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Posted on 10/02/2002 1:14:07 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
WASHINGTON - Rep. Jim McDermott, who earned headlines across the globe for criticizing President Bush while in Iraq, said Wednesday he may have overreached.
"I perhaps overstated my case," McDermott, D-Wash., told a news conference, referring to his comment from Baghdad that he thinks Bush would mislead the American people about the need for war.
McDermott returned to Washington, D.C., Tuesday night after a five-day trip to Iraq. He said a crucial question still remains about a possible U.S. invasion of Iraq: "When has the president proved to us that we should commit our troops to war?"
Wednesday morning, President Bush said the use of force against Iraq "may become unavoidable" if Saddam Hussein refuses to disarm. He issued his threat after House leaders agreed to give him authority to oust Saddam.
While the House leadership agreed on a resolution authorizing force, the Senate was still divided. However, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del., said Bush's plan was fast gaining momentum.
At his news conference, the usually brash McDermott appeared stung by Republican criticism of his trip. He disputed Republican suggestions that he and other Democrats who visited Iraq had provided comfort to the enemy.
McDermott earned infamy in GOP circles after disclosing a secretly recorded 1996 phone conversation among Republican leaders, including then-Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Now the seven-term lawmaker from Seattle, an unapologetic dove, has infuriated Republicans by criticizing Bush over U.S. policy toward Iraq.
"I think the president would mislead the American public" about the need for war, McDermott said.
On its own the statement was bad enough, Republicans said, but it was especially outrageous since McDermott was in Baghdad at the time, during a five-day trip to Iraq with other Democratic House members.
McDermott also said he would take "at their face value" assurances by Saddam Hussein that inspectors would be allowed unfettered access to Iraqi weapons.
The barbed remarks, characteristic of the sharp-tongued McDermott, again put him in the bull's eye for Republican critics, who accused him of coddling Saddam.
Chris Vance, the Washington state Republican chairman, branded McDermott "Baghdad Jim," and columnist George Will compared McDermott's trip to Jane Fonda's infamous visit to Hanoi during the Vietnam War.
"He needs to come home and keep his mouth shut," said Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss.
"Hurling reckless charges from hostile soil strays over the edge," added House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer also joined the fray.
"I think it was rather remarkable to see a member of the United States Congress travel to Baghdad, Iraq, to say that Saddam Hussein needs to be believed, while the President of the United States will mislead the American people," Fleischer said. "And I think it just shows it is certainly the good congressman's right to say anything he wants, no matter how foolish. And he exercised that right."
Democrats defended McDermott, who was returning to Washington with two fellow congressmen who joined him on the trip, Dave Bonior, D-Mich., and Mike Thompson, D-Calif. The three men are doing nothing more than questioning U.S. policy - and seeing for themselves the devastation caused by the last war against Iraq, Democrats said.
"I doubt very much there is a shred of sympathy among Jim McDermott, Dave Bonior or Mike Thompson for Saddam Hussein," said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore. "They may have sympathy to the plight of the Iraqi people."
Far from helping Saddam, McDermott and others visiting Iraq were furthering the goal of peace, by insisting on weapons inspections by the United Nations, DeFazio said.
"What they are doing is alerting people to the fact this isn't about one jerk who has managed to maintain a brutally despotic regime. It's about 23 million people whose lives would be at risk if there is a U.S. invasion," DeFazio said. "If we can defang this guy without incurring loss of civilian life, that would be a better solution than a war."
State Democrats agreed.
In what amounted to a show of support for McDermott, the Washington State Democratic Central Committee voted unanimously to oppose any unilateral attack on Iraq. All 102 members of the state panel were present for the weekend vote, chairman Paul Berendt said.
Democrats in Washington state overwhelmingly believe the Bush administration is trying to force the country into a war that has not been adequately justified, Berendt said.
"The feeling is that, left unchecked, the president is going to go way too far," he said.
Vance called McDermott and state Democrats an embarrassment.
For McDermott "to go to Iraq now and essentially make excuses for Saddam Hussein is just contemptible," Vance said, adding that Berendt was "throwing gasoline on the fire."
The uproar has been felt at McDermott's Capitol office. Phones there have been ringing off the hook, spokesman John Larmett said.
Calls are about equally divided, Larmett said. While some have called McDermott a "moron" and a "traitor," several have suggested he run for national office.
Berendt called McDermott "the man of the moment." His constituents want him to take a leadership role, Berendt said, "and he has stepped up to the challenge."
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Does that equate to I did not have sex with that Dictator, Mr, Hussein
Bwahhaaahaaaahaaa!
Keep it up boys. Consort with the enemy, defend his defenders, and keep telling the American people why that is O.K.
Moral relativism comes home to roost, and they can't even figure out its a problem. Buh Bye.
Chris Vance has his own problems, but not running candidates against McIdiot is not one of them.
Isn't that one of the signs of the apocalypse?
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