WASHINGTON -- Hitler found "Lord Haw Haw" -- William Joyce, who broadcast German propaganda to Britain during World War II -- in the dregs of British extremism. But Iraqi President Saddam Hussein finds American collaborators among senior congressional Democrats.
Not since actress Jane Fonda posed for photographers at a Hanoi antiaircraft gun has there been anything like Rep. Jim McDermott, speaking to ABC's "This Week" from Baghdad, saying Americans should take Saddam Hussein at his word, but should not take President George W. Bush at his. McDermott, in his seventh term representing Seattle, said Iraqi officials promised him and his traveling companion, Rep. David Bonior, a 13-term Michigan Democrat, that weapons inspectors would be "allowed to look anywhere."
Bonior, until recently second-ranking in the House Democratic leadership, said sources no less reliable than Hussein's minions told them that inspectors will have an "unrestricted ability to go where they want." McDermott said: "I think you have to take the Iraqis on their value -- at their face value." And: "I think the president would mislead the American people."