Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

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

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Consistently wrong since 2002

In my day, never was longer.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Second rate reporter says what?

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

You are here: Home / Why Does He Get Away With Lying?

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91Comments

  2. 2.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    Well, it isn’t yet April fools day when he can claim the truth and it was all a big joke (lie) on us.

  4. 4.

    demkat620

    Becuase the media wants a strict left – right debate.

    The horserace is all they care about.

  6. 6.

    mcc

    Why is he “sticking to his guns” on a complete damned lie?

    Is Hardball pointing out it’s a lie?

    If the answer is “no”… that’s why.

  7. 7.

    rikyrah

    he’s desperate to stay on tv. but, yes, he should be called on his lies.

    waiting for an IRS investigation into who subsidized his rent. he needs to go somewhere, sit down, shut the fuck up.

  8. 8.

    jrg

    Because there is no penalty for lying. People who believe it will remember it, people who don’t believe it will forget about it in 15 minutes.

  9. 9.

    demo woman

    That great journalist Chris Matthews corrected him, right? Stupak does not really care about reducing abortions. How many have an abortion because they can’t afford health care? He is only concerned about his own asshole.

  12. 12.

    Fergus Wooster

    He’s answering to Doug Coe, or the Archdiocese, or both.

    Neither have shown any shame about lying about he bill’s contents.

    Also, echo Max – he’s a misogynist prick and hates nuns.

  14. 14.

    SIA

    Because Chris Matthews is still trying to find his balance between his good little Catholic boy and his faux-liberal personalities. He can’t leave the subject alone. Hopefully he’ll get crazy Uncle Pat on there to resolve it for him.

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    Let me guess. Chris “I like to claim I ask the tough questions” Matthews didn’t challenge him on that particular whopper, right?

    -dms

  16. 16.

    bkny

    tweety’s a very good catholic boy. wanna bet he hasn’t had a call or two from his local bishop.

  18. 18.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    The C street boys will continue to love him, and likely will follow through with the promised wingnut welfare for trying to scuttle HCR, minus 95 percent for failure. Though his deal with the devil is still due in full.

  19. 19.

    LT

    This is a great explanation of Stupak, and exposes the non-sliver of truth in Stupak’s argument:

    Obviously she can’t redeem her foodstamps at Planned Parenthood, but the dollars are basically still interchangible, and if it weren’t for those welfare programs she’d never put together enough money to pay a doctor to end her pregnancy.

    By Stupak’s view – we can’t help poor women at all. Ever. Cuz then they might get abortions.

  20. 20.

    Chuck Butcher

    The fact that it allows you a subsidy that you then add to does include a bit of a wrinkle. He is taking the money thing to an extent that is ludicrous, but certainly is not an out and out lie. If taken to the same extent, making abortionists out of taxpayers, that makes his beloved Bishops pedophiles molesting choir/altar boys. It is less of a stretch in their case since they covered it up…

  21. 21.

    joes527

    It isn’t Bart’s role to point out his own lie. It is the Journalists.

    MSNBC, DO YOU HAVE A JOURNALIST IN THE HOUSE?

    Didn’t think so.

  22. 22.

    SIA

    Give Stupak a copy of The National Catholic Reporter

    Congress, and its Catholics, should say yes to health care reform. We do not reach this conclusion as easily as one might think. There are, to be sure, grave problems with the bill the House will consider in the next few days. Nonetheless, the choice Congress faces is between the status quo and change — and the current bill is a profoundly preferable step in the direction of positive change.

    http://ncronline.org/print/17458

    Probably doesn’t listen to them either.

  24. 24.

    Mark S.

    1. Money is printed by the United States Treasury.

    2. This money can be used to purchase abortions.

    3. Stop printing money!

  25. 25.

    ajr22

    Because in the media world, once a lie has been repeated enough it becomes a justifiable position.

  27. 27.

    Violet

    He lies because he knows he won’t be called on it. Lazy, lazy “journalists” and cable hosts. If Stupak and his ilk knew they would get called on it, they wouldn’t be so brazen.

