McDermott omits 'under God' while leading House in Pledge

By Matthew Daly
The Associated Press

HARLEY SOLTES / THE SEATTLE TIMES Rep. Jim McDermott, at Westlake Mall in fall 2002, has returned a donation from a businessman with ties to Saddam Hussein.

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McDermott of Seattle was one of seven lawmakers who voted against a House resolution last year condemning a federal appeals court ruling that reciting the pledge in public schools is unconstitutional because of its reference to God.

Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, accused McDermott of "embarrassing the House and disparaging the majority of Americans who share the values expressed in the pledge."

McDermott's actions Tuesday demonstrate that "he and those like him stand more for the liberal left than they do for our friends and neighbors," Sessions said.

Mike DeCesare, a spokesman for McDermott, said today that McDermott had made a mistake.

The 67-year-old McDermott told him that as a child he had learned the pledge without the words "under God," DeCesare said. The phrase was added to the pledge in 1954.

"Basically he caught himself up," DeCesare said, adding that McDermott was unsure whether to include the phrase "under God" because the 2002 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is being reviewed by the Supreme Court.

"Today he says, 'I should have said it,' because the pledge has been amended and in the future he will do that," DeCesare said. "Basically it was the wrong time to have a question in your thoughts."

McDermott, one of the most liberal members of the House, drew fire from Republicans last December, when he questioned the timing of the capture of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. McDermott told a Seattle radio station that the U.S. military could have found Saddam long before if it had really wanted to do so.

In 2002, Republicans labeled McDermott "Baghdad Jim" for comments he made during a trip to Baghdad that President Bush "would mislead the American people" but that Saddam could be trusted.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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