Matt Yglesias is trying to ressurect the whole “Bush lied about the mission being accomplished on the carrier” nonsense again, this time misinterpreting a WaPo story:
In an interview with the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service given on Thursday and released by the White House yesterday, Bush interrupted the questioner when asked about his announcement on May 1 of, as the journalist put it, “the end of combat operations.”
“Actually, major military operations,” Bush replied. “Because we still have combat operations going on.” Bush added: “It’s a different kind of combat mission, but, nevertheless, it’s combat, just ask the kids that are over there killing and being shot at.”In his May 1 speech on the USS Abraham Lincoln, Bush declared: “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country.” The headline on the White House site above Bush’s May 1 speech is “President Bush Announces Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended.”
Yglesias states that the white house is ‘backing off a claim,’ and then types this drivel (you can almost hear him sneering when he typed it):
Ask the kids that are over there, indeed. Well, at least the White House got a lot of good images to use in their campaign literature. See also the fact that the president doesn’t know how many troops are in Afghanistan. He’s not even close. In fact, he’s off by well over 300 percent which is a lot worse than Howard Dean did on his flunked pop quiz. It’s too bad the Republicans aren’t serious about national security.
The reason Matt and others are doing this is because they perceive it as the only antidote to the photos they are terrified of seeing during the ’04 campaign- Bush on the deck of the carrier with the smiling troops. Thus, theywill continue to lie about this issue to taint it. The party of Clinton, indeed. At any rate, here is the debunking of the nonsense Matt and others continue to try to peddle.
Moe Lane
spc67 more or less shut down the troops-in-Afghanistan thing cold here in Kevin’s comments. Well, at least I thought so. :)
marylin
Legal seu blog, pena que n
StarBanker
The Demomeme business is good. I noticed this trend a long time ago. There is a good post made on this subject at the Inoperable Terran, so I won’t repeat myself.
HH
TAPPED is doing it too… you see, Bush said the word “major military operations” and before he said “major combat operations.” This of course shows him to be a horrible liar, instead of a man guilty of having a vocabulary.
HH
TAPPED is doing it too… you see, Bush said the word “major military operations” and before he said “major combat operations.” This of course shows him to be a horrible liar, instead of a man guilty of having a vocabulary (the left of course does not buy that he has a vocabulary, so when in doubt, he’s a liar).
mark
In notice Kevin Drum is stating the “republicans aren’t serious about national security” line as well. It is quite pathetic, if you think about it. But after all, Matt DID ask for donations to his website because apparently he could not be living off daddy anymore in the real world, so I would expect this garbage from him.
Kimmitt
The White House is changing its transcripts today, so that website can now be officially disregarded as a reliable source of information.
HH
Dean was saying this the other day. Will anyone seriously buy that Republicans aren’t strong on defense, as opposed to Dems? Sheesh. It’s a train wreck to watch.
HH
Newsflash: The headline to a press release is not the transcript.
From dictionary.com:transcript – “Something transcribed, especially a written, typewritten, or printed copy”
transcribed – To make a full written or typewritten copy of (dictated material, for example)
The headline is not the transcript… as Spinsanity said, if you accuse the president of dishonesty, be honest.
HH
Also, if the change were to inaccurately reflect what was stated, it would be a problem. The change instead is to MORE accurately reflect what was stated. Not exactly Orwellian.
David Perron
Unless you’re Kimmitt, HH, in which case everything about this administration is scary.
BOO!