Getting things done

Since Jack Murtha’s death was announced yesterday, there have been competing storylines regarding his legacy.  Most conservatives have been respectful, but also ready to remind readers/viewers about Murtha’s ethical lapses.   On the Left, the dueling narratives are between the Old Left – who saw in Murtha a bread and butter Democrat who improved the lives of his constituents.  The New Left (and the Netroots) saw Murtha as the surprising anti-war hero of 2005, who made opposition to Bush’s war policy mainstream.  I was certainly one who cheered his stance on that issue.

But of those two Democratic storylines, it’s the former that we could use a bit more of today.  Yesterday, before Murtha’s death was announced, I wrote a post about the character of Frank Skeffington – Edwin O’Connor’s fictionalization of Boston mayor James Michael Curley.  I noted that Curley’s 1945 campaign slogan had been “Curley gets things done.”   With that thought still fresh in my mind, I had a real appreciation for Mike Barnicle’s comments about Murtha, made on Morning Joe this morning.

To set the scene, David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, and ideologically something of a progressive reformer was asked about Murtha’s legacy:

Well, I think what he’ll be remembered for is this stand of um… of honor toward the end of his life about the Iraq War.  I mean… for my politics, was he an ideal figure in Congress?  No.  And he was also a pork barrel spender of epic proportions… But for him, considering his background, considering his relationship to the military, considering his relationship to his own party, to get up and take a stand against the Iraq War, which he saw as going deeply deeply bad was enormously important to the debate at the time.  And that was a principled stand.

Then Mike Barnicle was asked the same question.  After talking about Murtha’s background, military service, and start in Congress, Barnicle responded directly to Remnick:

David, to your point – about, perhaps he didn’t represent a part of your politics, I would submit to you that if you knew Jack, and if you sat down with him, studied him, he would represent most of your politics.   We’ve just been talking about how nothing gets done in the Senate; Jack Murtha got things done for the people in his district who needed things to be gotten done.  Sure there was the pork barrel spending.  But he got schools built and hospitals expanded, and he got health care clinics.  He got all the things done that I think most of us would like to see gotten done today.  Jack Murtha got it done.

Jack Murtha got things done.