McDermott "Fights" For The First Amendment

And by "fights" I mean blatantly breaks the law, lies to his constituents in the process and does everything he can to avoid taking responsibility for his actions.

Now I disagree with everything single thing Representative McDermott does and believes in. Not some, not most, everything, and trust me... it is not that much. What he did was wrong, unethical and illegal... but... I at least would have had a sliver of respect for the guy if at the time he had turned over the tapes, he had done so publicly. If he would have stood on the Capital steps in front of news cameras and played the tapes for all to see and hear, at least you could say he had convictions and stood by them. At least he could say this is what I believe and I know what I am doing is legally wrong but I am doing so anyway because of the greater good. But that is not what he did. And he did not do that because he knew it was wrong, he knew it was unethical, he knew it was illegal and he is not man enough to stand behind his convictions, to take responsibility for his actions. He did not believe what he did was the correct thing to do.

Bet the house on this one... Representative McDermott will not be paying the fine out of his own personal checking account.

For more details on the issue, check out LSU's post at NW Bloggers and the Recorded telephone conversations section of Jim McDermot's Wikipedia page