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05/16/2004: Gem o'the Day:
SEAN HANNITY’S RUBIFICATION PROGRAM: Does anyone play his viewers for fools quite the way Sean Hannity does? Last night, the knuckle-dragging nightly host repeated a Fake Standard Claim:HANNITY: [Kerry] has voted against just about every major weapons system we now have.
How can Hannity make such a claim? Because in 3 of his 19 years in the Senate, Kerry voted against the annual defense appropriations bill. Why did he do so? More tomorrow. But if you vote against the omnibus bill, then technically you’ve voted against every weapon system it includes. And knuckle-draggers have been very “technical” when they make this claim against Kerry. Why, you might even say that they’ve been “Clintonesque.” Except that is unfair to Bill Clinton.
But last night, a humorous element was involved in Hannity’s fake, phony charge. John McCain was the cave man’s guest. First, he said Kerry isn’t “soft on defense.” A bit later, he noted the obvious:MCCAIN:
I would be accused of voting against numerous weapon systems, because I voted against defense appropriations bills, because they’re loaded down with pork. And they’re obscene today with all of the pork-barrel spending and multi-trillion dollar deficits. I’ll probably vote against the defense appropriations bill this year.Oops! Just like Kerry, McCain “has voted against just about every major weapons system we now have.” Note to self! Sean will have to avoid this fake, phony charge when people like McCain are around.
Meanwhile, how fake, how phony is the Fox host? Drink in the amusing exchange which followed McCain’s rejoinder:MCCAIN:
I would be accused of voting against numerous weapon systems, because I voted against defense appropriations bills because they’re loaded down with pork. And they’re obscene today with all of the pork-barrel spending and multi-trillion dollar deficits. I’ll probably vote against the defense appropriations bill this year. I was accused of voting against breast cancer research because that was on a defense appropriations bill that I voted against, so—
HANNITY: But on defense issues, the most important issue of our time, that—your guy is George W. Bush, right?
MCCAIN: He is my guy. I’m campaigning for him. I’m supporting his re-election. I want him to be re-elected. I believe he has led this nation with moral clarity. But I was also subjected to allegations of being against things like breast cancer research, which was on a defense appropriations bill.
HANNITY: I remember. I understand.Why did McCain keep bringing up that fake, phony claim—the claim that he voted against breast research? Perhaps because his beetle-browed host was one of the people who made the fake charge! The charge was first made—where else?—in a Bush 2000 campaign ad. And you know Sean! He pimped the fake charge on the March 6, 2000 Hannity & Colmes, just to cite one sad example.
Today's gem is from Thursday's Daily Howler.
Len on 05.16.04 @ 01:51 PM CST
