Posted on 04/02/2006 9:21:45 AM PDT by CGblue
McDermott: Public had right to know
By MATTHEW DALY
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott says his eight-year dispute with House Majority Leader John Boehner over an intercepted phone call is not personal, but involves a crucial right of voters to know what their leaders are doing.
"Unfortunately, it's portrayed in the paper as Boehner v. McDermott. It really is the government versus the people," McDermott, D-Seattle, said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press.
In a 2-1 opinion Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a lower-court ruling that McDermott had unlawfully obtained a copy of an illegally intercepted phone conversation between Boehner, then-Speaker Newt Gingrich and other House GOP leaders in December 1996.
McDermott has acknowledged leaking a tape of the call to The New York Times and other news organizations.
The appeals court upheld a lower-court ruling ordering McDermott to pay Boehner, R-Ohio, about $700,000. The figure includes $60,000 in damages and more than $600,000 in legal costs.
"The third person in line to be president was plotting a deception on the [House] Ethics Committee and the American people in private," McDermott said, referring to Gingrich, who was heard on a 1996 call telling House Republicans how to react to ethics charges against him.
"The people have a right to know that," McDermott said. "John Boehner says people have no right to know, because it was done in secret."
McDermott said he has not decided whether to appeal. The nine-term congressman sounded defiant as he cast the taping case as an important defense of the public's right to know.
"This is fundamental," he said. "It's not a simple fight between two members of Congress. The story is whether people have a right to know what is going on in government. Are we going to stand and fight for the rights of the people?"
Boehner told reporters last week he was reluctant to file his 1998 lawsuit — a rare case pitting one member of Congress against another.
advertising "The reason I proceeded then, and the reason I continue to be engaged in this, is because while we all expect our political opponents to go after us, violating the law in pursuit of your political opponents is, in fact, against the law and should not be tolerated," Boehner said. "There is a line beyond which you cannot go."
Boehner was vacationing in Florida in December 1996 when he had the conversation on his cellphone from a restaurant parking lot.
Boehner, then chairman of the House Republican Conference and now House majority leader, discussed strategy with other GOP leaders after a finding by a House ethics panel that Gingrich had violated House rules in his use of tax-exempt organizations.
A published transcript of the tape showed Gingrich directing how lawmakers should react to the ethics charges — on the same day he had promised not to orchestrate a response.
A Florida couple used a scanner to record the conversation and gave a tape to McDermott, who leaked the contents to The Times and other publications. The couple, John and Alice Martin, later pleaded guilty to unlawfully intercepting the call and were fined $500 each.
Please use original titles.
Thanks
Roger that, Sorry!
Too right.
Then McDermott should be leading the charge to release the Barrett report, shouldn't he? And all of Able-Danger info. Has he had Manuel Miranda over for dinner lately?
I still think higher-ups chose McDimwit to "leak" this tape, being safe and secure in his constituency of moonbats.
It's interesting that McDermott thinks it's an impeachable offense for the President to intercept al Qaeda phone calls from overseas, but he thinks that it's quite alright for him to intercept a phone call between US citizens in the United States for purely political reasons.
What an absolute Hypocrite!! Two people talking about a legal case are wiretapped, yet Al Queda deserves their First Amendment Rights to discuss blowing up Americans!!!
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
That was one miracle intercept these 'Martins' performed. I have never bought their flimsy explanation of how they out of the blue pulled it off.
Yeah, it doesn't make sense.
That's right Rep. McDermott, go ahead and express your opinion about our right to know. Just send your check before a court finds you in contempt.
Surely you don't think these innocent, died in the wool democrIDIOTS would intentionally attempt to intercept GOP phone calls??????? Why........that wouldn't be fair!
McDermott is a criminal and should be in jail. The "public" does not have the "right" or really needs to "know" EVERYTHING. This reasoning is as ridiculous as the DemocRATS' and racist Hispanics' current, popular argument that Hispanics have the right to break immigration laws "because people break laws at all levels in America anyway." DemocRATS and Liberals are sick people and should not be allowed to walk the streets freely in this country. They are a danger to society.
