Judge rules Saddam-coddling commie McDermott broke law!

Judge rules against McDermott in suit over illegal call recording

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge has sided with Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, in his 6-year-old lawsuit against Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Seattle, over an illegally recorded phone call.

Boehner sued McDermott after a Florida couple, using a scanner, found and recorded a 1996 conference call in which Boehner, then-Speaker Newt Gingrich and other House leaders discussed strategy involving announcement of an ethics committee finding against Gingrich.

The couple gave the tape to McDermott, who was on the ethics committee at the time, and the contents ended up in news stories.

In his decision Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Hogan ruled that McDermott "participated in an illegal transaction when he accepted the tape."

McDermott had admitted leaking the taped phone conversation to reporters. But he argued that he did not break the law by receiving the tape and that punishing him for making it public would violate his free-speech rights.

The judge, however, said McDermott had no First Amendment protection because he knew he was receiving a recording that had been illegally obtained.

Hogan set a hearing for Sept. 16 to discuss whether Boehner should be awarded punitive damages and attorney costs.

Punitive damages? How's Jimmy gonna afford that? Maybe he could sell his autographed copy of Das Kapital on Ebay.

We think a worse punishment would be a weekend locked in a cell with a naked Pattty Murray. Blech.