Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Fight them, without becoming them!

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Republicans do not trust women.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Petty moves from a petty man.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2008 / We’ll Stop Calling Her a Liar When She Stops Lying

We’ll Stop Calling Her a Liar When She Stops Lying

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Reihan Salam, co-author of “Grand New Party” asks if people will please stop calling Palin a liar:

So will we stop hearing that Palin “lied” about the Bridge to Nowhere? I’m guessing we won’t.

Daniel Larison brutally puts the brakes on that nonsense:

Well, Reihan, we will keep hearing about it because she has been lying.

You really have to read the whole thing. Trust me, you will be smiling at the end.

BTW- If Reihan’s hackery regarding Palin is any indication as to what is in his book, I think we can rather safely conclude that the Grand New Party is neither grand nor new, but instead rather much like the old one.

Reader Interactions

51Comments

  1. 1.

    cleek

    It must be very strange to be Sarah Palin. A woman of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, she can’t get anyone to notice. She is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of her time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.

  2. 2.

    Barbar

    Reihan Salam is a graduate of Harvard College and Stuyvesant High School.

    This is probably just too confusing for him to understand.

  6. 6.

    Funkhauser

    Also, can we stop calling Reihan and Ross “party intellectuals?” Trying to put lipstick on a pig – sexism alert! – does not equal intellectual thought.

  7. 7.

    r€nato

    THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS SEXISM! IF YOU ASK PALIN HARD KWESCHINS, YOU WILL MAKE HER CRY! I DEMAND AN APOLOGY!

  8. 8.

    Dreggas

    If it weren’t for the fact that Henry Rollins, unless I am mistaken, is a flaming Lib the McCain campaign should just change their music selection to LIAR

  10. 10.

    r€nato

    Larison used about a thousand words or more to explain something which somebody who is not drunk on the GOP Kool-Aid could have understood intuitively with less than 50 words.

    The Kool-Aid is strong with the McCain dead-enders.

  11. 11.

    Dreggas

    A friend of mine here at work just figured it out. McCain can get away with lying because John McCain spent five and a half years without being able to check his facts…as a POW.

  12. 12.

    Paul L.

    the GOP Kool-Aid

    You did know that Jim Jones was a progressive?
    As for Lying.
    “Only Ones” Factoid

    From an Obama interview with the Chicago Sun-Times on April 25, 2008:

    New York has seen a huge drop in crime over the last decade, more than even other cities, and part of it is they’ve got more cops than anybody else per capita.

    In actuality:

    NYC has a population of 8,165,001 and a police force of 37,838 giving it a ratio of 1 officer/216 people.

    Chicago has a population of 2,873,790 and a police force of 13,700 for a ratio of 1:210

    Chicago has a murder rate 2.5x that of NYC and climbing.

    Saddleback Bloopers

    Obama: … And by the way, I’ve now inserted this into the Democratic Party platform, is how do we reduce the number of abortions? The fact is that although we have had a president who is opposed to abortion over the last eight years, abortions have not gone down and that is something we have to address.
    …

    Guttmacher Institute: In 2005, 1.21 million abortions were performed, down from 1.31 million abortions in 2000.

    BTW, The democrats took the “and rare” from the Democratic Party platform plank “Keeping abortion safe, legal and rare”.

  13. 13.

    dj spellchecka

    jeez…when even the american conservative is calling bullshit….it’s deep…………

    didn’t lying used to have consequences???

    wondering
    rusty

  14. 14.

    r€nato

    Palin is still lying, Paul L, no matter how much chaff you throw up in the air she is lying and so are her enablers like John McCain and the McCain dead-enders in the right-wing wankosphere.

  15. 15.

    John Cole

    jeez…when even the american conservative is calling bullshit….it’s deep…………

    The American Conservative in general and Larison in particular have a great deal of credibility, in my opinion. They always call bullshit when they see it.

    And even better, Larison calls bullshit when he sees it from the Obama camp, which is something I need, as I get caught up in things.

  16. 16.

    gypsy howell

    I’m beginning to think that her ability to tell a bald-faced lie, over and over and over again in the face of irrefutable evidence to the contrary, is the EXACT reason they picked her for the ticket.

