Congressman Jim McDermott has embarked on a face saving mission to excuse and mitigate his illegal activities.  His belief is that his free speech rights outweighed any concept of legality.

What a bunch of crap.

As I previously noted here, a Federal Appeals Court has ruled he violated Federal law when he turned over an illegally taped telephone call to reporters.

Well now, in a guest column to the Seattle Times, he defends his actions and paints his victims portrait..  My comments in line:

Defending the people’s right to know

A nation cannot be free without free speech. It’s why the Framers made freedom of speech the First Amendment to the Constitution. It’s why 19 major news organizations representing thousands of journalists have joined to support me in my First Amendment case.

It is also a nation of laws.

And, it’s why The Seattle Times, instead of criticizing me, ought to be standing with me to defend the people’s right to know ["McDermott's leak is no better" Times editorial, April 9].

More than nine years ago, Republican congressional leaders, called together by Rep. Newt Gingrich, then speaker of the House and third in line to be president, met in secret to plot deception against the American people. We know only because one of those involved, Rep. John Boehner, attended the meeting by cellphone, thus broadcasting the entire secret meeting on the open airwaves, available to anyone who happened to be listening to a consumer scanner.

Incercepting or taping is against the law. Also it ought to be noted that most consumer scanners, as he calls them, did not have built in taping capabilities when this happened, 9 years ago. The couple just happened to have a setup that allowed them to do so?  While they were out Christmas shopping?  How convenient…I think we all should have the ability to intercept cell phone calls in the mall…

This was so obivouly a setup it is not funny.

John must still be stinging from his loss to Bush.  He couldn’t even comfort himself over having had the election stolen, he had to deal with just losing to "anyboby but Bush".  Well John was here for a fund raising event and his mouth was moving faster then ever.  In his latest attempt to pretend he is still relevent, John is once again speaking out against the War, with some great Vietrnam flashbacks.

Kerry rekindles his anger over Iraq

With its typical tendency to demean war critics, the Fox News Channel ran a line on the TV screen as it reported on Sen. John Kerry’s proposal that Iraqi leaders be told to get a government together or the United States will get its troops out.

"CUT AND RUN?" the question asked, borrowing a long-ago line used by the Johnson and Nixon administrations to demonize Vietnam War doubters.

Over breakfast here on Wednesday morning, the Massachusetts senator was not about to turn the other cheek.

"We are cutting and running from the truth," Kerry said. "We are cutting and running from diplomacy. We are cutting and running from providing our troops with the arms and materiel they need."

After being hit by charges two years ago that he was wishy-washy on the war, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee seems rekindled in the sense of outrage that once brought him to prominence with Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

One spark has been his rereading of the memoirs of former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. McNamara confessed to his private misgivings about the Vietnam War ("We were terribly, terribly wrong!") that he waged, defended and advocated from 1965 to 1968.

In McNamara’s admission, the United States tried to achieve a military outcome in Vietnam without a political foundation.

"It is exactly the situation in Iraq today," Kerry said. "The military cannot, under any circumstances, produce the outcome we want."

Thanks John for continuing to support the troops.

Nevermind that the body armor complaints are a myth.  Never mind that your statement about the outcome is utterly wrong and shows no faith in the troops.