text: Murtha back in the hospitalBy: David RogersFebruary 22010 10:43 AM ESTPennsylvania Rep. John Murtha was back in the hospital Tuesday after undergoing gall bladdersurgery last week.The Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington said that the 77-year-old Democrat was a patient in itsintensive care unit but referred all questions about his condition to his family.Murtha's congressional office confirmed that he underwent scheduled laparoscopic surgery to removehis gallbladder at Bethesda Naval Hospital last week. But the congressman's spokesman refusedcomment on the seriousness of his condition or any complication that required hospitalization.A powerhouse in the House Appropriations Committee and close friend of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Murtha was hospitalized for a period in December as well when he suffered an infection in hisgall bladder.The doctors then decided that it should be removed once the infection had been tempered and thatset up the surgery last week at Bethesda.In the interim Murtha has been back in the Capitol and in his style came back from the hospital—with IV bandages still on him— to oversee passage of his defense appropriations bill.