U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott broadened his attack on George W. Bush's war plans yesterday, saying the president is threatening military action in Iraq as part of a plot to crown himself emperor of America.

HARLEY SOLTES / THE SEATTLE TIMES After holding a town-hall meeting on Beacon Hill, U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott arrives yesterday at Westlake Plaza with anti-war marchers protesting against President Bush's request to Congress for permission to attack Iraq.

Criticized for saying on a trip to Iraq early last week that Bush would mislead the American public, McDermott, a Seattle Democrat, was back in his district yesterday telling cheering supporters that Bush is planning a war to distract voters' attention from domestic problems.

He said Bush is trying to "submarine" efforts to restart weapons inspections in Iraq to give him a pretext for starting a war — a war McDermott said is being planned in part to bolster U.S. oil interests.

"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 at a town-hall meeting at the Jefferson Park Community Center on Beacon Hill. The event was sponsored by local Democrats and other groups in his congressional district.

'Like sheep'

At the heart of the debate, McDermott said, is whether Congress or the president has the power to declare war.

"This president is trying to bring to himself all the power to become an emperor — to create Empire America," he said.

And he warned his supporters, "If you go along like sheep that is what will happen."

State Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance said McDermott's comments about a coup "were the most irresponsible thing I've ever heard an American politician say."

"Sometimes politicians, like everyone else, will blurt out things they don't mean," Vance said. "But it sounds like he has thought about this carefully and really believes that."

The resolution Congress will vote on next week was negotiated between the White House and Congressional leaders of both parties.

"The president is not trying to bypass Congress," Vance said. "He's taking his case to Congress."

"If President Bush is engaged in a coup then his co-conspirators are Richard Gephardt and Joseph Lieberman," he said, referring to Democratic leaders.

About 200 people showed up for McDermott's meeting in the Beacon Hill Community Center. Nearly all were supporters.

Outside, four or five protesters carried signs objecting to McDermott's recent trip to Iraq and his comments about Bush and Saddam Hussein.

"Saddam Good — Bush Bad. This is Baghdad Jim's Mind On Drugs," said a sign carried by Brandon Swalley of Lakewood.

"I think he should be thrown out," she said.

When McDermott arrived, he was escorted into the hall by Seattle police and followed by a few protesters, one of whom shouted after him, "Our president is not a liar. If you want to say it, say it here but don't go to foreign lands to say it."

Inside the crowd was heavily in favor of McDermott's view. When opponents took a microphone to talk, they were shouted at and told to get to their question. Supporters, though, were able to talk uninterrupted and give anti-war speeches.

Pattern of deception

Late last week McDermott said that he may have overstated his case against Bush while in Iraq. But yesterday it was clear he believes there's a pattern of deception within the Bush administration to justify a war.

He said that Bush is using the memory of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to fuel a war with Iraq.

"One of the dilemmas we've had since 9/11 is that this country has been continuously terrorized by the government," McDermott said. "Every week they announce a new threat. 'Today is a code orange.' 'Today is a code red.'

"Granted it was an awful day. It was a heinous act. Nobody has anything but horror over what happened that day.

"But the message to draw from that day is not that we should suddenly go to war with the whole world, which is what the president is saying."

McDermott is convinced that Bush is bent on war with Iraq to distract voters' attention from a collapsing stock market and other problems at home.

"It is the oldest game in the book," he said. "They found this war very convenient to obscure people's views about what is happening domestically."

McDermott said he and two other Democratic members of Congress went to Iraq to see firsthand the effect of economic sanctions on the country, as well as to tell Iraqi leaders that if they didn't agree to weapons inspections there would be a war.

He said the demand for inspections was delivered to 15 or 20 government officials, but not to Saddam, who they did not ask to see.

"We knew there was no point in getting into a situation where we're shaking hands and smiling with somebody we don't really think is doing the right thing by the country or the world, and we knew that message would get to him."

Connecting the dots

McDermott's comments went much further than his television interviews from Iraq, in which he said Bush would mislead Americans in order to build support for a war.

When someone asked him if the war was meant to bolster U.S. oil interests, McDermott talked about what oil companies could gain from a war and said, "I'm not going to connect the dots exactly, but I think a dotted line certainly seems within the realm of possibility. ...

"Oil is certainly a part of it but I don't think it's the underlying issue." The underlying issue, he said repeatedly, is a fight over the Constitutional power to declare war.

"People that I trust say if we don't derail this coup that is going on, we are going to wind up with a government run by the president of the United States and all the rest of us will be standing around just watching it happen."

###