Posted on 12/28/2004 9:01:31 AM PST by areafiftyone
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House ethics committee will investigate Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., to determine whether he violated standards of conduct when an illegally recorded telephone conversation was leaked to reporters during a committee investigation.
Committee Chairman Joel Hefley, R-Colo., and ranking Democrat Alan Mollohan of West Virginia formed a four-member investigative subcommittee Tuesday to investigate the 1997 incident. McDermott was ranking Democrat on the ethics committee at the time, and the panel was investigating the conduct of then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.
The incident began when a Florida couple taped Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, who was using his cell phone to discuss the case with other Republicans. The tape ended up in McDermott's hands and subsequently was leaked to reporters.
Boehner sued McDermott in federal court. U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan concluded earlier this year that McDermott was responsible for the leak and ordered the Washington lawmaker to pay Boehner for "willful and knowing misconduct" that "rises to the level of malice." Boehner said the payment could total about $600,000.
McDermott is challenging the ruling in a federal appeals court.
Responding to a complaint filed by Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, Hefley and Mollohan said the subcommittee would consider whether "McDermott's conduct violated the House Code of Official conduct," which requires members to conduct themselves "at all times in a manner which shall reflect creditably on the House of Representatives."
The investigative panel also will consider whether McDermott ran afoul of a government ethics code, and committee rules barring improper disclosures and protecting confidential information.
Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., will head the panel. Other members are Reps. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif.; Phil English, R-Pa., and Robert Scott, D-Va. The subcommittee will report its findings to the full ethics panel, officially the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.
Which traitor are you refering to?
And it'll take another 7 to sentence him!
"The House members and their staff are paid salaries, not by the hour."
How will this benefit the United States? What will we gain from it? If we take back a month's salary from everyone of these idiots and tell them to spend that month at home working on their lawns, how much can we reduce taxes?
This is the political effect of goofing off on the job. I'm sick of it. If there isn't pressing national business to attend to, they can just stay home and play these political games on their own dime and quit taking mine.
I love this whole scenario as it will put the House Ethics Committee into a hysterical tizzy trying to find a loophole in the rules so their bud can get off.
So what if he's already been found guilty in a court of law. The Law and ethics are two wholly different things, doncha know?
Leni
Well, it's about damn time!
"Why not just wait and do the investigation posthumiously?"
I agree that this has taken way too long-he must've crapped in somebody's messkit to start this so late.
McDermott has put out an urgent fundraising letter that has been linked on DU. Too bad they threw what they had down a rathole on phony ballot issues. They're tapped.
McDermott
7 years if you're in Congress, Son.
Here's a link to FrontPageMag...Baghdad Bonior.
As if that is going to happen....
Which is all you need to know about DemoRats.
while the committee is at it, why don't they investigate possible connections between McDermott and the obvious election fraud committed in King County to snatch the governorship from duly elected Republican Dino Rossi. McDermott's constituents are exactly the sorts who vote twice or thrice under names of all their multiple personalities.
Nail his Saddamn loving A
He's worthless, but the people in his district (7th) don't get it, and will keep voting him in.
Just for info to show what a butthead he really is.
May 1, 2004 Rep. Jim McDermott Assailed for Omitting God from Pledge of Allegiance
On April 27, Representative Jim McDermott, Democrat from Seattle, was given an assignment by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's office: Open the House session with the obligatory recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, a task that rotates among House members.
When McDermott delivered the pledge, he omitted saying the words "Under God," and that created an uproar.
Representative Pete Sessions, Republican of Texas, blamed McDermott for "embarrassing the House and disparaging the majority of Americans who share the values expressed in the pledge," ....more here
IMO, the house ethics committee has a different definition of ethics than I do; it probably will come to naught.
...and having McDimwit spend a couple of years (hopefully) in court would only be good for the country. I heard this wacko say on a local liberal radio talk show that the Rs were responsible for the Bin Laden tape that aired just before the election. In his puny, perverted mind they did this so the Democrats would be scared to come out of their houses on election day, thus assuring a Bush win.
Note to Jim: Why would only the Democrats be scared? Oh, because Democrats are whiners and wimps and girlie men. Which is apparently why Democrat "men" now have two women Senators and one woman governor in Washington State. They now have three additional "mommies" to take care of them!
Do you think we'll wait 7 years for Sandy Berger's lapse of memory?
Do you think we'll wait 7 years for Sandy Berger's lapse of memory?
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