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The Campaign Spot

Election-driven news and views . . . by Jim Geraghty.


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WA Democrat: ‘I’m Tired of Reading the Constitution and All the Silly Things’

Be proud, Washington’s 7th congressional district, as your congressman, Jim McDermott, expresses his exasperation of “silly stuff” like “reading the Constitution.”

One other note on McDermott: A friend recently visited Washington as part of a group of representatives of foreign governments, and the event’s organizers traditionally invite a member of Congress to speak to the group. Usually, the member offers the generic “Welcome to Washington, it’s wonderful you’re here to see our system of democracy in action, together we can work to solve our common challenges” kumbaya-style remarks. McDermott was the representative who spoke to them, and my friend said he had never heard such a strikingly partisan and nasty diatribe, blaming his congressional Republican counterparts for every problem under the sun, domestically and abroad.

His reflexive partisanship doesn’t have an off switch, it would seem.

Tags: Jim McDermott

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COMMENTS   8

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   03/31/11 14:09

I live an hour to the south of Seattle. To give you an idea of just what a cesspool that city is?

McDermott was re-elected with 83 percent of the vote.

Eighty. Three.

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   03/31/11 14:57

He's also one of the two congresscritters to act as human shields for Saddam. It's all ideology with him and his constituents. He brings home nothing from the federal pork trough, doesn't pass any legislations, he does nothing useful.

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Arch Knight
   03/31/11 16:36

In all fairness, you only get to hear 8 seconds. You could take 8 seconds and make anyone sound bad.

If he is referring to the old congressman's ploy of reading stuff, such as The Constitution, or the phone book for that matter, on the floor merely to take up time and delay voting on legislation, then I have to agree with him.

He may not be saying The Constitution is silly. He may be saying the delays and delaying tactics are silly. I don't know that for sure, but with only 8 seconds of feed, how can we know?

I'm no fan of the Democratic party or their agenda. But twisting someone's words or taking them out of context to make it sound like he/she said something he/she did not is wrong no matter which side does it.

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   03/31/11 18:34

McDermott volunteered for the job. Just a disgrace!

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   04/01/11 14:19

In the interest of honesty, here is the 8 second quotation with a bit more context. This was during a debate about an economic bill yesterday (3/31) in Congress. The quote used above is in the 3rd paragraph.

McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, the Republican follies go on. The Republicans have done nothing in their 13 weeks in charge of this House to help Americans get jobs, nothing to open markets for businesses to expand, nothing to open up markets overseas for American workers and businesses to compete more fairly. While they hold the economy hostage to their cultural war agenda, maybe we could do something to help the American people.

I rise today in support of the effort to defeat the previous question so that we can take a first step toward addressing the egregious imbalance between China's currency and our own.

[...]

After years of an unlevel playing field, it is time to act; and this motion to defeat it and bring it to the floor is the right kind of measured first step we can take now. I hope the Republicans will join us in helping this economy. I am tired of reading the Constitution and all the silly things we have done for the last 13 weeks. When are we going to see anything having to do with job creation? [Congressional Record, 3/30/11]

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   04/01/11 16:26

In all fairness, McDermott is a malignant nut, the heir apparent to Pete Stark. He wears it well.

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BillSaidIt
   04/02/11 14:25

I got off a plane in Seattle by mistake. Never left the air terminal just went out to have a smoke and had a conversation with a couple of locals. Turned out to be the best mistake of my life.
JIMG IS RITE - and I'm glad I live farther away from Seattle than JIMG does.
They don't need a government --They have a UNION

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seePea
   04/03/11 01:16

I live in this district, and though I never voted for him, Rep McDermott is my Representative. To me, his thinking and policies are revolting BUT he is not pandering. He really does believe what he says and is willing to go to public meetings with groups he knows disagrees with him.

I still wish he would retire.

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