  28. 28.

    Allan

    What has Stupak gotten away with, exactly?

    He’s gone from unknown putz to toxic waste.

    Everyone knows he’s a Family mole.

    He’s got organized labor, his #1 source of campaign contributions, nipping at his heels on this vote.

    He’s got a primary challenger. To which he responds by singing the praises of Focus on the Anus.

    He’s got people like me all over America who are actively conspiring to end his career.

    I’m loving this.

  30. 30.

    The Populist

    Funny how Makewi has stopped spreading the lies on this issue.

    Hyde will NOT be overridden. Stupak needs to STFU.

  31. 31.

    Brick Oven Bill

    Perhaps Stupak is seeking a promotion within the Obama Administration.

    CBO’s Peter Orszag : The taxpayer can assume all of Fannie-Freddie’s liabilities for probably zero dollars, but like maybe $25 billion.

    Barack has since promoted Pete from the non-partisan and always accurate CBO to head his Office of Management and Budget. This was something like $600 billion ago. Democrats hate Mathematics.

    But Mathematics is thought, and is therefore eternal, and in another realm of existence.

  32. 32.

    The Populist

    I think Stupak is getting pressure from his C street roomies? This is their talking point. Any rightie that sells this angle is lying and they know it.

  36. 36.

    Robin G.

    Stupak is on Hardball and just blatantly saying that the HCR bill allows for abortion and over rides Hyde. That is just an out and out lie. Why is he “sticking to his guns” on a complete damned lie?

    Because Stupak is an attention whore. That’s all. It has nothing to do with beliefs, principles, political hopes. It’s not even about money. It’s all because he’s an attention whore.

    Set him in his time out chair and leave him to kick the wall all alone.

  37. 37.

    The Populist

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    Nice try. He isn’t looking, nor will be be promoted, to anything in the Obama administration.

    I see you keep trotting out RNC talking points (what’s next? The one nobody can prove where the admin offered Sestak a job to get him to drop his challenge to Specter?).

    Actually, dude, the GOP seems to have a harder time with math seeing how much debt they keep leaving us in every time they got to run the nation.

    Your lies are showing, do us a favor and cover up.

  39. 39.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @mcc:

    Is Hardball pointing out it’s a lie?

    The really infuriating part of all this.
    @Chad S:

    The funniest was Matthews at the end resisting the urge to call him an ass.

    Did Tweety push back at all? Did he mention the nuns?

  41. 41.

    John S.

    I look forward to the next crop of Zell Millers who will become official mouthpieces for the Republicans (and alternate sources for stories when Lanny Davis or Marshall Wittmann are unavailable to shit on Democrats from the “Democrat” POV) and complain how they were pushed out of the party because of their principles.

    Early favorites include Blanche Lincoln and Bart Stupak. So who else is jockeying to be the next Zell?

  42. 42.

    Fergus Wooster

    @jeffreyw: Nice. I’ll get back to you when I start cooking my pork roasting joints (my butchering pics don’t seem to have the same effect).

    Looks delicious.

  43. 43.

    Stroszek

    @The Populist: Everyone knows every CBO and OMB estimate under Bush was 100% accurate. As the Iraq War’s self-financing proves, Republicans rule at math… which is why they’re the choice of rambling pseudo-Platonists everywhere.

  44. 44.

    Grace Nearing

    @LT: I like to substitute the word “shoes” for “abortion.” So the Hyde Amendment bans the use of federal funds to buy shoes and Stupak’s bizarro interpretation becomes:

    Obviously she can’t redeem her foodstamps at *Payless,* but the dollars are basically still interchangible, and if it weren’t for those welfare programs she’d never put together enough money to *buy shoes.*

  48. 48.

    Brick Oven Bill

    The lies that covered up the bailout of the corrupt Fannie-Freddie regime, Rahm, Director, have been highlighted by neither political party, and not brought up in the press.

