WASHINGTON — Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha has been hospitalized with abdominal pains.
His spokesman, Matt Mazonkey, says he was admitted to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., on Sunday night. Mazonkey said it has been determined that the retired Marine colonel has a gallbladder issue. He said Murtha, 77, is resting and doing well at the hospital.
The 19-term Democrat was the first Vietnam veteran elected to Congress. He chairs the influential House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. A hearing scheduled for today before the subcommittee with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been postponed, Mazonkey said. The panel was to hear testimony on President Barack Obama’s troop buildup in Afghanistan. Murtha has expressed skepticism over the administration’s plan. Denver Post wire services
