Shortcircuiting the Process

You may have seen the NBC report last night that Rep. Jack Murtha is speaking out on an incident that is being investigated, in which US Marines may have opened fire on innocent civilians. NBC's reporting suggests that there is enough to the charges that the investigation is quite serious -- but the military can't respond to Murtha in any kind of substantive way because the investigation is ongoing. Which means Murtha is making incendiary charges at a time when he knows the military cannot respond, not even to provide any context, or to balance any hyperbole (not that I would ever suggest Murtha might be prone to hyperbole.)

I am not comfortable going as far as Confederate Yankee in terms of what the consequences ought to be for Murtha, but I think CY's argumentative analysis of what's going on here is quite astute.