Beardedbruce:

"Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash. -- who was ordered by the D.C. Circuit Court to pay more than $1 million to John Boehner in 2008 for the sleazy maneuver of publishing an illegally taped private conversation -- blamed the conservative groups themselves. 'Each of your groups was highly political,' he lectured them, noting that they wouldn't have been asked any questions if they hadn't requested tax-exempt status."

McDermott was given a tape of a cell-phone conversation that was inadvertently intercepted and taped on a police radio. Those who made the tape were surprised when they recognized the voices of those on the tape as Newt Gingrich and John Boehner—and they were plotting something that they recognized as unethical and illegal.

They gave the tape to Rep. Jim McDermott, who turned the tape over to the Senate Ethics Committee. The Ethics Committee sat on the tape and indicated that they would do nothing about it.

So--McDermott, feeling that the voters had a right to know how their elected officials were behaving, turned a copy of the tape over to the press.

John Boehner filed a law suit, and for some cockamamie reason, the court ruled against McDermott!

What Boehner and Gingrich were up to was both illegal and unethical, and essentially, they've gotten away with it.

Jim McDermott is one of the good guys! He—and the American voters—are the ones who are getting screwed!

Don Firth

P. S. Gee, Beardy, aren't FACTS damned inconvenient?