What do Kevin Drum, Matt Yglesias, Ted Barlow, Jesse, and Atrios all have in common?
All of them have linked to this piece of propaganda from Patrick Leahy’s office as de facto and de jure proof that Republicans are ‘more obstructionist’ than the Democrats are when it comes to judicial nominees. Only problem is, Jay Caruso has looked Leahy’s claims and has discovered that Leahy has been ‘disingenuous’ (count me as shocked).
You would think the people who had an aneurysm every time Bush talks about ‘average’ tax cuts would be a little bit more careful before simply reciting partisan agitprop as gospel truth. But then you would be underestimating how much they hate being in the minority, and how important the judiciary is to them.
Here are some DOJ links comparing the first two years of Bush with previous administrations.
Department of Justice PDF file #1, #2, and #3
By the way, I dont think that any of the guys above would intentionally lie about the stats (well, Atrios might- but then he would deny that he really meant it or just claim that we were too stupid and misunderstood his point and hey, by the way, Trent Lott is racist), but instead this report just confirmed what they already ‘know.’ Republicans are evil, you know- thank goodness Leahy is combatting their lies. That really is how they think- there is no need for critical reasoning- that is reserved for fact checking Republican claims. Democrats are merely right about everything because they believe it so strongly.