The death of U.S. Rep. John Murtha is notable, not only because of his stature and long history in Congress, but in Northwest Indiana because of ties to the lobbying firm PMA Group that he shared with U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky.

Murtha’s death leaves the brightest spotlight in the probe on U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, a Merrillville Democrat who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, as well as the defense subcommittee.

PMA Group won millions in defense earmarks for clients and channeled hundreds of thousands in donations to longtime colleagues Visclosky and Murtha. The Justice Department investigation of the firm has forced Visclosky to spend about $285,000 in re-election cash on legal fees, and it clouded the final months of Murtha’s career.

What is unknown is where the House ethics committee probe and the federal investigation into PMA Group’s actions stand, and what Murtha’s death means for the investigation.

In a tragic footnote, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports on the the surgical error believed to have caused the death:

Mr. Murtha was first hospitalized with gallbladder problems in December. He had surgery Jan. 28 at the National Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Md. He went home, but was hospitalized two days later when complications developed. According to a source close to Mr. Murtha — confirming a report in Politico — doctors inadvertently cut Mr. Murtha’s intestine during the laparoscopic surgery, causing an infection.

The weekend out brought out a lot of anti Dan Coats-related blog posts and stories. I’m not picking sides here, but rather would like to illustrate that politics and political gamesmanship remains our nation’s favorite past time.

WIBC-FM reports that former Republican Sen. Dan Coats says he may sell his family’s second home in North Carolina while preparing to challenge Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana in November. Coats’ statement Friday in an e-mail to The Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne came after the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee released footage of Coats in 2008 saying he planned to move from Virginia to North Carolina after retiring.

The Hoosier Pundit says no biggie on the North Carolina flap because “there are sporting teams that come to Indiana more often in a year than Evan Bayh does.”

Meanwhile, Politico reported on Thursday that Coats lobbied for a Texas-based oil and gas company that partnered with Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, according to Senate lobbying disclosure forms.

The horror: According to The Dan Coats Belly Flop Chronicle — which by its name pretty much gives away the blogger’s political leanings — Coats’ new spokesperson is Kevin Kellems, who once used his saliva to help hold Paul Wolfowitz’s hair in place.

Elsewhere:

I can’t take credit for the quip, but Mike Fourcher is on target when he says the classiest thing (embattled Lt. Gov. nominee Scott Lee) Cohen has done is resign from the Dem ticket from a bar during the Super Bowl. Here’s more from Cohen during an interview with WTTW.

The Hoosier Pundit via The Indianapolis Star reports that U.S. Rep. Mike Pence will be in New Hampshire next month as the keynote speaker for a GOP fundraising dinner.

WIBC-FM reports that Steuben and Kosciusko counties say they are only a few years away from having to stop sealing gravel roads because of rising costs and shrinking gas-tax revenues.

Also from the radio station: The number of methamphetamine labs seizures in Indiana jumped nearly 25 percent in 2009 compared to the previous year.

From The Indianapolis Star, a University of Notre Dame theology student has turned her concerns about the plight of feral cats into a program that traps and sterilizes felines to reduce their numbers. Hopefully someone else can help herd them. I hears it’s a chore.

From the Indianapolis Business Journal, Indy-based Steak n Shake Co. is planning to change its name to Biglari Holdings Inc. and move its headquarters to San Antonio.

U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., has taken the rare step of placing a unilateral hold on all of President Obama’s nominees in an apparent protest over some pork-barrrel spending that he believes is due for his state.

Two local nominees are among those awaiting confirmation – Jon DeGuilio, nominee for federal judge in Indiana’s northern district and David Capp for U.S. attorney in Indiana’s northern district (Capp is currently the acting U.S. attorney).

But there’s another region connection here if you dig down into what Shelby is upset about. From blogger Marci Wheeler:

The key issue is that Shelby wants the Air Force to tweak an RFP for refueling tankers so that Airbus (partnered with Northrup Grumman) would win the bid again over Boeing. The contract had been awarded in 2008, but the GAO found that the Air Force had erred in calculating the award. After the Air Force wrote a new RFP in preparation to rebid the contract, Airbus calculated that it would not win the new bid, and started complaining. Now, Airbus is threatening to withdraw from the competition unless the specs in the RFP are revised.

Essentially, then, Shelby’s threat is primarily about gaming this bidding process to make sure Airbus–and not Boeing–wins the contract (there’s a smaller program he’s complaining about, too, but this is the truly huge potential bounty for his state).

So Shelby is holding Obama’s nominees hostage because Airbus, a foreign company with a Mobile, Ala., plant, isn’t getting the government’s business. The company that won the bid, Boeing, is headquartered in Chicago. And its corporate fleet flies out of the Gary airport, so there is some benefit to the region with the bid going to Boeing instead of Airbus.

I thought that one of the most effective lines of attack the GOP had on health care reform was the deals cut to get it passed in the Senate – the famed Cornhusker Kickback and Louisiana Purchase. Shelby’s exceedingly short-sighted move gives Democrats the opportunity to flip the “pork” argument around and should be political gold. But that’s assuming that they go on the attack.

The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein:

it’s worth noting that Shelby is doing exactly what Ben Nelson did, but attaching a larger price tag to his demands: He’s threatening to obstruct Senate business unless his state gets billions in giveaways. Nelson settled for hundreds of millions. …

But Shelby has likely overplayed his hand. The reason holds work is that they’re small enough, and rare enough, that they never rise to the level of something the majority can’t live with. Shelby, in putting a hold on all pending nominations, just made holds very big indeed. And he did it for the most pathetic and parochial of reasons: pork for his state. If the Democrats have any sense at all, Shelby’s hold is about to become as famous as Nelson’s deal.

