Democrat Realization: Murtha’s a Media Hound

Could these liberals have just now figured out that Murtha is a fool? From politico.com:

To put it bluntly, as the former Marine is wont to do, Rep. John Murtha is rankling some of his fellow Democrats who worry his outspokenness sometimes upstages even Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The Pennsylvania Democrat has long charted his own course in dealings with the press and congressional leaders. But now after three decades in the House, he’s a national figure and his independent streak and sometimes fiery rhetoric are causing wider rifts for Democrats.

A day before the House voted on a resolution disapproving of the president’s troop “surge” plan last month, Murtha turned to a liberal Web site to preview his plans to block the president’s deployment of an additional 21,500 troops into Iraq. And his statements overshadowed the ongoing floor debate and fueled Republican charges that Democrats were laying a foundation to cut off war funding.

Murtha’s plan was “overexposed before it was exposed,” said Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.), a member of the conservative Blue Dog Coalition. “It was grist for talk shows even before the members knew about it. It made it very difficult for that plan to get off the ground now.”

Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), another Blue Dog, was similarly annoyed.

“I was not keen on him stepping on Nancy’s message,” Cooper said. “The headline was not what we do here (in Congress) but what he was doing there” on the Web site.