Cronies of Congress scoring fat contracts. In other news, lemons are yellow.

The Center for Public Integrity has found out what we already probably knew: Cronies of Congress members are getting plum contracts by sheer virtue of their buddies. The study focuses on the hundreds of million dollars directed by Congress to a small number of defense contractors and a lobbying firm closely associated with Representative John P. Murtha (D-PA).
10 of the 16 members of the House subcommittee on defense appropriations obtained 30 earmarks in the bill worth $103 million for contractors employing former staffers who have become lobbyists.
Murtha has directed over $400 million to organizations in his district including the Penn State Electro-Optics Center and the John P. Murtha Institute for Homeland Security. These organizations then directed that money toward private contractors. Since 1998, workers at those firms and their "family members" funneled $2.4 million to Murtha.
The now-closed lobbying firm PMA Group, whose clients won a suspiciously disproportionate fortune in earmarks from Murtha's subcommittee was run by a close friend of Murtha, Paul Magliocchetti.
A number of interesting things have happened since the CPI started their investigations. Rep. Peter J. Visclosky (D-IN), whose office records were subpoenaed by federal prosecutors in May 2009, has significantly reduced his earmark requests and sought no money for private companies. As well, defense appropriators are generally directing more earmarks to nonprofits. Visclosky received a similarly large amount of donations from the aforementioned lobbying firms - $1.4 million.

D.A.G. Says: Why does Murtha always seem to be at the center of anything involving pork barrels?