    Name one other potential Veep candidate who could flat-out lie with such incredible, stupendous impunity, and with barely a trace of a tell. Lieberman? Whiiiiiiines too much. Romney? Gets glassy eyed, deer-in-the-headlights look. Pawlenty? Would buckle & cry under the strain.

    No, they needed to find a pathological, professional-level liar. Someone who could really bring their A-Game to lying. And they did.

  18. 18.

    J.W. Hamner

    Honestly, I find Reihan’s and Douthat’s decent into Palin booster hackery to be the most disappointing thing about this race. I was looking forward to them giving an honest appraisal of the election, but apparently the fact that they just wrote a book means intellectual honesty is for chumps.

    Sad.

    Bill Kristol better watch his back… there’s apparently a bunch of hacks who want his crown.

  19. 19.

    Grand Moff Texan

    Chicago has a population of 2,873,790 and a police force of 13,700

    Uh, that’s their total workforce, not the number of officers available on patrol.

    I love watching rightards “factcheck” Obama. They’re so cute when they try to think.
    .

  20. 20.

    t jasper parnell

    Can we call McCain a liar now too? Please. At “least 16” of his “former staffers”

    went to work for clients

    as lobbyists

    whose issues the staffers dealt with in the Senate. … Still, during McCain’s nearly 25 years in Congress, the revolving door has remained open. As his aides have moved downtown from Capitol Hill, they’ve drawn from their experience on the senator’s personal staff or on his key committees: Armed Services, Commerce and Indian Affairs.

  21. 21.

    amorphous

    Hopefully she’s also lying about saying war with Russia may be necessary… but probably not. War is so romantic and great! It produces more POW future Preznits!

  22. 22.

    t jasper parnell

    Can we call McCain a liar now too? Please. At “least 16” of his “former staffers”

    went to work for clients

    as lobbyists

    whose issues the staffers dealt with in the Senate. … Still, during McCain’s nearly 25 years in Congress, the revolving door has remained open. As his aides have moved downtown from Capitol Hill, they’ve drawn from their experience on the senator’s personal staff or on his key committees: Armed Services, Commerce and Indian Affairs.

  23. 23.

    Grand Moff Texan

    Paul L says:
    Tu quoque!

    Actually, Paul L didn’t even use that fallacy, he just proved he can do a quick internet search and come up with the wrong numbers.

    Chicago does not have 13,700 police on the beat, they have 13,700 employees.

    Their 2000 budget shows only 1,800 squad cars, for instance …
    .

  27. 27.

    4tehlulz

    Their 2000 budget shows only 1,800 squad cars, for instance

    Yes, but each squad car holds six officers, with the remaining for paperwork.

  28. 28.

    handy

    Shorter Paul L’s brain: Nooooo! Don’t look there! Here, gaze into the light. Shiiiiiiny object, shiiiiiny object…

  31. 31.

    Richard Bottoms

    This is the end for Palin:

    Palin was also one of just three governors in the country to issue a proclamation in support of “Jurors’ Rights” day, an event sponsored by the Fully Informed Jury Association, which encourages the doctrine of jury nullification. Nullification is an idea abhorred by tough-on-crime conservatives.

    FIJA

    The Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA) is one of those groups that provides a big tent for weird politics. If you support the idea that judges must tell jurors they have the right to acquit people even when the evidence clearly indicates they have broken the law, FIJA is the place for you. This concept has attracted support from across the political spectrum ranging from those who would legalize marijuana to militia leaders.

    But while FIJA leaders try to walk the fine line inherent in holding together a coalitions around a single issue, they seem to routinely stumble into the far right. Indiana militia leader Joe Holland blanketed Ravalli County with a mailing urging people to understand their “jury rights” after he was charged with threatening public officals in Montana. FIJA literature was disseminated broadly in Mississippi surrounding the trial of Byron De La Beckwith for the murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.

    Racism and anti-Semetism also seem to pose a recurrent problem for FIJA. The “Grand Daddy” of FIJA is anti-Semite Red Beckman. It was Red who inspired the current leaders of FIJA and acquainted them with the concept of the fully informed jury. The Montana FIJA coordinator, Kamala Webb, was asked to resign after it became public that she was distributing material written by Colorado racist activist and anti_semite, Pete Peters, at the Montana legislature. Webb is also a militia activist.