The governors of Indiana and Louisiana have announced the terms of their traditional wager on Sunday’s Super Bowl game. But in the announcement for Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ office Friday was another slam at Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal each agreed to send a team flag to be flown by the losing team’s governor. It’s the same bet Daniels made with O’Malley earlier in the playoffs.

“I know Gov. Jindal is a stand-up guy and he’ll fly the Indianapolis Colts flag we send him when the Colts win this weekend,” Daniels said.

Daniels’ reference to Jindal as “a stand-up guy” shows he’s still holding a grudge against O’Malley, who flew a Baltimore Colts flag when the Ravens lost to the Colts on Jan. 16.

O’Malley seems to still have his own official state grudge against Indianapolis for raiding the Colts, who packed up and left Baltimore under cover of darkness in March 1984.

When the Associated Press called the candidacy of Dan Coats a “recruiting coup” for the Republicans in their quest to oust U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh., I was a bit skeptical.

After all, here was someone who was a Washington lobbyist for Bank of America – not exactly the kind of credentials that would get the tea party crowd excited.

It didn’t take long for someone to create “The Dan Coats Belly Flop Chronicle” (hat tip: Steve Dalton), to run down all the problems the former senator faces in his attempt to regain his seat.

The right-of-center Hoosierpundit blog is less than enthusiastic about a Coats candidacy:

There are no signs that Coats is clearing the field. In fact, there are indications that the manner of his entry (and some aspects of his record) are causing some of the existing candidates, and their camps, to dig in.

Finally, the Northwest Indiana Politics blog has a poll on its right rail asking who you support for senator. As of this writing, out of 98 votes cast, Coats has two of them.

Amid all the hubbub over George Pabey and Chet Dobis on Wednesday, the significant entry of former U.S. Sen. Dan Coats into the 2010 race against Democrat Evan Bayh was pushed to the back burner. But there’s much to mull over in this potential matchup.

Bayh has a current voting record that is readily accessible and known. But if anyone is interested in digging into the voting record of  Coats during his decade in the U.S. Senate, you can go to a few helpful sites.

GovTrack.us allows you to track individual voting records and has tools to compare voting records of individual legislators. Here is a link to a comparison between Coats and fellow Republican Sen. Richard Lugar.

The Washington Post also has a helpful voting database online. Here is a link to Coats’ votes with a nice comparison chart showing how those votes compared to his Republican colleagues and to the Democrats.

Meanwhile, ontheissues.org has a much more user friendly summary of Coats’ stances on various issues here.

If you find anything interesting feel free to submit a comment, or drop me a line at robert.blaszkiewicz@nwi.com

Federal prosecutors allege that East Chicago Mayor George Pabey and an employee of the city's engineering department conspired to use city property and services to renovate this home that Pabey purchased in Gary's Miller Beach neighborhood.

The indictment of East Chicago Mayor George Pabey and city supervisor Jose Camacho is amazing in the blatant arrogance of the offense. You can read the story here, and the full indictment here.

Prosecutors say that an engineering department account was used for a shopping spree at various home improvement stores for the Miller Beach home purchased in 2007 by Pabey and his daughter. At a total cost of more than $5,000, those items included brass half moon doors, door knobs, a 40-gallon gas heater, a bathtub and surround, an oak door, a laundry faucet, a six-panel door, a bath fan, wall sconces, towel bars, door handles and storm doors.

The notion of the allegations in the indictment – that East Chicago money and employees were used to spruce up a home that wasn’t even in the city – almost makes you long for the days of the Sidewalk Six. At least then, when city money was misappropriated, residents got something “concrete” out of the deal.

Just after posting that last item about former U.S. Sen. Dan Coats living and voting in Falls Church, Va., for more than a decade, the Indiana Democratic Party sent a note that indicates they’re having a lot of fun at that party today.

Here’s the snarky statement taking a jab at Coats:

On behalf of Hoosiers everywhere, we’d like to welcome back Dan Coats to the State of Indiana.

After more than a decade working, living, and voting in Washington, D.C., it seems that Mr. Coats has decided to come back for a visit. The announcement that he is considering a run for the U.S. Senate has come as a surprise for those of us who haven’t seen or heard from the Republican in a good many years.

No worries. Our welcome basket will soon be in the mail.

As soon as Mr. Coats lands, however, maybe he can find some spare time to talk to real Hoosiers about the issues that have been affecting this state while he was away. A lot has changed since Coats abandoned the Hoosier State for the posh life of a Washington insider.

While he’s at it, perhaps Dan Coats can tell us about what he has been up to since he left town. He seems to have done well — being a registered lobbyist for major financial institutions is a great job inside the Beltway from what we hear.

And with those banks receiving billions in TARP bailout money under his watch, it’s hard to imagine Mr. Coats hasn’t been reaping the benefits of that taxpayer money.

Between all of that lobbying, heading up the failed Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers, and championing Sarah Palin during the 2008 campaign, it’s no wonder that Dan Coats was too busy to stop in and spend time in our state over the last decade.

Regardless, we wanted to extend our welcome — if Mr. Coats would just let us know whether he wants the welcome basket to go to his Virginia address or his extended stay suite here in Indiana, that would be a great help.