Murphy book deal raises ethics questions

JUDGING A BOOK BY ITS COVER? - 33 year old Patrick Murphy has been given a $100,000 advance to write his life's story. House Rules prohibit members of Congress from receiving advance royalties.

U.S. Representative Patrick Murphy’s $100,000 advance for a book on his life’s story may have placed the freshman Pennsylvania Democrat in violation of House ethics rules, research by the Majority Accountability Project (www.majorityap.com) has found.

House Rules state that “a Member, Delegate, Resident Commissioner, officer, or employee of the House may not receive an advance payment on copyright royalties.” According to Murphy’s recently filed financial disclosure, he received $100,000 for a “book advance.” Murphy filed his disclosure with the House of Representatives on June 12, 2007, nearly a month after the May 15 deadline.

Publishers Weekly announced in May, 2007, five months into Murphy’s term, that he “sold a memoir, Taking the Hill, to John Sterling at Holt (publishing) via Esther Newberg at ICM.” ICM is International Creative Talent, a New York City based literary agent.

The title of Murphy’s book is the same as a December, 2006, Discovery Channel documentary that chronicled the campaigns of Murphy and several other Iraq war veterans running for Congress that year.

“Murphy will share stories of his blue-collar Philadelphia childhood and his times as the youngest professor at West Point and a captain in the 82nd Airborne,” the industry paper reported. “He will also take readers to the front lines in Iraq, the campaign trail in Pennsylvania and the halls of Congress. Holt holds North American rights and plans an early 2008 publication.”

On May 19, 2007, the Bucks County Times reported Murphy “is writing the book with Adam Frankel, an author and speechwriter currently working for presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. Murphy said they spend a couple of hours every week on the book and have already completed about 20 chapters.”

This is not the first time ethics questions have been raised over book deals won by Members of Congress.

House Democrats filed two ethics complaints, and sought a special counsel, to look into a book deal with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Gingrich, a former college professor and best-selling author, gave up the book advance, and House rules were changed a short-time later to ban any advance payments to members of Congress.

New York Senator Hillary Clinton came under similar criticism when she received a multi-million dollar book advance for her memoirs. Unlike the House, Senate rules do not ban book advances.

Murphy’s $100,000 advance is nearly twice his district’s average household income, where 4.5 percent of area residents live below the poverty line.

Senator John McCain was 63 years old and had already served 16 years in Congress before penning a book on the McCain family history - his father and grandfather were Navy admirals - and his time spent in a Vietnamese prison camp. Murphy, a freshman Representative, is 33 years old.