In Pa., She's Got a Friend In Murtha

As Murtha and Clinton pulled up to the Penn State satellite campus in nearby Uniontown on Monday, the congressman could look out on one of his old projects across the street -- a once-abandoned manufacturing plant where 150 people now repair Bradley Fighting Vehicles. He followed Clinton into the gymnasium and walked gingerly up the stairs to the stage; taking the steps is so demanding on his legs that he recently moved into a single-story house. The crowd chuckled when Rendell introduced Murtha as a man so accomplished that "the historic commission should put up one of those markers in front of his house."

But when Murtha, still imposing at 6-foot-6, took the microphone, he hardly appeared ready to be relegated to history, thrusting his index finger at the crowd and scowling. "I am convinced that we're probably in the worst situation in my 35 years in Congress," he said. "We need somebody with experience."

Murtha is a logical fit to make the experience argument for Clinton, but his endorsement was hardly a foregone conclusion before he announced it on March 18. He has played golf with Bill Clinton, but the former president rankled Murtha's allies at the Pentagon. Murtha's mentor, former Pennsylvania governor Robert P. Casey Sr., fought publicly against Bill Clinton after being denied a chance to speak at the 1992 Democratic National Convention. Casey's son, Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr., endorsed Sen. Barack Obama yesterday.

"I don't think anybody knew what [Murtha] was thinking until the day he made his endorsement," said Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), who is close to Murtha and has yet to back a candidate. "This whole thing was done in true Jack Murtha style. I can just picture that he got up one morning . . . and said, 'Okay. I'm going to do it today for Clinton.' And that was it. Nobody else knew, and it didn't matter. He's on his own schedule."

Over the past two years, the normally media-averse Murtha has risked his reputation and set aside his distaste for publicity to speak against the Iraq war, which added weight to his endorsement. Obama's campaign pushed for Murtha's support, believing it would solidify the senator from Illinois as the antiwar candidate and offer inroads to the kind of predominantly white, working-class areas in which Obama has typically struggled.

At least four local politicians have endorsed Clinton since Murtha made his announcement. When Murtha works to persuade undecided colleagues to join him, his pitch is less a testament to her qualifications than simple arm-twisting.

"He can say, 'Look, if I think this is the person I'm going to work best with as president to keep all this stuff coming, then this is the best thing for all of Pennsylvania,' " said T.J. Rooney, chairman of Pennsylvania's Democratic Party.

Success has afforded Murtha that sort of brazenness. In the House, he dominates a corner of the chamber where a cadre of about a dozen fellow congressmen surround him and closely follow his lead. An opponent of abortion and a supporter of gun owners' rights, Murtha works well enough with Republicans to curry favor across the aisle and is unapologetic about steering taxpayer money to his district.

In 1980, Murtha testified as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Abscam trial of two House members after an FBI sting in which agents offered several lawmakers $50,000 to help a fictitious sheik with immigration problems. In a conversation that agents videotaped, Murtha responded characteristically: He refused to take the money, but he indicated that he might be able to help later if the man invested in local businesses and helped unemployed miners get new jobs.

"He understands the system, and he knows how to work it better than anybody," Rooney said. "I'm not sure there's anybody from around here who wields more influence."