    This fraud will end up costing well in excess of $1 trillion, or CBO’s reported cost, cough, cough, of the entire health care bill. Fannie-Freddie is like the biggest fraud perpetrated against the taxpayer yet.

    But, other than Balloon Juice, there is silence, despite Pete’s letter provided above. Just a promotion for Pete.

    Why is this?

  49. 49.

    Josie

    It’s pretty simple. If he admits at this point that the Senate bill upholds Hyde, then everything he has said up to this point is bullshit. Someone should let him in on the fact that the American public has the attention span of a fruitfly and wouldn’t know bullshit if it smacked them in the face.

  51. 51.

    Dave C

    Perhaps Stupak is showcasing his pro-life bonafides in preparation to make a switch to the Republican party?

  52. 52.

    Lev

    @Dave C: He won’t bolt, for the same reason that old Zell and Holy Joe never did. Bart Stupak is a dishonest, angry, manipulative fundamentalist power-politician. This is evidently a novelty to the media because not too many Democrats fit that profile. As a Republican, he’d fit right in. He’d be unexceptional in every way. And he probably wouldn’t be able to win with the unions against him.

  54. 54.

    Texas Dem

    Nobody cares about Stupak any more, or at least they shouldn’t. His vaunted anti-abortion block is melting away like the spring thaw. And I think he knows that, which is why he’s sounding so hysterical. I also think he knows he’s a dead man in the Democratic party whether the bill passes or not. If the bill fails, he’s got a lot of angry Dems who will be out for blood. If the bill passes, he’s on the wrong side of the biggest piece of legislation since the days of the Great Society, and no one in this White House is going to return his calls. Sleep well, Bart. Pleasant dreams.

  55. 55.

    Fergus Wooster

    @jeffreyw:

    Mmm…roast pork.

    Yup. The bacon and jowls are hanging. The ham is still buried in salt, to be hung for 6-9 months beginning 4/9/2010.

    But the roasts – they’re boned, rolled and ready now. And I am impatient.

  56. 56.

    geg6

    Both Steny Hoyer and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (FSM bless her heart) were on right after and they both reiterated that this bill follows Hyde and there is no there there. And in a tepid defense of Tweety, he did point out all the anti-choice support from Catholic organizations and that his fellow Dem anti-abortion compatriots in the House are falling away from him. So there was that. But Tweety was stellar against the AFP guy. Just tore him up in classic Tweety style, hammering him again and again with a single question that he, of course wouldn’t and couldn’t answer.

  57. 57.

    demo woman

    Why is he “sticking to his guns” on a complete damned lie?
    Well that darn liberal media once again pretending they are Fox TV.

  60. 60.

    Adrienne

    @Texas Dem: Exactly. He can yell this shit from the mountaintops if that’s what he wants to do, as long as he’s doing it by himself. He can vote against the bill – as long as he doesn’t derail it, I don’t care. And that’s really what gives Bart Stupak a sad… that we no longer care about him now that the reps he supposedly spoke for are saying that they’ll vote for the bill. Bye bye Stupie!!!

  61. 61.

    Mnemosyne

    @Texas Dem:

    If he ends up voting for the bill after all of this — and I think there’s a non-zero chance that he will if only to try and extinguish some of the burning bridges he’s left behind him — I will laugh and laugh and laugh.

  62. 62.

    The Populist

    @Stroszek:

    And don’t forget anti-science types like B.O.B. Math and science are courses the GOP must have slept through.

  63. 63.

    The Populist

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    Why is this? Because a-holes like you run around acting like Obama is the reason why we are in this deep debt mess.

    Maybe if you guys were more HONEST about things vs. selling out your country for a partisan viewpoint, then maybe things wouldn’t be so bad.

    Change happens moran. Deal with it. We all went with the status quo for the last eight years while watching Bush squander the surplus because he felt his rich buds needed more cash to buy bigger yachts with.

    Oh well, you like to lie about everything, so ***yawn*** you are not very bright.

  64. 64.

    AxelFoley

    @rikyrah:

    waiting for an IRS investigation into who subsidized his rent. he needs to go somewhere, sit down, shut the fuck up.

