Apr 01 2008
Rep Jim “Baghdad” McDermott finally is forced to pay for his crimes
Pay up, you cheapskate crook.
Dirty Democrat files: Baghdad Jim finally forced to pay up
Democrat Rep. Jim McDermott will have to fork over the $1 million in legal fees he owes GOP Rep. John Boehner in the protracted leaked tape case. Finally. Leave it to McDermott to pervert this into some kind of triumph for the First Amendment. Chutzpah:
A federal judge says House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, can collect more than $1 million in his lawsuit against Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington state.
The decision was issued in a decade-long dispute over an illegally taped telephone call. In the 1996 call, Republican leaders discussed an ethics case against then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. A Florida couple recorded the cell phone call on a radio scanner and McDermott leaked the tape to two newspapers.
Boehner sued and a federal court found that McDermott had no right to release the calls. The Supreme Court decided in December not to revisit the case.
Now….trust a democrat to rationalize this as a good thing:
McDermott called the court fight with Boehner “a long and costly battle,” but said the million-dollar judgment was “a small price to pay in defense of so fundamental a principle, and freedom, as the First Amendment.”
Because of the protracted legal challenge, “the First Amendment is stronger today, and shielded by new case law that will buttress its capacity to protect the publication of truthful information on matters of public importance long into the future,” McDermott said in a statement Tuesday. “Knowing this, I am proud of my role in defense of the First Amendment.”
So the lesson, according to Cheapo?
Wiretap the enemies of America? BAD BAD BAD!! Un-American, evil and bad! Did I mention racist? Oh and bad!
Wiretap the members of the opposite political party? A glorious exercise in freedom and principle. A hole enterprise filled with righteousness and altruism
My only exit comment is my eternal gratitude that this fool does not represent my district. There are many other reasons Seattle is the laughing stock of the state, but he is a huge one.
Pay Up Cheapo.
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2 Responses to “Rep Jim “Baghdad” McDermott finally is forced to pay for his crimes”
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Hmmm, First Amendment rights? I’m having a hard time figuring out how invading someone elses privacy (and breaking the law while you are doing it) has anything to do with the First Amendment.
Not that I want to justify his crimes, but McDermott believes that his releasing the recording was a first amendment protected action.
See, he did not record it, it was recorded by some citizens and forwarded to him. So he holds himself blameless for the act of wiretapping.
His decision to expose them to the media (and embarrass Gingrich) was made, according to him, under the guise of free speech. So when Boehner sued him, that was his defense, that no matter how they were made, they were covered by free speech for the further release.
The Court’s disagreed.
So now he is acting the martyr, by virtue of his contention that he followed his principles, and that was worth the price.
Typical Democrat sophistry