McDermott Owes Boehner $1 Million

It has just not been Jim McDermott's week. First, the story breaks that he unintentionally toured Baghdad on Saddam's dime. Now, he has been ordered to a pay a political rival's legal fees. The legal squabble between House Minority Leader John Boehner and McDermott has lasted a decade and stems from a clandestinely taped telephone conversation that was leaked to the press.

Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that McDermott acted improperly when he gave two newspapers access to a tape recording of a conversation between GOP leaders in 1996. Boehner was one of the GOP members heard on the taped telephone conversation, which also included then House Majority Leader Newt Gingrich. The leaked conversation regarded ethics allegations that Gingrich was facing. At the time the tape was leaked, Representative McDermott was a senior member of the House's ethics committee. Judges' rulings on the case repeatedly cited the hypocrisy of McDermott's position on the Ethics Committee during the time of his alleged violations.

Today, a federal judge ruled that McDermott has to repay Boehner $1.05 million in legal fees and an additional $40,000 to cover interest. And that's all on top of the $60,000 in fines and damages McDermott was required to pay, as well as his own hefty $600,000 lawyers bill. McDermott said today that the financial costs were "a small price to pay in defense of so fundamental a principle, and freedom, as the First Amendment." We imagine that, internally, he's cursing his refusal of Boehner's original offer to settle; the offer would have involved a mere public admittance of wrong-doing, an apology, and a $10,000 donation to charity.

"The Contemplation of Justice" statue outside the Supreme Court, by Flickr Contributor FrogMiller