U.S. Rep. Jack Murtha, 77, died Monday.

He had been suffering complications from gallbladder surgery. Spokesman Matthew Mazonkey said he died at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va.

He was a native of New Martinsville, West Virginia, and a Marine who was elected in 1974 as part of the Democratic class of congressmen following President Nixon’s resignation in disgrace.

Ironically from Abscam to his own Earmarks Incorporated chairmanship of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Murtha’s 35 years in Congress were tainted by scandal.

He became a liberal icon when he announced he opposed the war in Iraq a year after enthusiastically voting for it.