to me–when I say legitimately, I’m talking about so these bastards up here can’t say to me, well, why, in eight years from now, that’s possible, we’d never hear a thing for eight years, but all at once, ah, some dumb bastard would go start talking eight years from now, ah, about the whole thing and say, ‘[expletive], ah, this happened,’ then he, then he, in order to get immunity so he doesn’t go to jail, he starts talking and fingering people and then the [expletive] all falls apart.”

The undercover FBI agent in the meeting then spoke up and said “You give us the banks where you want the money deposited.”

“All right” Mr. Murtha responded. “How much money we talking about?”

“Well, you tell me” replied the FBI agent.

A few moments later in the tape, Mr. Murtha continues his discussion of how “a business commitment” in his district would be structured: “A business commitment that makes it imperative for me to help him. Just, let me tell you something. I’m sure if–and there’s a lot of things I’ve done up here, with environmental regulations, with all kinds of waivers of laws and regulations. If it weren’t for being in the district, people would say, ‘Well that [expletive], I’m gonna tell you something this guy is, uh, you know, on the take.’ Well once they say that, what happens? Then they start going around looking for the [expletive] money. So I want to avoid that by having some tie to the district. That’s all. That’s the secret to the whole thing.”

…Crile reported that prior to Mr. Wilson’s arrival on the Ethics Committee, it had largely given Mr. Prettyman, the special counsel, a free hand in his probe. That quickly changed: “Before Prettyman could fully deploy his investigators to move on the Murtha case, he was informed that the committee had concluded there was no justification for an investigation.” The Ethics Committee chairman, Rep. Louis Stokes of Ohio, suddenly declared “This matter is closed.”

Mr. Prettyman, who had already likened the Ethics Committee to “a misdemeanor court faced with a multiple murder,” was furious at the dramatic change of course. He abruptly resigned his post the same afternoon the committee voted to clear Mr. Murtha. While Mr. Prettyman continues to refuse to discuss the case, he told Roll Call newspaper in 1990 that it would be “a logical conclusion” that he resigned over the committee’s exoneration of Mr. Murtha. Crile’s book notes that “a teary Murtha had confided to a colleague that Wilson’s effort had saved his life.”

Does Nancy Pelosi really think that this is the route to long-term power?

Glenn has a column today on how democracy is like sex:

My thought has been that elections play the same role for the body politic that sex plays for the body physical: Every so often, the voters throw the rascals out, and vote in a new set of rascals, meaning that the special interest groups, lobbying outfits, etc., that parasitize the body politic have to adapt to a shifting target. As scientist Thomas Ray has said, one rule of nature is that every successful system accumulates parasites. The American political system has been successful for a long time.

It’s not perfect, of course — neither is sex, since parasites remain a problem — but it does mix things up and help prevent special-interest relationships from becoming too fossilized. When the Democrats come in, Republican interest groups lose influence, and vice versa. The question is, does it mix things up enough?

He goes on to suggest additional anti-parasitical measures, such as term limits, but I still think that a sunset amendment to the Constitution could be very powerful in limiting government (since the growth of government power is the culture medium for parasitism). If we could keep the rascals busy renewing (and rejustifying) old laws, they’d have less time for creating new ones, and rent seeking. Unfortunately, it’s probably infeasible, politically.

Joe Katzman is trying to understand the selection of Gates for SecDef. Me, too. Bush has only made me unhappier with him (if that were possible) in the wake of the election.