John Murtha, defense appropriations chair, dies at 77

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The Pennsylvania congressman served 19 terms.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic Representative John Murtha, the chairman of the House of Representatives defense appropriations subcommittee who exercised enormous influence on defense issues, died on Monday.

Murtha, 77, died peacefully at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington with his family by his side, a statement from his office said. He had been hospitalized recently with a gallbladder problem.

As the top Democrat on the House panel that oversaw defense appropriations, Murtha wielded big clout in the Democratic-majority Congress, making decisions affecting billions of dollars in Pentagon spending.

He had served in the House since 1974, when voters in working-class Johnstown, Pennsylvania, made him the first Vietnam veteran to be elected to the chamber.

A social conservative, foreign policy hawk and classic old-school politician, Murtha was nonetheless unafraid to question conventional wisdom about war.

In 2005 he stunned his fellow hawks by urging a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, transforming the debate and making opposition to the war a respectable conservative position.

Last year he joined several other influential Democrats in advocating a surtax to pay for the continuing conflict in Afghanistan, which he said was exhausting the U.S. military along with the years spent in Iraq.

Chummy with lobbyists, Murtha worked behind the scenes to funnel defense projects to his congressional district and those of his friends in the House, a practice that got him dubbed "King of Pork" in the media.

But this nickname did not seem to bother him much, and he once reportedly referred to proposed ethics reforms in Congress as "total crap."

Murtha won an 18th full House term in 2008 with 58 percent of the vote, and was the longest-serving member of the Pennsylvania delegation.

His party could still have problems retaining the seat in this November's election. "This is going to be a difficult hold for Democrats," said David Wasserman, who tracks House races for The Cook Political Report.

Wasserman said the district is closely divided between Democratic and Republican voters, "but it has been moving in the Republican direction."

Murtha was a close associate of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but the gruff pro-labor Democrat was unable to parley this into a top leadership role. He was soundly beaten by Maryland Democrat Steny Hoyer in the race for House majority leader in 2006.

(Additional reporting by Tom Ferraro; editing by Mohammad Zargham)