Dems "righteous indignation" over NSA wiretapping and ethical lapses

Today's Washington Times has an article about a long running feud between Rep. John Boehner (R) and Rep. Jim McDermott (D) over an illegally taped conversation between Newt Gingrich and other Republican leaders in 1996. The U.S. District Court for Washington ordered McDermott to pay Boehner more than $1 million in legal costs.

McDermott received the illegally taped conversation and then leaked it to the press. At the time, McDermott was the ranking Democrat on the House ethics committee.

But Mr. McDermott, who described the court fight as "a long and costly battle," said the judgment was "a small price to pay in defense of so fundamental a principle, and freedom, as the First Amendment." He said the lengthy legal challenge had strengthened the country's First Amendment guarantees.

Despite the ruling, the current ethics committee isn't going to take any action against McDermott, even though he violated House ethics rules and broke the law.

And the Dems are the same people critisizing Bush over the NSA wiretaps.