LIES AND THE LYING LIARS

The next time some winger starts screeching about the INCIVILITY and OUTRAGEOUSNESS of Democratic and progressive charges of "lying" by BushCo, just remind them of this little Cheney "misstatement" during his Friday appearance in East Grand Forks, Minnesota:

And I think if I look at the views of George Bush, the way he operated as governor of Texas, the way he's operated since he became president, I contrast that with John Kerry, I just think there are basic, fundamental differences of opinion about how this society ought to operate. I'm trying to think how to be a statesman in terms of my comments here. I think there are just an awful lot more—I'm much more comfortable with the values and the ideas and the concepts that I find in the middle of the country than I am in what I find in Massachusetts, if I can put in those terms.

(APPLAUSE)

John Kerry is, by National Journal ratings, the most liberal member of the United States Senate. Ted Kennedy is the more conservative of the two senators from Massachusetts.

(LAUGHTER)

It's true. All you got to do is go look at the ratings systems. And that captures a lot, I think, in terms of somebody's philosophy. And it's not based on one vote, or one year, it's based on 20 years of service in the United States Senate. Perfectly legitimate view of the world, if that's the way he wants to view it. It's just that if I were to lay down my voting record, the ten years I was in the House, versus his, there’s not a lot of overlap. [emphasis mine]

The Daily Howler has more:

That was the end of Cheney’s appearance. All the voters applauded the veep. Cheney had praised the president’s values. And then he had lied in their faces.

What had Cheney told these voters? He told them that Kerry is the most liberal member of the Senate. That’s based on National Journal ratings, he said. And it isn’t based on just one year—it’s based on twenty years of service! But Kerry isn’t the most liberal senator, as the Journal made expressly clear in March, when other people—people like Cheney—began using their data to mislead the voters. As we noted last week, Journal rankings show that ten current senators have more liberal lifetime records than Kerry. And yes, Ted Kennedy is one of the ten. Every claim that Cheney made was blatantly, baldly untrue.