Proud Member of the Loony Community
Right-wing mouthpiece/shill/doorknob Bernard "Bernie" Goldberg (former CBS correspondent) has a new book out--100 People Who Are Screwing Up America (and Al Franken Is #37)--and he's attacking not only my local US congressman, Jim McDermott, but he's also laying into my home city of Seattle; via today's Seattle Times:

McDermott, as it happens, is No. 38. The Democratic congressman from Seattle apparently doesn't pose as big a threat to democracy as comedian-and-leftist radio talkster Franken. But McDermott presents more of a problem than, say, feminist Gloria Steinem, at No. 42, or Enron's disgraced chief executive, Kenneth Lay, who lumbered in at No. 45. Almost as bad for the United States as McDermott is the city of Seattle, which is described as "ground zero for overpriced coffee," home of more "progressive loonies than anyplace else on the Left Coast." "100 People" is the latest in a trilogy by Bernard Goldberg, an Emmy-winning former CBS News correspondent, who hit the jackpot in 2001 with "Bias," a book on the alleged liberal leanings of the media. His follow-up was "Arrogance," again decrying liberals. The books became bestsellers after they were widely touted by conservative think tanks, blogs and talk-radio folks. [...] The book assails McDermott's pre-Iraqi war statement that President Bush "would mislead the American people." Today, McDermott says, "The truth is that the president did mislead us, and the people in Seattle knew it first because I told them." In an interview, Goldberg said that he wasn't just including McDermott because of what he said on the eve of the Iraq invasion, it was where he said it — Baghdad. "You have to reach a certain level of indecency to make it in the book," Goldberg said. "I think he reached that." [...] There is another name with a Seattle connection: Rolling in at 95 is singer Courtney Love. Goldberg's only description of her in the book is unprintable. McDermott says Seattle is smarter, more politically astute and better read than most of the country. "Goldberg can talk about me if he wants, but don't attack my city," he said. Goldberg responded, "It takes Seattle to create a Starbucks; that wouldn't happen in Kansas City." "He's right," McDermott said. "He just doesn't know why."

Well, I guess I've got something in common with Bernie--I've got a description of him that's unprintable in a semi-family-friendly blogosphere.

Here's the incident that probably has Bernie's shorts all twisted up. In political hindsight, it probably wasn't the best locale to make these charges. But it seems things have certainly moved towards a full-circle culmination (via a Weekly Standard article from 2002):

The controversy ignited on September 29 when Bonior and McDermott appeared from Baghdad on ABC's "This Week." Host George Stephanopoulos asked McDermott about his recent comment that "the president of the United States will lie to the American people in order to get us into this war." McDermott didn't backpedal at all: "I believe that sometimes they give out misinformation. . . . It would not surprise me if they came out with some information that is not provable, and they, they shift it. First they said it was al Qaeda, then they said it was weapons of mass destruction. Now they're going back to and saying it's al Qaeda again." When Stephanopoulos pressed McDermott about whether he had any evidence that Bush had lied, the congressman replied, "I think the president would mislead the American people." An American official floating unsubstantiated allegations against an American president during a visit to Baghdad would be troubling enough. But McDermott compounded his problem by insisting, despite its twelve years of verifiable prevarication, that the Iraqi regime should be given the benefit of the doubt on inspections and disarmament. Said McDermott on "This Week": "I think you have to take the Iraqis on their face value."

Evidence. If only we had some evidence back then that BushCo was being duplicitous in its official statements about wanting to avoid war. If only some evidence could crop up today so that we could put it all into perspective....

Anyhoo, check out Congressman McDermott's voting record and see how much of a loony he is in your eyes.