Congressman Jack Murtha on April 16, 2008 (AP Photo)

CONGRESSMAN WAS INFLUENTIAL GATEKEEPER TO DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS

One of the longest-serving and most powerful members of the U.S. House of Representatives has died.

Congressman Jack Murtha (D-Pa.), who chaired the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, died on Monday at the Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington from complications related to gallbladder surgery. He was 77.

Murtha, a Marine reservist and Vietnam War veteran, served in the House for 34 years.

He exercised enormous influence on defense issues and was considered the gatekeeper to all military funding. He unabashedly used that power to send money to his southwest Pennsylvania Congressional district.

Despite voting with many of his Democrat colleagues in favor of invading Iraq in 2002, Murtha became one of the most outspoken critics of the Iraq War.

“The war in Iraq is not going as advertised. It is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion,” he said in 2005.

Murtha’s death will undoubtedly yield two key contests: One to replace him as Defense Appropriations chair, and another to fill his somewhat conservative 12th District House seat.