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James Adelbert "Jim" McDermott (born 28 December 1936 ) is the current U.S. Representative for the Seventh Congressional District of Washington . He is a member of the Democratic Party . He was first elected to Congress in 1988 . McDermott serves on the House Ways And Means Committee . McDermott is also a member of the House Progressive Caucus . The Seventh District includes all of Seattle and Vashon Island and portions of Shoreline , Tukwila , SeaTac , and Burien . McDermott was born in Chicago, Illinois . As a licensed Physician (MD, University Of Illinois Medical School, 1963), he is particularly interested in health care issues. He served in the United States Navy Medical Corps during the Vietnam War era. In 1980 , then-State Senator McDermott defeated incumbent Dixy Lee Ray in the Democratic Primary for Governor Of Washington , but lost the general election to John Spellman . POLITICAL VIEWS McDermott, who is regarded as one of the House's most Liberal members, has recently gained a degree of national prominence in the wake of the September 11th, 2001 Terrorist Attacks and the 2003 Invasion Of Iraq . A vocal opponent of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, He appears in Michael Moore 's Documentary '' Fahrenheit 9/11 '' discussing the aftermath of September 11. McDermott won his ninth term with over eighty percent of the vote in the election held on 2 November 2004 . He is an endorser of the Genocide Intervention Network . Rep. McDermott has also been an outspoken advocate of the United States adopting a Universal Health Care system. He calls for the investigation into the use of depleted uranium by the U.S. Military. He is featured on the album "For Blood And Empire" by Anti-Flag talking about the effects of depleted uranium on the song "Depleted Uranium Is A War Crime". CONTROVERSIES In December of 2004, Rep. McDermott came under investigation by the House ethics committee when they had to determine whether he violated standards of conduct for leaking an illegally recorded telephone conversations during a committee investigation in 1997. At that time the committee was investing the conduct of then-Speaker Newt Gingrich The illegal telephone converstation was recorded by a Florida couple, John and Alice Martin, who overheard a conversation between Rep. Gingrich and top Republicans, on their police scanner inside their car. After listening to the conversation for several minutes they decided to record it, at first for posterity sake and after listening further decided that it might be important for the ethics committee to hear. It was at that time that they delivered the tape to Rep. McDermott, the senior Democrat on the House ethics committee at that time, and who was in town for a swearing-in ceremony. Shortly afterwards the tape was leaked to several media outlets. Rep. John Boehner , who was part of the Gingrich conversation, sued McDermott over leaking the tape and U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan concluded that McDermott was behind the leak and ordered him to pay Boehner for "willfull and knowing misconduct" that "rises to the level of malice". McDermott challenged that ruling in a federal appeals court. But on March 29 , 2006 the court ruled 2-1 that McDermott violated federal law when he turned over the illegally recorded tape to the New York Times and other media outlets. The court then ordered McDermott to pay for Boehner's legal costs ($700,000) as well as $60K in damages. {Link without Title} {Link without Title} {Link without Title} Rep. McDermott visited Iraq in 2002, prior to the 2003 Invasion Of Iraq . He received sharp criticism from conservatives, both for his visit and for his prediction that President George W. Bush would "mislead the American public" to justify military action. After his visit to Iraq, Rep. McDermott received a $5,000 contribution to an unrelated legal defense fund from Shakir Al Khafaji , an Iraqi-American businessman with alleged ties to the Oil For Food scandal. McDermott returned the contribution in 2004 after it was questioned in the media. Aides asserted that Rep. McDermott had no prior knowledge of Khafaji's alleged connections to Iraqi oil money. Some of McDermott's opponents use the nickname "Baghdad Jim" to call attention to his controversial Iraq visit.
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