Posted on 10/07/2002 1:16:46 AM PDT by sarcasm
U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott broadened his attack on George W. Bush's war plans yesterday, saying the president is threatening military action in Iraq as part of a plot to crown himself emperor of America.
Criticized for saying on a trip to Iraq early last week that Bush would mislead the American public, McDermott, a Seattle Democrat, was back in his district yesterday telling cheering supporters that Bush is planning a war to distract voters' attention from domestic problems.
He said Bush is trying to "submarine" efforts to restart weapons inspections in Iraq to give him a pretext for starting a war — a war McDermott said is being planned in part to bolster U.S. oil interests.
"And what we are dealing with right now in this country is whether we are having a kind of bloodless, silent coup or not," McDermott said at a town-hall meeting at the Jefferson Park Community Center on Beacon Hill. The event was sponsored by local Democrats and other groups in his congressional district.
'Like sheep'
At the heart of the debate, McDermott said, is whether Congress or the president has the power to declare war.
"This president is trying to bring to himself all the power to become an emperor — to create Empire America," he said.
And he warned his supporters, "If you go along like sheep that is what will happen."
State Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance said McDermott's comments about a coup "were the most irresponsible thing I've ever heard an American politician say."
"Sometimes politicians, like everyone else, will blurt out things they don't mean," Vance said. "But it sounds like he has thought about this carefully and really believes that."
The resolution Congress will vote on next week was negotiated between the White House and Congressional leaders of both parties.
"The president is not trying to bypass Congress," Vance said. "He's taking his case to Congress."
"If President Bush is engaged in a coup then his co-conspirators are Richard Gephardt and Joseph Lieberman," he said, referring to Democratic leaders.
About 200 people showed up for McDermott's meeting in the Beacon Hill Community Center. Nearly all were supporters.
Outside, four or five protesters carried signs objecting to McDermott's recent trip to Iraq and his comments about Bush and Saddam Hussein.
"Saddam Good — Bush Bad. This is Baghdad Jim's Mind On Drugs," said a sign carried by Brandon Swalley of Lakewood.
"I think he should be thrown out," she said.
When McDermott arrived, he was escorted into the hall by Seattle police and followed by a few protesters, one of whom shouted after him, "Our president is not a liar. If you want to say it, say it here but don't go to foreign lands to say it."
Inside the crowd was heavily in favor of McDermott's view. When opponents took a microphone to talk, they were shouted at and told to get to their question. Supporters, though, were able to talk uninterrupted and give anti-war speeches.
Pattern of deception
Late last week McDermott said that he may have overstated his case against Bush while in Iraq. But yesterday it was clear he believes there's a pattern of deception within the Bush administration to justify a war.
He said that Bush is using the memory of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to fuel a war with Iraq.
"One of the dilemmas we've had since 9/11 is that this country has been continuously terrorized by the government," McDermott said. "Every week they announce a new threat. 'Today is a code orange.' 'Today is a code red.'
"Granted it was an awful day. It was a heinous act. Nobody has anything but horror over what happened that day.
"But the message to draw from that day is not that we should suddenly go to war with the whole world, which is what the president is saying."
McDermott is convinced that Bush is bent on war with Iraq to distract voters' attention from a collapsing stock market and other problems at home.
"It is the oldest game in the book," he said. "They found this war very convenient to obscure people's views about what is happening domestically."
McDermott said he and two other Democratic members of Congress went to Iraq to see firsthand the effect of economic sanctions on the country, as well as to tell Iraqi leaders that if they didn't agree to weapons inspections there would be a war.
He said the demand for inspections was delivered to 15 or 20 government officials, but not to Saddam, who they did not ask to see.
"We knew there was no point in getting into a situation where we're shaking hands and smiling with somebody we don't really think is doing the right thing by the country or the world, and we knew that message would get to him."
Connecting the dots
McDermott's comments went much further than his television interviews from Iraq, in which he said Bush would mislead Americans in order to build support for a war.
