John Murtha passes away; traffic jam outside Johnstown PA results as residents flee his massive NDIC boondoggle

Rep. John Murtha, Democrat of Pennsylvania, passed away today at age 77. Our condolences go out to his family.

Democrats wasted no time in using Murtha's death to push for government-run health care.

Murtha was famous, or infamous depending upon how you look at things, for earmarks. Possibly his most noteworthy legacy is the National Drug Interdiction Center, or NDIC. Situated 140 miles away from Washington DC in a small Pennsylvania town, the NDIC is considered by experts to be a complete waste of money as it is entirely redundant with real drug and law enforcement agencies.

...the center has survived largely due to unflagging support from Murtha, the Johnstown Democrat who brought NDIC to his district in the early 1990s...

Residents flee Johnstown, PA, home of the troubled NDIC, after the town received word of the passing of Rep. John Murtha.

“This expensive facility duplicates programs already operating in multiple other agencies, including the FBI and the Department of Justice,” U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Michigan, said in a statement... “Such misuse of resources is unacceptable and extremely dangerous.”

...It is the third consecutive year that Murtha has had to lobby for NDIC money after President Bush proposed closing the Johnstown facility.

Other troubles have dogged the center... In June 2004, NDIC Director Michael Horn was ousted after a Justice Department probe... Employees had complained of poor management, low morale, gender bias and wasteful spending.

And in May 2005, U.S. News & World Report published a scathing investigative article that said NDIC was “troubled from the start” and had an unclear mission.

One official called the center a “jobs program that Mr. Murtha wanted.”

As recently as last year, Murtha had shoved a $44,000,000 appropriation for the NDIC through Congress.

But it's not like there's a financial crisis going on or anything.