Redstate

and for Steele in MD to go after that Dem staffer in a civil court to get to the bottom of the credit stealing scam.

Rep. McDermott, in his position on the House Ethics Committee, received the famed Newt Gingrich cell phone tape, recorded (illegally) with a police scanner.   We know he was told how it was made, because rather than keeping it within the committee, he immediately gave copies to two reporters and they reported on how it was made.

From a footnote in the PDF:

"Someone who lawfully obtains an illegally intercepted conversation may disclose it, which still leaves the question we face in this case: whether Representative McDermott lawfully obtained the tape from the Martins."

McDermott claimed that even if the tape were illegally made, it was given to him legally so it was ok for him to disclose it.  He didn't do anything wrong, someone else did.  Back to the main text:

"It is the difference between someone who discovers a bag containing a diamond ring on the sidewalk and someone who accepts the same bag from a thief, knowing the ring inside to have been stolen. The former has committed no offense; the latter is guilty of receiving stolen property, even if the ring was intended only as a gift."

The disclosure of the illegal wiretap was bad enough.  But his argument that someone else did the illegal part is outrageous.  

And just FYI, the kettle you keep calling black?  It ain't black.

From:

SPEAKER PHONE

January 14, 1997

PBS: NEWSHOUR TRANSCRIPT

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/congress/january97/cellular_1-14.html

excerpt:

   KWAME HOLMAN: There they were on December 21st, they said, driving from their home in Fort White, Florida, to do some Christmas shopping in nearby Lake City. They were listening to a police scanner John Martin had gotten for his birthday. Also, there was a small cassette tape recorder in the car.

    JOHN MARTIN: We kind of record stupid jingles and stuff off the TV set--off the TV and off the radio in the car and--

    KWAME HOLMAN: At the same time the Martins were on the road so was Congressman John Boehner, a top member of the House Republican leadership. He was driving through the Lake City area, the last leg of a trip from his home in Ohio, to Marco Island off of Florida's West Coast. But then Boehner pulled off the road and picked up his car phone to join a conference call.

    ALICE MARTIN: I was excited. I mean, I was so excited to think that I actually heard a real politician's voice.

    KWAME HOLMAN: The Martins picked up the call on the police scanner and after a few minutes began recording it.

    JOHN MARTIN: We thought it was just a part of history really. I mean--

    KWAME HOLMAN: Among those participating in the conference call with Boehner were Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey, Republican Whip Tom Delay, New York Congressman Bill Paxon, and House Speaker Newt Gingrich, discussing possible responses to Ethics Committee charges against Gingrich to be disclosed later that day.

    ALICE MARTIN: We're going to have a grandson at the end of January, and we were thinking how neat it would be to play this tape for him and him hear the voices of people that we thought were important. That's really all it was going to be is a little tape we put aside and when he was old enough to hear it, he could hear it.

    KWAME HOLMAN: Included on the tape reportedly is this conversation: Congressman Paxon: "If we have several hours or a day go by when our members are out there without a response, it will be a disaster. That's right." Congressman Armey: "Right." Paxon: "When will we see your statement, Newt?". Speaker Gingrich: "My guess is--and I think they are running about 15 minutes late--my guess is we will have our statement out before noon." The Martins, long-time Democrats, gave the tape to Florida Congresswoman Karen Thurman, who later gave it back to the Martins and recommended they give it to Congressman Jim McDermott, the ranking Democrat on the Ethics Committee investigating Gingrich. In Washington last Wednesday the Martins waited for McDermott outside the Ethics Committee room in the capitol.

    REPORTER: Had you ever met Mr. McDermott before?

    ALICE MARTIN: Oh, no, no.

    KWAME HOLMAN: Two days later the contents of the tape were on the front page of the "New York Times." The tape potentially could cause problems for Newt Gingrich, who had made a deal with the Ethics Committee not to orchestrate a response to its charges. But the tape might cause problems for McDermott as well because federal law prohibits intentionally intercepting telephone calls or intentionally disclosing their contents. Late this afternoon McDermott announced he will recuse himself from any further work on the Gingrich ethics matter. As for the Martins, they too could be prosecuted for their actions.

    JOHN MARTIN: I just felt that--that if I brought this tape and handed it over that there would be nothing against me because I didn't use it in a court of law. I felt that the Ethics Committee was like a court of law, but you know--

    LARRY TURNER, The Martins' Lawyers: My hope is that once it's understood that these folks are Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Citizen, who happened to discover something they felt was pertinent to the Ethics Commission and did what I think we want citizens to do, which is take it to the commission responsible for the investigation and say, here, you do what's right, my hope is that those who are responsible for making prosecuting decisions will decide this shouldn't be prosecuted.

    [...]

Record history....RIIIIIIIIGHT

life long democratic activists that had a scanner with the ability to pick up cell phone calls and the ability to record those calls close at hand.

and theyre running out of you!

er, wait... :P

to censure Jim McDermott for this illegal warrantless surveillance of a domestic phone call?

I'd love to see it.

Doctor, I've strained my metaphor, and I can't get up.

metaphor anyway, if not for straining?

yet?

Enquiring minds want to know.

Feingold should be offering a censure resolution immediately on the Senate floor and, in similar fashion, promptly leave the room when others have a chance to debate.

As an aside, has anyone else noticed that liberals quote "constitutional liberties" in asinine formats like opposing rightful (Republican) Presidential powers or select "Bill of Rights"?  When is the last time a liberal stood up and quoted the 2nd or 10th amendments, for example?  I have only heard them quote the constitution when they want to, among others, kick religion out of public life or give protections for gay sex and abortion.  Absurd.    

Now that the courts have ruled against McDermott, will the Congressional republicans have the backbone to revive ethics charges against him that have been languishing in the Ethics Committee for a number of years?  Tom DeLay has been prosecuted by the media and found guilty without a trial, while McDermott has been found guilty by a court which has been totally ignored by the press.  I doubt the republicans have the will to make the democrats pay for allowing someon of McDermott's character serve in the US Congress.

when you can't break the law while hurting the Republicans?  Joshing aside I love the dissent in the court ruling, because the Times wasn't sued you can't sue McDermott or, if you don't sue both parties then both paries must be innocent.  Maybe Sentelle needs a psychiarist.  Know anybody?

I bet the editors at The Hill were just tickled the judge passed down his decision the same day they slated a puff piece on McDermott, Anti-Flag and depleted uranium.

"Depleted Uranium Is a War Crime" is the last track on the album, and, like all of the band's music, it's well-crafted sonic mayhem. However, what distinguishes this song from the others on the new disc -- and perhaps from any song in the history of punk rock -- is that its slashing guitars and buzz-saw lyrics are spoken-word comments by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) critiquing the military's use of depleted uranium in Iraq.

Pshaw. Depleted cranium, more like it.

Maybe McDermott can use his royalties -- all $2.32 worth -- to pay the legal penalties.

And personally, I find Anti-Flag boring.

So it's good if you're doing it domestically on a Republican legislator, bad if you're doing it abroad on a suspected terrorist.

Got it!

People like that should be punished. Now if we can just go after the congressmen and their staffers who leak classified material, that would be great.

Oz

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