When someone asked him if the war was meant to bolster U.S. oil interests, McDermott talked about what oil companies could gain from a war and said, "I'm not going to connect the dots exactly, but I think a dotted line certainly seems within the realm of possibility. ...
"Oil is certainly a part of it but I don't think it's the underlying issue." The underlying issue, he said repeatedly, is a fight over the Constitutional power to declare war.
"People that I trust say if we don't derail this coup that is going on, we are going to wind up with a government run by the president of the United States and all the rest of us will be standing around just watching it happen."
Apparently its "Progressive" to steal productive peoples money at gunpoint and give it to non productive people in exchange for their vote.
"Progressive" is a code word for socialist, note that Sanders of VT is an officer.
Why these people are allowed to get on national TV and not disclose or be asked by the press reagrding their membership in a socialist organization is beyond me.
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| Member/Position/District |
Address | Phone | Website |
| Peter DeFazio (OFFICER, OREGON-04) |
2134 RHOB | 225-6416 | WEBSITE |
| Dennis Kucinich (Chairman) (CHAIR, OHIO-10) |
1730 LHOB | 225-5871 | WEBSITE |
| Barbara Lee (Vice Chair) (OFFICER, CALIFORNIA-09) |
426 CHOB | 225-2661 | WEBSITE |
| Cynthia McKinney (OFFICER, GEORGIA-04) |
124 CHOB | 225-1605 | WEBSITE |
| Major Owens (OFFICER, NEW YORK-11) |
2309 RHOB | 225-6231 | WEBSITE |
| Bernie Sanders (OFFICER, VERMONT) |
2135 RHOB | 225-4115 | WEBSITE |
| Paul Wellstone (OFFICER, MINNESOTA) |
136 HSOB | 224-5641 | WEBSITE |
| members | |||
| Member/Position/District |
Address | Phone | Website |
| Neil Abercrombie (MEMBER, HAWAII-01) |
1502 LHOB | 225-2726 | WEBSITE |
| Tammy Baldwin (MEMBER, WISCONSIN-02) |
1022 LHOB | 225-2906 | WEBSITE |
| Xavier Becerra (MEMBER, CALIFORNIA-30) |
1119 LHOB | 225-6235 | WEBSITE |
| David Bonior (MEMBER, MICHIGAN-10) |
2207 RHOB | 225-2106 | WEBSITE |
| Corrine Brown (MEMBER, FLORIDA-03) |
2444 RHOB | 225-0123 | WEBSITE |
| Sherrod Brown (MEMBER, OHIO-13) |
2438 RHOB | 225-3401 | WEBSITE |
| Michael Capuano (MEMBER, MASSACHUSETTS-08) |
1232 LHOB | 225-5111 | WEBSITE |
| Julia Carson (MEMBER, INDIANA-10) |
1339 LHOB | 225-4011 | WEBSITE |
| William "Lacy" Clay (MEMBER, MISSOURI-01) |
415 CHOB | 225-2406 | WEBSITE |
| John Conyers (MEMBER, MICHIGAN-14) |
2426 RHOB | 225-5126 | WEBSITE |
| Danny Davis (MEMBER, ILLINOIS-07) |
1222 LHOB | 225-5006 | WEBSITE |
| Rosa DeLauro (MEMBER, CONNECTICUT-03) |
2262 RHOB | 225-3661 | WEBSITE |
| Lane Evans (MEMBER, ILLINOIS-17) |
2211 RHOB | 225-5905 | WEBSITE |
| Eni Faleomavaega (MEMBER, AMERICAN SAMOA) |
2422 RHOB | 225-8577 | WEBSITE |
| Sam Farr (MEMBER, CALIFORNIA-17) |
1221 LHOB | 225-2861 | WEBSITE |
