Useful idiots

From AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

An indictment unsealed in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a member of a Michigan nonprofit group, of arranging for three members of Congress to travel to Iraq in October 2002 at the behest of Saddam's regime....

The lawmakers are not named in the indictment but the dates correspond to a trip by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California.

After their trip, Rep. McDermott told ABC News that he thought that the Bush administration was full of misinformation but, as for Saddam's Iraq and it compliance with inspections, "I think you have to take the Iraqis on their face value."

In addition paying for his trip, Saddam contributed $5,000 to Rep. McDermott's Legal Defense Fund. His legal needs were related to his role in the wiretapping of a Boehner-Gingrich phone call. A Federal Appeals Court had ordered McDermott to pay Boehner more than $700,000 in damages and fees but the ruling is still being appealed. After it was exposed that Saddam was the source of the donation, McDermott said he returned the $5,000.

UPDATE: McDermott has lost another round:

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge says House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, can collect more than $1 million in his lawsuit against Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington state.

Bizarrely, as Michelle Malkin observes, McDermott is trying to spin his big loss as if he was defending the first amendment and had won a victory.