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Thursday, September 02, 2004
Putting the Falsehoods in Context
Once again, Fred Kaplan at Slate has written an excellent column, this time on the lies mouthed by Zell and Cheney last night.
Here are some of the better passages, although the full article is well worth a read. First, on Zell:
Before moving on to Cheney's speech, we should pause to note two truly
weird passages in Zell's address. My favorite:
Today, at the same time young Americans are dying in the sands of Iraq and
the mountains of Afghanistan, our nation is being torn apart and made weaker
because of a Democrat's manic obsession to bring down our commander in
chief.
A "manic obsession to bring down our commander in chief"? Most people
call this a "presidential election." Someone should tell Zell they happen every
four years; he can look it up in that same place where he did the research on
Kerry's voting record ("I've got more documents," he said on CNN, waving two
pieces of paper that he'd taken from his coat pocket, "than in the Library of
Congress and the New York Public Library combined.")
Zell kept repeating his Library of Congress and New York Public Library statement on MSNBC as well. I would think that, when you are trying to defend yourself against allegations that your statements are ridiculous hyperbole, you ordinarily wouldn't want to use ridiculous hyperbole as your defense, but what do I know?. And then, after noting that Cheney recommending the cutting of the very same defense programs that Miller claimed Kerry opposed:
I'm not accusing Cheney of being a girly man on defense. As he notes, the
Cold War had just ended; deficits were spiraling; the nation could afford to cut
back. But some pro-Kerry equivalent of Arnold Schwarzenegger or Zell Miller
could make that charge with as much validity as they—and Cheney—make it against
Kerry.
In other words, it's not just that Cheney and those around him are
lying; it's not even just that they know they're lying; it's that they know—or
at least Cheney knows—that the same lie could be said about him. That's what
makes it a damned lie.
This one, however, is my favorite and is a great example of what Cheney and the Republicans have been doing this whole election:
"He declared at the Democratic Convention," Cheney said of Kerry, "that he will
forcefully defend America after we have been attacked. My fellow Americans,
we have already been attacked." Where in Kerry's speech did he say this?
Nowhere.
We'll see if John Edwards can take him to task in the debate, as Joe Lieberman so miserably failed to do in 2000.
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