    I love it when you talk dirty, rikyrah.

  65. 65.

    sukabi

    Why Does He Get Away With Lying? Because he’s pushing crap that Matthews and the other asshats approve of…

  67. 67.

    Texas Dem

    Burning bridges indeed. Like they once said about Olbermann’s departure from ESPN, Bart isn’t just burning his bridges, he’s napalming them. To borrow a line from one of my favorite movies: “So you’re talkin’ about a thermonuclear explosion and ‘Adiós, muchachos……’ “

  68. 68.

    The Populist

    @Texas Dem:

    Kinda like when Larry Craig would NOT stop talking about his bust at the airport bathroom or Blagoyevich and his constant defensive posturing when the shit storm came down on him. The smart ones STFU.

  69. 69.

    Mnemosyne

    I wonder if Steve Dreihaus might end up voting “yes” after all now that the anti-reform crowd has run an attack ad against him that used a picture of him and his two young daughters. Dreihaus is understandably pissed despite their apology.

    Stay classy, righties.

  72. 72.

    Tlazolteotl

    Wow, Rob Roser nails it in one!

    And just to add to that, never underestimate how much some of these people hate women.

    Patriarchy? You’re soaking in it!

  73. 73.

    Joel

    @Mnemosyne: I love how the spokeswoman for the group that issued the ad, Sarah Longwell, is (was?) a prominent lobbyist for the American Beverage Institute, which:

    opposes sobriety checkpoints, efforts to make alcohol-sensors standard equipment in cars, and alcohol tax increases

  74. 74.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @bemused #70: saw a short item that the SC ethics board have fined Sanford $74,000.

  76. 76.

    CynDee

    Why is he “sticking to his guns” on a complete damned lie?

    Adolf Hitler: What good fortune for governments that the people do not think.

  78. 78.

    El Cid

    Via the GOS

    State of the health care debate: Talk radio attacks an 11-year old
    …
    By Les Blumenthal | McClatchy Newspapers…
    …
    WASHINGTON — Conservative talk show hosts and columnists have ridiculed an 11-year-old Washington state boy’s account of his mother’s death as a “sob story” exploited by the White House and congressional Democrats like a “kiddie shield” to defend their health care legislation.
    …
    Marcelas Owens, whose mother got sick, lost her job, lost her health insurance and died, said Thursday he’s taking the attacks from Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin in stride…
    …
    …”Now this is unseemly, exploitative, an 11-year-old boy being forced to tell his story all over just to benefit the Democrat Party and Barack Obama,” [Rush] Limbaugh said on March 12, according to a transcript his show. “And, I would say this to Marcelas Owens: ‘Well, your mom would still have died, because Obamacare doesn’t kick in until 2014.'”…
    …
    …”That’s the George Soros-funded Obama-approved group fighting for health care,” [Glenn] Beck said. “Since all of the groups are so concerned and involved now, may I ask where were you when Marcelas’ mother was vomiting blood?”
    …
    [Michelle] Malkin dismissed Marcelas Owens as “one of Obama’s youngest lobbyists” who has been “goaded by a left-wing activist grandmother [who watched her daughter die],” promoted by Murray and has become a regular on the “pro-Obamacare circuit.”
    …
    Malkin also suggested there were other programs that could have helped Tifanny Owens, adding, “It’s not clear that additional doctors’ visits in the subsequent months would have prevented her death.”
    …
    Tifanny Owens died in June 2007 of pulmonary hypertension, which is described as high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs that can lead to heart failure. The disease is considered rare. While there’s no cure, it can be treated.
    …
    The treatments [for Tiffany Owens, the assistant manager of a fast food restaraunt] can cost as much as $100,000 a year and must be “consistent and constant,” said Katie Kroner, the director of advocacy and awareness for the Pulmonary Hypertension Association…

    Follow link for more lurid details.

  80. 80.

