We mentioned yesterday how the federal indictment of Murtha ally Paul Magliocchetti could dredge up lines of ethics attacks on new congressman Mark Critz. But he's not the only one getting wrapped up, politically, in the tentacles of the lobbying inquiry.

As Dennis Roddy and Dan Malloy wrote, Magliocchetti and his wife "gave to dozens of candidates from both sides of the aisle, including Reps. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, and Jason Altmire, D-McCandless; and former Reps. Ron Klink, D-Murrysville and Melissa Hart, R-Bradford Woods."

Altmire's November opponent Keith Rothfus -- who is an ally of Hart, by the way -- released a statement today questioning the Democrat's decision to keep the money, as well as donations from Charlie Rangel, who's facing his own ethics battles.

From the Republican's campaign:

As the news of Paul Magliocchetti’s indictment for campaign-related offenses spreads through Pennsylvania, Jason Altmire still has not returned any of the $24,500 he received from PMA Group and its employees.  In an article dated February 19, 2009, Congressional Quarterly did a review of contributions by PMA and its employees, and earmarks associated with the group. Based on this article, it would seem that contributions to Jason Altmire are down payments on the $2,600,000 in earmarks requested by Altmire for PMA clients.  On the heels of Altmire’s refusal to return $21,000 in campaign contributions to embattled Congressman Charles Rangel, one has to ask: is there anyone that Jason Altmire WON’T take money from?

Keith Rothfus had the following comments:

“When Nancy Pelosi became speaker and Jason Altmire joined Congress, Pelosi said they would “drain the DC swamp,” Once again, Jason Altmire is caught in the DC swamp, and again, he refuses to return tainted money from his questionable donors.  We have had enough greed in politics. The people of Western Pennsylvania want a representative that values the people of our state more than campaign cash.

“The people of Western Pennsylvania are no better off today than they were when Jason Altmire and Nancy Pelosi took control of Congress.  Together they have spent four years spending your money, earmarking tax dollars for their friends and raking in campaign cash.  It’s time for Jason to return the dirty money, stop sending taxpayer funded campaign mail and start getting Pennsylvanians back to work.”