SEATTLE — U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, recently back from Baghdad, told about 5,000-plus peace activists at a rally Sunday that President Bush is out for blood in Iraq and it will take their efforts to stop him.
"We can let the president know he does not get a free ride on this," McDermott, D-Wash., told the crowd at a downtown rally as the activists cheered and waved signs that read "No Iraq War."
During his five-day trip to Iraq, which ended last Tuesday, McDermott suggested the president might mislead the American people about the need for war, something the White House swiftly denied. Bush has said Iraq must be disarmed to ensure the world's security.
Conservatives criticized McDermott for his comments, dubbing him "Jihad Jim" and accusing him of sympathizing with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
When he returned to Washington, D.C., McDermott qualified his remarks, saying that he had perhaps "overstated" his case.
But the congressman showed no such contrition Sunday: "I meant what I said," he insisted in an interview with The Associated Press.
"We have a president who says ... 'I can do whatever I want in the world,'" McDermott said. "He must go through the United Nations. He must exhaust diplomatic means. He's trying to provoke the Iraqis. He wants a war."
As for the nicknames bestowed on him, McDermott said, "It's like in second grade. When you call names it's because you can't think of anything intelligent to say."
McDermott used even stronger language in a town hall meeting at the Jefferson Park Community Center on Beacon Hill, where he said Bush is moving toward an imperial presidency by denying that congressional action is required to authorize an attack on Iraq.
"And what we are dealing with right now in this country is whether we are having a kind of bloodless, silent coup or not," McDermott said.
"This president is trying to bring to himself all the power to become an emperor to create Empire America," he said. "If you go along like sheep, that is what will happen."
Sunday's downtown rally was organized by a group called "Not in Our Name," and took place in conjunction with rallies around the country over the weekend. Thousands protested Sunday in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and about 5,000 protesters gathered in Portland, Ore., on Saturday.
"This war would be a huge mistake," Seattle math teacher Jerry Gallaher, 49, said Saturday. "We'd end up killing lots of innocent people. The diplomatic solutions haven't been explored, and we don't have international support for this."
Across the street, a handful of pro-Bush protesters called McDermott a traitor. Mark Muhlenkort, an electrical engineer from Poulsbo, held a sign that read: "Jihad Jim loves Saddam."
"Go kiss him," it taunted.
Muhlenkort said there was nothing inherently wrong with McDermott's trip to Iraq, but there was something wrong with his comments there.
"It's important that we defend ourselves," he said. "Saddam might get nukes, and I'm afraid he'd use them against us or against Israel. He's got a history of irrational actions, and he's been supportive of terrorists in the past."
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