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Posted on 12/03/2007 1:39:31 PM PST by Bob Leibowitz
Ten years ago Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA7), known in more recent years as Baghdad Jim for his unqualified support of that city's former tyrant, was serving on the House Ethics Committee. Two Democratic Party activists, who had illegally recorded a telephone conversation between Representative John Boehner and then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, delivered the hot tape to McDermott.
McDermott made a the first of a series of truly bad choices. Rather than pursuing his passion for Gingrich through the channels of the Ethics Committee, he delivered the tape to a reporter in what the trial judge ruled was a malicious attempt to politically harm his colleagues through an invasion of their privacy.
Rep. Boehner offered to settle the case years ago for $10,000 and an apology. McDermott, caught up in what might in later years be called Gingrich Derangement Syndrome, refused.
Today's decision by the Supreme Court not to hear Jim's arguments means that McDermott will be paying Boehner something in the neighborhood of $1 million, money that McDermott doesn't have.
Can’t answer but I believe it was a hard tap by McDermott himself and given to the couple for their story. Remember, they received a slap on the wrist for a felony carrying a prison term and $10,000 fine.
In related links Baghdad Jim seems to broke for a long term sitting Senator, which means he is either pure as the driven snow or a complete moron, must be the latter
Seize his assets, his paycheck, and his retirement
He can always write a rubber check on the Congressional bank ... elected reps have been doing it for years don’tchaknow.
I think OJ would tell ya that they can't touch his retirement.And knowing Congress,I'll bet that there's a law saying that you can't touch his assets either.
Wasn’t McDermott a bit too far down the food chain for such an operation?
There is probably not a story on this.
I was in business doing radio work, mobile telephones and that sort of thing for 45 years.
I am familiar with developemnts in those fields. There was a big fight over the wiretap issues before the FCC.
There was a federal law passed that required wiretap capability. In paging companies, the provider has to provide the pager address code so a duplicate pager can be used to record all paging transmissions.
All cellular switches (the central office) must provide a wiretap port so selected phones can be recorded.
There are too many signals (thousands) for a scanner to be able to track and record a particular phone.
During the Clinton administration they had Echelon, which is a computer program that could monitor all this, including internet.
Maybe not, but someone(donors perhap?) richer than he will instead.
What is most unbelievable about it to me is that a cell phone uses two frequencies, not one - it's a fully duplex device. They just happened to be scanning both frequencies? Simultaneously?
It hardly matters anyway - passing on wiretapped information such as this is a felony and McDermott voted in favor of the bill that made it so. These folks got off with a small fine and a collective chuckle in the media - yeah, we finally got Newt. These are the same people who pretend to be horrified at Bush's tapping of terrorist phones. Go figure.
i think this was part of clinton surveillance of all republicans. i think the
amount of wiretapping that went on during their administration would
be mind-blowing. i wish someone would out them.
wife-o-buckhead
Note that the law forbids disclosing, not intercepting.
That is because it is next to impossible to prove how someone obtained the message.
Granny and Gramps were just used to convey the message. There was no investigation to attempt to prove whether they could do it as they said. I am sure it was because the Feds knew where it actually came from and by the plea bargain nobody had to own up to the actual source.
[Wasn’t McDermott a bit too far down the food chain for such an operation?]
They were the perfect “everyman’ family. You couldn’t prosecute a quaint li’l ol’ couple like them. That would be cruel. They were just trying to help their favorite congresscrook.
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