Posted on 12/11/2006 4:42:17 PM PST by blam
Panel: Leaked Gingrich Call Broke Rules
Monday December 11, 2006 11:46 PM
By MATTHEW DALY
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., violated ethics standards by giving reporters access to an illegally taped telephone call involving Republican leaders a decade ago, the House ethics committee said Monday.
McDermott, who at the time was the panel's senior Democrat, failed to meet his obligations as a committee leader, said a report released two days after Congress adjourned for the year. The panel took no action other than the report.
``Rep. McDermott's secretive disclosures to the news media ... risked undermining the ethics process regarding'' former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the committee said. It said McDermott's actions ``were not consistent with the spirit of the committee's rules.''
The ethics complaint stems from a tape recording made by a Florida couple, who gave it to McDermott in January 1997. The tape recorded then-Speaker Gingrich, R-Ga., in a December 1996 conference call with GOP leaders regarding a separate ethics investigation of Gingrich.
McDermott leaked the tape to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The New York Times, which published stories on the case in January 1997.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
McD needs to go when Pelosi drains the swamp and gets rid of all that corruption.
Will the new D Congress deal with this? Or will it go the way of bird flu?
Interesting source; the Guardian in UK. Funny, I haven't seen this report on ABCCBSNBCMSNBCCNNFNC. Typical.
Why exactly did it take 10 years to figure this out?
McDermot will be lond dead and buried from old age before the demo/socialists take any action on this.
You tell 'em Rodney - "Justice delayed is justice denied!"
:-)
Because that's how long it will take for anyone to do anything about it. (if at all)
Wow. The wheels of justice turned by the House Ethics Committee are indeed swift.
They won't drain the swamp. They ARE the swamp.
They talk about how crooked Republicans are. Guess they haven't looked in the mirror lately.
Their crooks are just fine to them.
The action was a felony under a law that McDermott voted for. As the co-chair of the Ethics Committee he flouted it and then directed his staff to stonewall the farcical "investigation" by the Reno Justice Department. Presenting this as some sort of First Amendment issue is framing a falsehood.
And who did not know this ten years ago?
And....?
Boehner chased McDermott on this for years. Shows some good resolve on his part.
The sooner the better. How about tomorrow.
They are saying it was an ethics violation when in reality, it was a crime to illegally tape someone's phone call and then participate in its illegal distribution.
While McDermott didnt personally do the taping (that was supposedly some random couple just pasiing thru-wink, wink), he committed the crime by accepting and using the tape.
Why have rules if people don't get punished when they break them?
It took them ten years to come to this conclusion?
IIRC, the couple that taped the call in the first place were activists in the Democratic Party, though the image they (and the MSM) portrayed was that of an ordinary couple that just happened upon the conversation and taped it with no ulterior motive.
IIRC, anyway.
Wake me up when a Dem is actually prosecuted for breaking the law. zzzzzzzzz
If the MSM used an even hand in its reporting and wasn't a propaganda arm for the democrats --the democrats would have been relegated to minor party status decades ago
But the left wing controls our universities and therefore the News rooms
The wheeeeeeeeeeeels of justice moooooooooooooove veeeeeeery slooooooooowly.
This means we have to wait another 10 years before a verdict on William Jefferson (D-LA). I bet there is a complaint against John Murtha (D-PA) collecting dust in there, too.
Question. Does the House ethics committee have to start over every 2 years or anytime there is a turnover on the committee.
Actually they have-Jim Traficant. Never mind the fact that it was Clinton's JD going after a Clinton detractor. I was disappointed that in the name of bipartisanship Bush did not call of the dogs before it was prosecuted. Now there is a house member sitting in that seat-Tim Ryan who will serve until the day he dies. And Ryan will NEVER, EVER vote in support of any R measures or presidents.
So we should expect a recommendation for punishment by 2016?
And what bugs me is that the Republicans were in control in 1996. So why so long to decide what everyone knew all along?
They did the Mark Foley investigation in 8 WEEKS.
This one took ten years.
It only took them ten years to figure this out? Those Congressional ethics boys are really on the job! Meanwhile, Newt is out and McDermott is still in. The Democrats should be punished at the ballot box!
I have a suggestion for McDermott: RESIGN!
And the Dems and MSM wail about violating the rights of terrorists by listening in on international calls. It's enough to make you scream.
Foley resigned, why not McDirtmott??? Oh yeah, hes a DEmocrap.
When Republicans are gound guilty of crime or corruption, they're thrown out of office. For Democrats it's a qualification to be a crook or corrupt before you're nominated or re-elected.
"Why have rules if people don't get punished when they break them?"
Ask Bill and Hillary...they know.
BTW, there is an answer.
This happened ten years ago - why the hurry to do something about it now? How long did the Foley panel take to publish their findings - about three months? Hmmmm... what could the difference be?
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