    Tonal Crow

    @Joel:

    @Mnemosyne: I love how the spokeswoman for the group that issued the ad, Sarah Longwell, is (was?) a prominent lobbyist for the American Beverage Institute, which: opposes sobriety checkpoints, efforts to make alcohol-sensors standard equipment in cars, and alcohol tax increases.

    Is there a good reason why I should not oppose sobriety checkpoints and, much more so, vehicle alcohol sensors? Is there, like, any portion of the 4th Amendment — and privacy generally — that those who favor these things are not willing to sacrifice for a promise of improved safety?

  82. 82.

    Jeffro

    Re the Stupak quote and Lincoln too: A truly note-taking/lesson-learning Dem party would already be out in front with ads noting exactly this in the appropriate districts/states.

    WHO WILL BE THE NEXT ZELL: OUT OF TOUCH and OUT OF TIME?

  83. 83.

    Tonal Crow

    @Comrade Kevin: So? While the Court is final, it is not infrequently incorrect. For example: Raich (risibly-broad reading of Commerce Clause), Bush v. Gore (1-time-only 14th Amendment “interpretation”), Korematsu (upholding internment of Japanese-Americans), Plessey (upholding “separate but equal”), Dred Scott (do I really need to say more?)…. And since Burger got in as Chief Justice (yeah, it’s been that long) the Court has been almost uniformly hostile to 4th Amendment claims. But what the heck, if ya’ ain’t got nuthin’ t’ hide, ya’ ain’t got nuthin’ t’ fear. Amirite?

  84. 84.

    Bruce Webb

    Why?

    Running for Governor and doesn’t have to give a shit about burning bridges in the House.

    Thanks for answering simple questions can be forwarded in cash form.

  85. 85.

    The Other Steve

    Sometimes I think we argue past one another and don’t really listen.

    Near as I can tell the argument Stupak is making is that health insurance will be supported with tax breaks and credits —> insurance covers abortion –> Government money is being used to pay for abortions

    I think the response from the Democrats has been utterly pathetic, because it all involves either saying “That’s not true!” or “We’re going to make the insurance companies put the coins in this little pile over here and…”

    The better answer is.

    “The People Ought To Decide What Insurance They Want, and What it Covers. Not the Government, and Certainly Not Bart Stupak.”

  86. 86.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    Shorter Bart Stupak: I care more about saving potential human life than I do about saving real humans who are actually suffering and struggling to stay alive.

    Once you are born these people couldn’t care less about you, they only want to protect you when you were an ‘if’. Now that you are real and alive, good luck buddy because you are on your own. I wish some Sister Mary would take a steel ruler to Bart’s knuckles. Then she could beat his ass with it. Bart only needs to talk to men about womens abortion issues because it’s a man’s world out there and he needs to protect the women from themselves.

    It’s a wonder that the Earned Income Credit ever passed. I am sure that some woman somewhere took that money and had an abortion with it.

  87. 87.

    Dr. Morpheus

    @Comrade Kevin:

    You can oppose sobriety checkpoints all you want, the US Supreme Court has already said they’re constitutional.

    The US Supreme Court has also said that people are property (c.f. Dred Scott).

    In both these and other cases the Supremes are full of shit.

  88. 88.

    LGRooney

    Because if HCR passes, the GOP will release those pictures of a drunk Stupak leaving an abortion clinic for transvestite donkeys somewhere near Tijuana.

    I can’t figure it out.

  89. 89.

    brantl

    Why do all of you assume that he’s just not dumb enough, or know-it-all-enough, or lazy enough, to not be able to read/understand/research what the bill actually does?

  90. 90.

    Gatsby

    Stubborn Stupak’s Stuck on Stuporous Stupidity.

    OT: I had the great joy of drinking my coffee out of my newly arrived Tunch Big Cup (“The Revolution Will Be Supervised”) this morning. Thanks, John, for such a great idea. My feline overlords are very jaleous!

  91. 91.

    Martian Buddy

    @Texas Dem: “I’m afraid an explosion was inevitable at this point.”

    Although “Game over, man! Game over!” is probably more appropriate for Stupak.

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