Rep. Jim McDermott was rebuked by the House ethics committee on Monday. It’s about time. The Seattle Times reports on the unethical former ranking ethics committee member… 

WASHINGTON — In an end-of-year effort to wipe longstanding cases off its agenda, the House ethics committee on Monday rebuked U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott for leaking an illegally taped phone call between Republican congressmen a decade ago.

The committee’s carefully worded report said that McDermott, D-Seattle, did not violate congressional rules of conduct, which state that a member must behave “in a manner which shall reflect creditably on the House of Representatives.”

However, the 25-page report said McDermott’s actions were “inconsistent with the spirit of the applicable rules and represented a failure on his part to meet his obligations” as the ranking member of the ethics committee at the time.

“Representative McDermott’s secretive disclosures to the news media … risked undermining the ethics process,” the report said.

In a statement, McDermott said, “I am pleased with the conclusion” of the panel. A spokesman for ethics committee chairman Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Pasco, didn’t return telephone calls seeking comment.

Of course he’s pleased. It was only a rebuke. We’re still waiting to see whether he’ll have to pay the penalty for his unethical actions of nine years ago. So far he’s been ordered to pay $700,000 for damages and legal costs.

The case has gone up and down the judicial food chain and it’s back in court. The legal costs continue to rise.

Isn’t it funny how Democrats don’t seem to mind the illegal taping of telephone conversations when the conversations are between their political rivals, but those same Democrats are all up in arms about the wiretapping of terrorists calling from overseas…

Cross posted at Perri Nelson’s Website.

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