According to early press reports, Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) died Monday afternoon in a Virginia hospital at the age of 77. From Politico.com:

Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania powerhouse for 36 years in Congress and an early ally for Speaker Nancy Pelosi in her rise to the top of the House, died Monday afternoon due to complications from recent surgery. ??

An announcement from his office said Murtha died at 1:18 p.m. at the Virginia Hospital Center, where he had been admitted last week after having his gallbladder removed at Bethesda Naval Hospital. ??

Faithful readers of mine will already know from past obituaries (notably Jack Kemp and Teddy Kennedy) that despite having extreme differences with the late Rep. Murtha on a range of issues (as well as his inflammatory rhetoric aimed at members of the military), I will not cheer the passing of Rep. John “Jack” Murtha (D-PA), as far too many of my colleagues will almost certainly do. (If you want an excellent body of writing about the damage Rep. Murtha did to national security and civility in political discourse, please delve into Michelle Malkin’s excellent archive on the late congressman.)

Grave-dancing is never anything but ugly, whether it is motivated by sinful joy or by a need to build the image of the departed into something it was not. Such is the case of MSNBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell’s tweets this afternoon, heralding the loss of the polarizing congressman from Pennsylvania: [Bold and emphasis are mine; spelling, capitalization and lack of punctuation are the sole property of Ms. Mitchell.]

Jack Murtha, defender of military, died today. 19 terms, 77 yrs old – first vietnam vet to go to congress and in 06 impt critic of iraq war

Murtha powerful approp subcommittee chair, old style vet and onetime pal cheney pal til murtha opposed iraq war..surgery complciations

As journalists – regardless of the size of our audience – truth is the only measure of professionalism. Despite Mitchell’s whitewashing of Rep. Murtha’s late career anti-war barnstorming, Murtha was not one-dimensional. As with all politicians, Rs and Ds never fully inform.

The “good Jack” walked a tricky line in terms of Democratic Party politics by holding a pro-life position on abortion. In 2001, he co-sponsored a flag-burning amendment to the Constitution, a cause that today would have placed him in Lieberman limbo with his party. He worked diligently with Dick Cheney – the Defense secretary – to support the Persian Gulf War during Pres. George H.W. Bush’s term.

Two presidents later, a different Bush, experienced a different Jack. “Bad Jack” leveraged the unpopularity of Operation Iraqi Freedom to conduct savage rhetorical attacks on the military in which he once proudly served. Most notable were his impulsive, vicious smears on the U.S. Marines accused (and later fully exonerated) of atrocities in the town of Haditha, Iraq. The question of whether his vocalization –  a potent propaganda tool for our enemies – contributed to increasing the body count in our war against Islamic terror is one that can only be answered as a statement of opinion.

Although Jack Murtha’s absence from the halls of power in Washington, D.C. was one fervently wished for by his opponents, his death is cause to hope that a man’s like informs him as he traverses into the afterlife so that he can prepare for judgment and hope to earn eternal peace.

Even if if takes a little while to get there, Jack Murtha, RIP.

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