Star on rise for Murtha, a vocal war opponent

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. -- What a difference nine months makes.

In November, Representative John P. Murtha , Democrat of Pennsylvania, thundered onto the national scene insisting that the US military could accomplish nothing more in Iraq, could only make things worse. He called for pulling US troops out of Iraq.

At the time, many of his Democratic colleagues considered his stance suicidal for their party when they're trying to regain control of Congress, despite having long been seen as weak on national security.

Now Murtha is one of the most popular Democrats around. In recent weeks he's raised money for Democrats campaigning in New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, and California. In Tennessee, he was the guest of former vice president Al Gore at a fund-raiser for local Democrats. After Labor Day, Murtha will head back out on the road to help up to four-dozen of his party's candidates.

He said events had proved him right.

``Everything I said has turned out to be true," Murtha said last week, taking a break at his campaign headquarters in Johnstown. ``You can't win militarily. Military leaders are now saying it publicly where they said it only privately before. I get standing ovations every place I go.

``The public is looking for a solution to this open-ended policy, which is killing kids."

Murtha, 74, a decorated Marine, was the first combat veteran of the Vietnam War elected to the House of Representatives. Long regarded as a hawk on national security, he is the ranking Democrat on the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.

He's never been seen as charismatic, until now.

On Aug. 9 at the Tavern on the Green restaurant in New York's Central Park, Murtha appeared at a rally for Eric Massa, a retired Navy commander who's trying to unseat Representative John ``Randy" Kuhl, Republican of New York.

Massa said Murtha ``couldn't speak, the applause and the standing ovation was so prolonged and intense. He speaks the truth. He's not deterred by critics. As the failures of the Bush administration in Iraq have become more obvious, his credibility has significantly increased."

Murtha said that he is too old to consider a run for president, but that he'd try to become majority leader if Democrats gain the 15 seats they need to control the House.

``I'm on a mission here, and the mission is to help change the direction of the country," he said.

The identity of his southwestern Pennsylvania district has long been entwined with the catastrophic flood that tore through Johnstown in 1889 and with the steel industry, which abandoned it the region in the past few decades. It has a conservative bent, with a constituency older and more heavily veteran than average. Democrats outnumber Republicans.

Until his emergence last fall as a foe of the Iraq war, Murtha had operated largely behind the scenes. To counter a local unemployment rate that he said hit 24 percent in the 1980s, he used his appropriations post to send home lucrative dollars for defense contracts, medical research, flood-related tourism, and infrastructure.

A local airport is named for him. So is an institute for the study of neuroscience and pain. A breast cancer center bears the name of his wife, Joyce.

``People said Johnstown will never come back," said Jack Ray, 57, a Democrat and a clerk at a clothing store. ``I think Johnstown is coming back. And he's been involved in most things that have happened."