Potomac Watch: McDermott still blasting out his message: Bush lied

WASHINGTON -- The venue has changed, but Jim McDermott's message is the same -- George W. Bush, you lied to us.

McDermott, the Democrat from Seattle, got into hot water last year when he said from Baghdad in September 2002 that Bush "misled the American people" to build support for military action in Iraq. Pelted by criticism, McDermott admitted that he might have "overstated my case."

Upon further review, however, McDermott seems to believe he was right all along.

He took to the House floor Monday and tried using a congressional privilege in a unique way. Moving to protect the "integrity" of the House, McDermott sought to attach very large asterisks to the State of the Union address President Bush delivered Jan. 28 charging sections were stuffed with known falsehoods. Allowing such untruths to remain unchecked in the Congressional Record, he said, would put a stain of disrepute on Congress.

"The president fed us these misrepresentations from the floor of the people's House, and he used them to pave the path to war. Now that we know the facts, I am asking the House to make a note in the record that these statements were inaccurate," McDermott said.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/145367_pot25.html

Is one of WA's best congresmen.
One of the best in the House.

Activests and progressives love him.
Needless to say the powers that be,
hate him. He's very very brave to
speak out the way he does.

While McDermott is off in far off lands representing 'activists', Dunn is trying to stop approprations to the 7th. I like Jim but he needs to spend more time working for his constituents; not working in the state department.

country.

But I voted for Jim Mcdermott to represent the interests of the 7th congressional district. That means loss of high-tech jobs, loss of manufacturing jobs, growing sprawl, and lack of transportation infrastructure. I'd like him to tackle foreign policy issues but not at the expense of local problems.

can get ANYTHING from this congress? None of our issues can even get to the floor! The bushies have spent us into the hole like they planned.

Transportation infrastructure? Just HOW would a lone Rep push that through for you? or ANY of the repub caused problems you list? But he CAN use his voice to highlight Jr's complete ballsup.

I spoke too soon, Seattle to get $500 million dollars for transportation infrastructure:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/145475_transit25.html
http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20031025/northwest/133021.shtml

Light rail isn't the best solution but we need more dedicated mass transit.

from your article:

Normally, when inaccurate statements are made in the House Chamber, members of Congress have a collective responsibility to challenge them through discussion and debate on the floor, and this is reflected in the record. On Jan. 28, when the president spoke in this chamber, there was no debate. The only way to make clear that these statements were inaccurate is to note this fact in the record," he said.

"I am disappointed that the speaker did not recognize the magnitude of this issue and did not allow debate on my resolution to be considered by the full House. My goal was to protect the Congressional Record for this and future generations so that they can understand the facts behind these statements."

But even though his long-shot quest was denied, not all was lost. Since McDermott made his case from the House floor, the entire episode will be available for all, verbatim, in the Congressional Record.

He's an outstanding Congressguy. Thanks for the information.

John Nichols: Too many rubber-stampers in Congress

By John Nichols
October 21, 2003

Before Congress voted on whether to hand George W. Bush another $87 billion for the occupation of Iraq, Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., went to the floor of the House and declared, "(We) are being asked to suck it up again, give him $87 billion, do not ask him what he did with it, just rubber-stamp it. That is wrong. Just vote no."

McDermott, a physician who served in Vietnam, is not a rubber-stamp member. He opposed the October 2002 congressional resolution that gave Bush a blank check to launch a unilateral, pre-emptive invasion of Iraq. And he opposed the October 2003 congressional resolution that will give Bush a virtual blank check to maintain the occupation that followed upon that invasion.

Unfortunately, McDermott was right when he suggested that a lot of his fellow members would simply get out their rubber stamps and approve the latest blank-check resolution. The Senate voted 87-12 to give Bush just about everything that he asked for. The House voted 303-125 to give the president everything that he asked for. The two, slightly divergent measures will have to be reconciled into one big blank check, but the bottom line is clear: Most members of Congress ceded their constitutional responsibility to place checks and balances on the president and simply served as rubber stamps. (snip/...)

http://www.madison.com/captimes/opinion/column/nichols/59391.php

Sounds as if he can handle the job his Democratic supporters hired him to do.

repeatedly and gladly.

That most folks in the United States didn't give Mr. McDermott the time of day, but this Administration believed Ahmed Chalabi was the key to taking over Iraq.

We sure got it backward, 'eh? And what's worse we won't even admit that we got it wrong!!

Go to: http://www.christian-aid.org.uk
and click on Iraq: the missing billions