In The Northwest: McDermott's extremism helps both Iraq and GOP

A political junkie friend, with a funny bone, has turned me on to a Web site -- jumptheshark.com. Its premise applies to a congressman who has gone to extremes in a distant place.

Jumptheshark is devoted to defining moments in TV shows where an unbelievable plot twist or character change caused the programs' credibility to collapse.

The name, of course, comes from an episode where The Fonz water-skied over a shark and "Happy Days" forfeited all believability.

People in public life, from both parties, have come a cropper in similar fashion.

No better example comes to mind than Seattle Rep. Jim McDermott. The occasion: Remarks McD made Sunday on ABC's "This Week" as he stood in the capital city of the world's most bloodthirsty rulers.

First, McD called for trust of Iraq's offer to throw open its doors to United Nations weapons inspectors.

"The Iraqis say they would allow us to go anywhere," McD intoned. "And you have to take the Iraqis at face value."

At face value? Where has this man been, a Hussein asylum? Iraq spent much of the past decade impeding and harassing United Nations weapons inspection teams.

Our man in Baghdad then proceeded to depict President Bush as a deceiver bent on war.

"I think the president would mislead the American people," McDermott told a global audience.

If McDermott has evidence to back his allegation of a duplicitous commander-in-chief, he has a floor debate coming up in Congress at which to present it.

But, as Sen. John McCain put the matter Monday night on CNN, "Don't go to Baghdad to do it."

McCain was, of course, a beaten-but-defiant POW in the Hanoi Hilton when Jane Fonda paid her famous visit to a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft battery.

Just as Fonda delivered a propaganda coup to the North Vietnamese, McDermott did a service to Saddam by dumping on America's leaders.

By his words in Baghdad, McD -- in McCain's words -- was "helping sell" Saddam's policies to his own people.

As I come to work today, e-mails and phone messages from McDermott supporters will carry a common message: How dare you denounce one who is working for peace?

But a key matter is how you go about the task.

President Bush was roundly -- and justifiably -- blasted last week after using a GOP rally in New Jersey to question whether Senate Democrats were serious about fighting the war on terrorism. Even Fox had to carry the outraged responses by Sens. Tom Daschle and Ted Kennedy.

But demagoguery is demagoguery, whatever quarter it comes from -- and particularly where it is uttered.

McDermott clearly hit Bush below the belt, comparing him to Lyndon Johnson on the Gulf of Tonkin, and making the facetious suggestion that Bush and Sen. Trent Lott should "make a trip over here and have a look and see if they really, honestly are allowing inspections."

As well, a Vietnam-era attitude infects Seattle's political and religious left. McDermott shares in it, or at least plays to it.

On issue after issue, over a quarter-century, the left's knee-jerk reaction has been to blame America and depict this country as a greedy, blunderbuss empire.

"We are the foreign policy outlaws of the world," then-Rep. Mike Lowry, McD's predecessor, declared during the Reagan administration.

The early 1980s nuclear arms race in Europe was blamed on the U.S. decision to deploy cruise and Pershing II missiles, not on Soviet SS-20s.

America's decision to overthrow Panama dictator Manuel Noriega was an act of imperialism.

Seattle-area delegations have reveled in propaganda tours, from achievements of the Marxist Sandinistas in Nicaragua (later overthrown by voters) to depredations in Iraq allegedly precipitated by U.S. bombs.

Saddam Hussein has defied something like 16 United Nations resolutions providing for the inspection and dismantling of his chemical arsenal and nuclear program. Yet, on Sunday, McDermott declared: "Iraq did not drive the inspectors out. We took them out."

Does such grandstanding serve the cause of peace, particularly in a country stirred to renewed patriotism by atrocities of 9/11?

As with many -- a majority -- I hope we work through opportunities to disarm Iraq before resorting to the clash of arms.

McDermott was sensibly urging such a course of action just a week ago. He should have used the Iraq trip to warn Saddam's satraps hosts that the jig is up.

In backstage meetings with conservative and Republican bigwigs, presidential strategist Karl Rove has spent the summer waxing over a fall election framed around war and foreign policy.

Rove has cited polls showing that, by a 2-1 ratio, Americans feel Republicans are the better party to deal with national security threats to the United States.

It's a cynical ploy. In order to counter it, responsible Democrats have tried to argue that giving peace a chance -- while having no truck with Saddam -- is patriotic.

On Monday, the state Republican Party lumped together McDermott's excessive statements from Baghdad with a more restrained, exhaust-all-opportunities resolution passed by state Democrats over the weekend.

Adjectives such as "contemptible," "a disgrace" and "outrageous" were bandied about. You could tell they were happy. McDermott has managed to play into the hands of both Saddam Hussein and Karl Rove.