| Chaka Fattah (MEMBER, PENNSYLVANIA-02) |
1205 LHOB | 225-4001 | WEBSITE |
| Bob Filner (MEMBER, CALIFORNIA-50) |
2463 RHOB | 225-8045 | WEBSITE |
| Barney Frank (MEMBER, MASSACHUSETTS-04) |
2252 RHOB | 225-5931 | WEBSITE |
| Luis Gutierrez (MEMBER, ILLINOIS-04) |
2452 RHOB | 225-8203 | WEBSITE |
| Earl Hilliard (MEMBER, ALABAMA-07) |
1314 LHOB | 225-2665 | WEBSITE |
| Maurice Hinchey (MEMBER, NEW YORK-26) |
2431 RHOB | 225-6335 | WEBSITE |
| Jesse Jackson, Jr (MEMBER, ILLINOIS-02) |
313 CHOB | 225-0773 | |
| Sheila Jackson-Lee (MEMBER, TEXAS-18) |
403 CHOB | 225-3816 | WEBSITE |
| Stephanie Tubbs Jones (MEMBER, OHIO-11) |
1516 LHOB | 225-7032 | WEBSITE |
| Marcy Kaptur (MEMBER, OHIO-09) |
2366 RHOB | 225-4146 | WEBSITE |
| Tom Lantos (MEMBER, CALIFORNIA-12) |
2217 RHOB | 225-3531 | WEBSITE |
| John Lewis (MEMBER, GEORGIA-05) |
343 CHOB | 225-3801 | WEBSITE |
| Jim McDermott (MEMBER, WASHINGTON-07) |
1035 LHOB | 225-3106 | WEBSITE |
| James P. McGovern (MEMBER, MASSACHUSETTS-03) |
430 CHOB | 225-6101 | WEBSITE |
| Carrie Meek (MEMBER, FLORIDA-17) |
2433 RHOB | 225-4506 | WEBSITE |
| George Miller (MEMBER, CALIFORNIA-07) |
2205 RHOB | 225-2095 | WEBSITE |
| Patsy Mink (MEMBER, HAWAII-02) |
2210 RHOB | 225-4906 | WEBSITE |
| Jerry Nadler (MEMBER, NEW YORK-08) |
2334 RHOB | 225-5635 | WEBSITE |
| Eleanor Holmes Norton (MEMBER, D.C.) |
2136 RHOB | 225-8050 | WEBSITE |
| John Olver (MEMBER, MASSACHUSETTS-01) |
1027 LHOB | 225-5335 | WEBSITE |
| Ed Pastor (MEMBER, ARIZONA-02) |
2465 RHOB | 225-4065 | WEBSITE |
| Donald Payne (MEMBER, NEW JERSEY-10) |
2209 RHOB | 225-3436 | WEBSITE |
| Nancy Pelosi (MEMBER, CALIFORNIA-08) |
2457 RHOB | 225-4965 | WEBSITE |
| Bobby Rush (MEMBER, ILLINOIS-01) |
2416 RHOB | 225-4372 | WEBSITE |
| Jan Schakowsky (MEMBER, ILLINOIS-09) |
515 CHOB | 225-2111 | WEBSITE |
| Jose Serrano (MEMBER, NEW YORK-16) |
2342 RHOB | 225-4361 | WEBSITE |
| Hilda Solis (MEMBER, CALIFORNIA-31) |
1641 LHOB | 225-5464 | WEBSITE |
| Pete Stark (MEMBER, CALIFORNIA-13) |
239 CHOB | 225-5065 | WEBSITE |
| Bennie Thompson (MEMBER, MISSISSIPPI-02) |
2432 RHOB | 225-5876 | WEBSITE |
| John Tierney (MEMBER, MASSACHUSETTS-06) |
120 CHOB | 225-8020 | WEBSITE |
| Tom Udall (MEMBER, NEW MEXICO-03) |
502 CHOB | 225-6190 | WEBSITE |
| Nydia Velazquez (MEMBER, NEW YORK-12) |
2241 RHOB | 225-2361 | WEBSITE |
| Maxine Waters (MEMBER, CALIFORNIA-35) |
2344 RHOB | 225-2201 | WEBSITE |
| Diane Watson (MEMBER, CALIFORNIA-32) |
2413 RHOB | 225-7084 | WEBSITE |
| Mel Watt (MEMBER, NORTH CAROLINA-12) |
2236 RHOB | 225-1510 | WEBSITE |
| Henry Waxman (MEMBER, CALIFORNIA-29) |
2204 RHOB | 225-3976 | WEBSITE |
| Lynn Woolsey (MEMBER, CALIFORNIA-06) |
2263 RHOB | 225-5161 | WEBSITE |
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Congressional Progressive Caucus
sounds like he has been hanging out with pat buchanan....