    Most recently, Dr. Nancy Lord resigned from FIJA in part she says, because of the anti-Semetic writings of Red Beckman. Lord’s resignation has stimulated much debate within the organization about Beckman’s role in FIJA and how the organization should handle FIJA activists who possess racist and/or anti-Semetic views.
    The debate about this topic opens a Pandora’s Box for FIJA. FIJA’s activist list in Montana is permeated with figures from the far right. If FIJA adopts a strong stance condemning racism and anti-Semetism and truly discourages participation of individuals with ties to the racist movement, they will lose a significant number of motivated supporters.

    Thank you Montana Human Rights Network

    Look into this and everything you can about the FIJA groups and their connections to the militia movement.

    I knew as soon as I heard about her affiliation with the Alaska Independence Party that the militia stuff would be what bit her in the rear.

  32. 32.

    Peter Johnson

    Reihan Salam is a graduate of Harvard College and Stuyvesant High School.

    I could say the same of Matt Damon, who comes off as far more confused.

    There’s no lie here, just a nuanced issue. Palin was for the bridge but then came to her sense and killed it, which save taxpayers about $25 million. Call it a conversion on the Road to Damascus, call it what you will. But she came out on the right side of the issue. Period. And no amount of lies from the Olbermann-Damon-Soros axis can change the facts.

  33. 33.

    Grand Moff Texan

    Yes, but each squad car holds six officers, with the remaining for paperwork.

    SEE?!?!? OBAMA WAS LYING !!!!!!!!!!!!1

    Or something.

    Relevance to Palin lying about her record … ? It remains a mystery.
    .

  34. 34.

    BFR

    Ok, so what’s this going to be – WWV or WWVI – I can’t remember what we’re supposedly up to:

    The Governor advocated the accession of Georgia and Ukraine into NATO.

    When asked by Gibson if under the NATO treaty, the U.S. would have to go to war if Russia again invaded Georgia, Palin responded: “Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you’re going to be expected to be called upon and help.

    From the ABC interview.

  35. 35.

    BP in MN

    Peter Johnson-

    Palin was only against it when the Alaska government would have footed the bill. She was all for it as long at the federal government was willing to pony up. And she had no problem building the road to the bridge site, the money for which could not be repurposed. That’s not coming around to the right side eventually, that’s just consistent pork-seeking.

  36. 36.

    handy

    Call it a conversion on the Road to Damascus, call it what you will. But she came out on the right side of the issue. Period. And no amount of lies from the Olbermann-Damon-Soros axis can change the facts.

    If that were all that was at stake in this whole narrative (that she somehow came out on the “right side”), then your point about the “facts” would be worth something and we could have a real conversation about thos nuances. But that’s not all that’s at stake, and either you know that so you’re wilfully obtuse, or you’re just plain ignorant.

  37. 37.

    slip

    Palin was only against it when the Alaska government would have footed the bill. She was all for it as long at the federal government was willing to pony up

    Even this is wrong. Congress said “no thanks” to the bridge in the Fall of 2005, one whole year before Palin was elected Governor. As Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Ted Stevens worked out a compromise whereby Alaska would still receive the funds earmarked for the bridge, which they could use in any fashion they wished, on a bridge, or whatever. In the campaign for Governor, one year after Congress had said “no thanks”, Palin was still in favor of building the bridge. That is her lie. She was in no position to say “no thanks” to the federal government, as the federal government HAD ALREADY said “no thanks” a year earlier.

  38. 38.

    w vincentz

    Didjaknow there are wolves in Russia?
    I don’t know if they can be hunted from aircraft.
    I’ll consult with my 7/8th one, a female (will not use the common jargon to define her as it’s “sexist”).
    She’s been a bit out of sorts lately, what with walkin’ around on all but her front left leg, and she seems to have some issues with me recently cause I put some nice revlon lipstick on her. I’ll get back with the rest of the story when we become “friends” again.
    As far as Georgia is concerned, if’n those Russkies try to take it, I’m with Sarah on that one. I’ll be by her side on the outskirts of Atlanta with my faithful (though viscious) canine friend by my side.
    Come here, NOW, Nukie, my faithful canine friend. Time for your nightly lipstick. you’ll look better, but you’ll still be a ….

