Baghdad Jim Loses

Chief Judge Thomas Hogan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered Rep. Jim McDermott to pay John Boehner, R-Ohio, $1.05 million in attorney's fees and costs, plus about $40,000 in interest 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 when McDermott acted improperly in giving reporters access to an audio tape given to him by a Florida couple who recorded a 1996 telephone call involving then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and other GOP leaders. McDermott, at the time a senior member of the House ethics committee, leaked the tape to two newspapers, which published articles on the case in January 1997. McDermott, a Washington Democrat, also had to pay more than $60,000 in fines and damages, as well as nearly $600,000 in fees to his own lawyers. McDermott said Tuesday he would not appeal the judge's ruling. "It's dead," he said of the 10-year dispute with Boehner "We're just cleaning up after the parade. We saved the First Amendment, and it costs a piece of change, but that's life in the big leagues." It is a travesty that a criminal like McDermott can use his campaign finances to pay off his fines in a civil suit, crime pays, handsomely, if you are a politician. You rightfully lost your ass Jimbo, you should also be tried and convicted of treason.