Hey he's got to say something. He'll never live this down. And I believe Alamo-Girl will probably be keeping track of whoever agrees with him too.
The 3 stooges should be toast.
(knuk,knuk,knuk) and a curly salute.
Sounds like his followers?! I wonder what they would do if a couple of planes flew into their buildings tomorrow? Would they still be "peaceful and loving"?
It's not as if ANY of them are going to be fighting this war! COWARDS! They certainly take advantage of the rewards that come from those who do protect our freedoms.
McDermott is a lying partisan criminal who is abysmally incompetent regarding US foreign policy and unworthy of his constituency's trust.
John and Alice Martin. This Florida couple, longtime Democrats and active in the National Education Association, taped a cellular telephone conversation between Gingrich and several GOP allies which dealt with a strategy for responding to the ethics committee charges against the speaker. The Martins say they began taping the conversation while on a Christmas shopping excursion simply because they thought it would make a good gift for their soon-to-be-born grandchild. Realizing its possible significance, they contacted their congressional representative, Rep. Karen Thurman (D-Fla.), who sealed the tape in an envelope. Thurman gave the tape back to the Martins who delivered the tape in person to Rep. McDermott on a trip to Washington, D.C. The taping and distributing cellular conversation is illegal, and the Justice Department, now in possession of the tape, has launched an investigation.
Jim McDermott. McDermott, the ranking Democrat on the House ethics committee, broke the ethics committee's code of silence in late September to complain Republicans were dragging their feet on the probe. One of Gingrich's fiercest critics, McDermott found himself in hot water over his handling of a possibly illegal tape recording of a cellular telephone conversation involving Gingrich and several Republican allies. McDermott recused himself from the Gingrich case on Jan. 14 over the tape incident.
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Seattle Times...
McDermott has not let consistency, or even national mourning, stand in the way of his pursuit of dollars.
In 1995 he blasted then-Rep. Randy Tate when the GOP congressman set up "coffee clubs" at which $100 contributors were promised insider briefings. It created two classes of constituents, McD rightly argued.
A few years later, however, a club called "Jim McDermott's Agora" was created for $1,000 McD donors, with the inducement of candid private conversations with policy-makers and an "insider's newsletter" prepared by the campaign staff.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, most House members suspended fund raising or donated proceeds to charity.
McDermott brought Rep. Nancy Pelosi (since elected House Democratic whip) to Seattle on Sept. 16 for three fund-raising parties. The events raised $34,417.50. Asked if he would donate any of the dollars to 9/11 related charities, McD said last fall: "We're looking at it. We'll do what's appropriate."
Not a cent went to charity: $33,917 found its way into the congressman's campaign fund and $500 went to legal bills in Boehner's suit. (McD and his wife have privately given $3,500 to disaster relief.)
The Boehner lawsuit has ground on through rulings by district and appellate courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court. In the latest act, McDermott's lawyers have served subpoenas on three Republicans who worked with him on the Ethics Committee, including its former chairwoman Rep. Nancy Johnson of Connecticut.
Defenders would argue McDermott uses his safe perch to vote against defense money, visits Third World countries that rarely see a U.S. congressman and introduces legislation to help low-income working people who lost jobs after 9/11.
But sadly absent in this lawmaker is a sense of accountability and respect for federal wiretap law.
A tough election would be good for the 7th Congressional District, and for its congressman.
I say give the man more bullets. Not enough holes in his feet yet.
It's just a nice personal touch to pick the bribe money up yourself.
Bonding, you know.
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