JOHN MURTHA UPDATE: “Do you know who my uncle is?”

“I was always thinking, ‘Why is the government paying this company?’ ” said Curtis, 29, who is now doing engineering work in North Carolina. “If it’s fair to have this kind of no-bid work, I’ll start a company and do it for half as much. Because this company didn’t do anything.”

Hope and change! More from Moe Lane, who thinks the WaPo’s choice of Murtha picture is a hint as to where this is going . . . . “The important point is that, some time in the last few months, a certain layer of protection was quietly stripped from Jack Murtha and at least a few other politicians. He’s now fair game, and that means that his value to his district is going to take one heck of a nosedive in the next year or so.”