  39. 39.

    Blue Raven

    The commenter at AmCon arguing the difference between “dishonest” and “liar” is being rather Clintonian. That’s a piquant varietal of irony he’s pouring there.

  40. 40.

    Peter Johnson

    Didjaknow there are wolves in Russia?
    I don’t know if they can be hunted from aircraft.

    I seriously doubt that. Unless you’re including helicopters.

  42. 42.

    rawshark

    Thanks for linking to AMCON john, great blogs.

    From this post I get a whole new perspective on what Obama was getting at when he said ‘lipstick on a pig’.

    McCain is the pig, Palin is the lipstick. She dresses up McCain but it’s still McCain anyway you slice it.

  43. 43.

    t jasper parnell

    I seriously doubt that. Unless you’re including helicopters.

    Excellent point, helicopters and gyrocopters are air craft they are flying machines. The difference is key.

  45. 45.

    w vincentz

    I’d include hot air balloons as aircraft as well, but heck, what do I know about air or crafting? (see image on right>)

    Now, to a different topic…seems I heard these words today by someone that thinks he should lead this once great country, “Grasped the gravity (no aeronautical snark intended) of the moment, accepted resposibility (consequenses) for their actions, and decided to FIGHT back.”
    Sitting Bull could not have possibly said it better. Look how it turned out for Gen George Armstrong Custer.
    No POW’s taken, no Gitmo, no parades.

  46. 46.

    Twinkletoes the Starry-Eyed Rastafarian Fairy

    All great leaders have had a little bit of crazy in ’em. Look it up. Obama’s too sane (i.e. wimpy) to take the kind of bold action America needs during these troubled times.

    Besides, she’s crazy and she’s hot. Hot, crazy chick! Hot, crazy chick with power! I mean, come ON! ! !

  48. 48.

    Delia

    And no amount of lies from the Olbermann-Damon-Soros axis can change the facts.

    Ooooh. I can haz konsperacy thery?

    Seriously, this is a good one. But you really need to flesh it out a little. See if you can make something up where you have them all in the same room at the same time plotting to take over the universe or something.

  49. 49.

    t jasper parnell

    Seriously, this is a good one. But you really need to flesh it out a little. See if you can make something up where you have them all in the same room at the same time plotting to take over the universe or something.

    Just like a liberal, the fact they haven’t been in the same room is central to who-ever-it-was-that-made-the-claim-about-the-axis-of-three-unrelated-people’s* point. Conspirators only need to breath** together, and, I suppose, you’re going to argue they breath asynchronously?

    *I’d check but I am afraid the site will crash, which it never did when Cole was a mindless follower of the George Bush but now, that Cole decides he hates America the site crashes all the time, coincidence or conspiracy?
    *con·spire (kn-spr)
    from the Middle English conspiren, from Old French, from Latin cnsprre : com-, com- + sprre, to breathe.

  50. 50.

    Chuck

    This story has always reminded me of the time I was on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and I didn’t put the 4 countries in order fast enough, so I didn’t get to go up and answer the questions with Regis. And I was all like, “Thanks but no thanks for that million dollars, Regis! If I’m going to be a millionaire, I’m going to work for it, like a real American!*” And then when I flew home, the Chamber of Commerce gave me some kind of trophy or something because I totally stood up to Regis and his anti-American pork barrel game showitics.

    Regis probably didn’t hear me, since I was already on the plane by the time I stopped crying and told him “Thanks but no thanks!” But I did totally tell him that. WHO ARE YOU CALLING A LIAR!?!?!?!

    * when marrying an heiress isn’t an option

  51. 51.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    She was in no position to say “no thanks” to the federal government, as the federal government HAD ALREADY said “no thanks” a year earlier.

    She’s not campaigning as someone who is against bridge; she is trying to paint herself as someone who is against earmarks. And thought the bridge died, the earmark lived, and she eagerly and happily accepted it.

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