Guess who went to Iraq on Saddam's dime? According to federal prosecutors, three Democrats... Here is a tidbit from the AP story:The lawmakers are not named in the indictment but the dates correspond to a trip by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California. There was no indication the three lawmakers knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam.It's always The Children that get used as an excuse... Of course it was The Children, Congressman...Saddam didn't call you over there to show you his rape rooms and torture chambers...and you surely didn't ask to see those now did you?
"Obviously we didn't know it at the time," McDermott spokesman Michael DeCesare said Wednesday. "The trip was to see the plight of the Iraqi children. That's the only reason we went."
And why am I not surprised to see Baghdad Jim on this list?
3/27 UPDATE: I think that my initial read of this story might be flawed... I think it is entirely possible for a sinister dude like Saddam to have masterminded a plot to get naive Democrats to see his chocolate streams and gumdrop trees and the Congressmen not be in the know... For me, the bigger issue is the scumbag who played along with this charade.
Maybe if Saddam had done a better job of showing his hand to the UN inspectors instead of being a total jack@$$, we'd not have invaded in the first place...but Saddam WAS in material breach of UN resolutions according to the IAEA and the 1991 cease fire was contingent upon Saddam's cooperation which he failed to provide. You can blame Bush for that if you like, but the reality is that the whole thing was Saddam's fault for displaying machismo instead of integrity.
Of course, all of that is a side issue in this case... The real non-patriot in this story is the guy who took Saddam's oil in order to sucker those poor Democrats in to going over there for the Saddam Show.
