Posted by
Gary Gross on Saturday, July 22, 2006 7:44:54 PM
1 . Condemning the recent attacks against the State of Israel,
holding terrorists and their state-sponsors accountable for such
attacks, supporting Israel's right to defend itself...
One of the people voting against such a common sense resolution was
Jim McDermott, which is perfectly explainable. McDermott served in the
military but he’s one of the biggest pacifists around. He’s also one of
the biggest America haters in Congress. It’s logical that he’s also one
of the biggest Israel haters in Congress, too.
It’s incredibly irresponsible to have a representative that doesn’t
think that a sovereign nation has the right to defend itself. It’s
equally irresponsible for a congressman to vote against holding
terrorists responsible for their actions. This isn’t a difficult
intellectual decision. In what should’ve been an easy vote, Jim
McDermott got it wrong. Badly wrong.
Since that time, I've had the time to do some digging into Mr. McDermott's past. What I found was disturbing. Here's an article in the Seattle Times that is quite revealing. I can only characterize it as the ultimate puff piece.
American Muslims mingling in a ballroom at the Washington State
Convention and Trade Center in downtown Seattle last night showed no
outward sign of the pressure many are feeling. At the annual banquet
for the Seattle chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR), the issues of war abroad and civil rights at home surfaced at
the podium, and participants were ready with opinions when asked.
Yet this formal gathering of more than 300 people breathed the warmth
and intimacy of a close-knit community. Children dressed in their best
filled the room with a family feeling. Men from Africa, the Middle East
and Malaysia greeted each other with broad smiles, tight bear hugs and
soft kisses to the cheek. Young women mostly wore headscarves, and a
few had their faces veiled.
One overt
political note was sounded as U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Seattle, was
introduced and given CAIR’s public-official-of-the-year award for his
support of the Muslim community.
After reading that much puffery, I was left wondering if this was given to the columnist by McDermott's PR director. What's even more offensive is the fact that CAIR is anything but a moderate Islamic group.
CAIR has a decent enough public image but they’ve got some character flaws. Here’s a brief summary of those flaws:
For starters, it's on the wrong side in the war on terrorism. One indication came in October, 1998 when the group demanded the removal of a Los Angeles billboard describing Osama bin Laden as "the sworn enemy", finding this depiction "offensive to Muslims."
and:
The same year, CAIR denied bin Laden's responsibility for the Twin East African embassy bombings. As Hooper saw it, those explosions resulted from some vague "misunderstandings of both sides." (A New York court, however, blamed bin Laden's side alone for the embassy blasts. In 2001, CAIR denied his culpability for the Sept. 11 massacre, saying only that "if (note the "if") Osama bin Laden was behind it, we condemn him by name."
and:
The conviction of the perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing it deemed a "travesty of justice." The conviction of Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind sheikh, who planned to blow up New York City landmarks, it called a "hate crime." The extradition order for suspected Hamas terrorist Mousa Abu Marook it labeled "anti-Islamic and "anti-American."
When President Bush closed the Holy Land Foundation in
December for collecting money he said was “used to support the Hamas
terror organization,” CAIR decried his action as “unjust” and
“disturbing.”
Does that sound like a moderate? McDermott likes and supports terrorist appeasing organizations like
CAIR. The fact that he gladly accepts their awards is insulting to
people who care about America.
It’s time the people of Washington’s 7th District fired him this November. It’s time they elected Steve Beren.