I personnally thought at the time, and I still think that Gingrich's office was bugged and the conversation was taped from that end. It makes a hell of a lot more sense than the "Martins taping it in their car". AND it was remarkably clear.
LOL - did he really say that?
I only get snippets of news. Most of those press conferences happen when I'm asleep.
My guess is that these people had advance knowledge of this trip and specifically what phone to monitor and where. I do not believe the miraculous happening they claimed it to be.
No, he only kept saying the first part "excuse me Helen", over and over when she kept interrupting. I took the liberty of putting down what he was probably thinking. I have been thinking I should remove his name because it is misleading.
I wonder if McDermott also believes that "the public has the right to know" if the terrorists living in this country are planning to kill us and therefore, the NSA should be monitoring their overseas calls. I'll bet he doesn't. It's that pesky "privacy" and "liberty" thing that gets in the way when it comes to the NSA intercepting overseas telephone calls made by Islamic killers. Ask any DemocRAT. Islamic terrorists have "rights." Those evil Republicans don't.
Believe me, monitoring and recording specific cellphone calls requires fairly sophisticated technique and equipment. As a matter of fact, scanners manufactured after the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 did not cover this part of the spectrum, and had to be modified to do so. This was no accidental intercept.
The call was wiretapped somewhere else. You can't do what the Martins claimed to have done with the equipment they claim to have used. Even with the old analog cell phone systems the two sides of the conversation would have taken place on different channels.
In Baghdad Jim's depraved mind, Newt Gingrich was more of a threat to the American people than Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda terrorists are today.
Well at least we know his priorities now. If McDermott thinks the public has a "right to know", when may we expect complete and unexpurgated transcripts of all of HIS cellphone calls say, over the past 10 years or so?
Cough up that check you puke, made payable to Congressman John Boehner.
Come on. McDermott and his two little 'RAT toadies, the Martians, already explained it. They were doing some last minute "christmas shopping" for their lovely grandaughters when they accidently overheard this conversation so they decided to tape it for prosperity. Everyone knows grandmas and grandpas ALWAYS lug around a complete scanning and phone recording setup when they are out doing last minute "christmas shopping." This is the new millennium! These kinds of things need to be recorded in order to keep the old "public's right to know" thing going.
Since I have a crucial right to know what my "leaders" are doing I should be able to demand that McDermott be implanted with a GPS locater and a audio/video transmitter so I know where he is and what he is doing at all times.
Is this dimwit sure he wants to go there?
McDirtbag was my congress critter for several years. A bigger piece of dung you will not find. He is a lying swine with the moniker of "Bagdad Jim" that he earned with his traitorous activities prior to the invasion of Iraq. The man should be in a federal prison.
I'm being too harsh. He is a psychologist which means that he's a loon, and not responsible for his actions.
I don't entirely doubt the Martins did the tapping. I just don't believe they did it with unmodified equipment. There was a fair amount of discussion of this in technical magazines.
Of course the press never called it wiretapping. The crime was in what was said, not in the fact that a private phone call was intercepted for political purposes.
I think Newt was still in D.C. Boehner was on vacation or something. In fact, I think there were a couple of other reps with Newt and it was a conference call. The news stories of the time might be in the archives.
And I don't know how to access the archives.I am computer semi-illiterate.
But McDer-Mutt did not have the right to tell them.
Pay up sukkah!
So why aren't the Democrats seeking to impeach McDermott?
YES! We should all be faxing McDermott's office and insisting we have a right to the FULL BARRETT REPORT NOW!!!
"It really is the government versus the people,"
even if it means breaking thre law
"unlawfully obtained a copy of an illegally intercepted phone conversation"
Brilliant, Brilliant!
...and we have a border we refuse to protect. THIS CONGRESS IS OUT OF WHACK!
What's even more interesting the Cincinnati Enquirer (Gannett), in spite of House Majority Leader John Boehner's district being in the greater Cincinnati area, made no mention of the favorable ruling handed down by the Federal Appeals Court in Washington, DC. this past week. Know with utmost certainty had the ruling gone against Boehner it would have made the front page. No bias in liberal MSM print media ... none whatsoever.
bump
Is it higher or lower than Murtha's?
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