Unrepentant fabrications

February 16, 2007

I suspect it was quite embarrassing. The Washington Times’ Frank Gaffney repeated a bogus quote from Abraham Lincoln as the lede in his column this week. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) saw the column, and used the fabricated quote as part of his argument in support of the president’s Iraq policy. Oops.

Of course, accidents happen. People get sloppy, they find a quote that’s too good to check, and they end up with egg on their face. It’s good for a few laughs, but it’s no big deal — the Times will run a correction, Young will correct the record, and the whole thing will probably be forgotten fairly quickly.

Except that’s not quite what’s happening. The unabashedly conservative Washington Times has declined to run a correction. Worse, confronted with an obvious error, Young and his office will not back down from a quote they know to be false.

During yesterday’s House debate on Iraq, Rep. Don Young (R-AK) made the case for escalation by citing a fabricated quote falsely attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “Congressmen who willfully take action during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs, and should be arrested, exiled or hanged.”

This morning, Young’s spokeswoman Meredith Kenney told ThinkProgress repeatedly that Young does not plan to take any action to correct the record or clarify his House statement.

Kenney said that Young had learned of the quote from Tuesday’s Washington Times op-ed by Frank Gaffney, and noted that the Times has not yet issued a correction or retraction. Kenney said she “couldn’t confirm or deny” that Young would correct his statement even if the Times published a correction.

While Dems seem anxious to apologize for verbal gaffes, here’s a conservative Republican who repeated a discredited quote on the House floor during a key congressional debate. Confronted with reality, Young is undeterred. Asked to correct the record, Young effectively says, “Nope, I’ll wait and see what my local right-wing newspaper does first.”

I almost admire the chutzpah.

As I mentioned earlier, Young habitually calls the largest newspaper in his home state “The Daily Worker,” and refuses to believe anything it prints. One wonders if he will now doubt the validity of what he reads in the Washington Times.

The Washington Post did ask another follow up question — does Young believe his colleagues should be hanged?? No, says Meredith Kenny. But he agrees “totally” with the message of the bogus quote.

I guess that means he prefers arrest & exile for Democrats.

  • “While Dems seem anxious to apologize for verbal gaffes . . . ”

    People subjected to the right-wing smear/attack legions should take Adlai Stevenson’s approach:

    “I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends… that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.”
    Adlai E. Stevenson Jr. (1900 – 1965), Speech during 1952 Presidential Campaign

  • As a long time Alaskan, watching Young at work is always amusing. It is a pity that the local politics up here snuff out any real challengers to the fool. I often wonder if people re-elect him just to keep him away from here…

  • A Republican is never wrong and therefore can never admit a mistake they never made. See, if Lincoln never said that, he would have if he were alive today. Case closed.

  • Since it’s perfectly okay to use bogus quotes without remorse or consequence, I have another new Civil War “quote” from Abraham Lincoln to direct at conservatives:

    “Any President who wages war in an incompetent fashion deserves, and in fact begs, to be impeached. These are times which are far too demanding to permit failure that jeopardizes our national treasure.”

    — Abraham Lincoln (c. 1863)

    Spread the love.

    JohnC

  • I’m sure he’ll appologize and correct the record just as soon as someone can prove to him beyond a shadow of a doubt that nobody with the name Abraham or the name Lincoln in all of histort ever stated that, “Congressmen who willfully take action during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs, and should be arrested, exiled or hanged”.

    How do you know he didn’t say it? Maybe he mentioned it in passing to a friend of a relative of a friend of a relative’s great, great, great grand-uncle of Mr. Gaffney. Go ahead, prove he didn’t.

    See it’s that simple. No reason to appologize, or correct the record. Just because nobody wrote down that Lincoln said it, doesn’t mean he didn’t say it at some time, somewhere.

  • Here’s some more Alaska whining from Sen. Ted “Intertubes” Stevens, speaking Thursday on the Iraq resolution.

    On the Democrats’ refusal to allow Republican-sponsored amendments to bills being debated on the Senate floor

    “This is a defining moment for the Senate….If the Majority of one can go to the House and negotiate a bill and bring it back and say ‘there are not going to be any amendments’…the Senate is totally irrelevant.”

    “It is not right. It is not the Senate. I do not intend to stand by and see the Senate lose its role under the Constitution to be the second House of the Congress. This is not a rubberstamp for the House. That is what we will be if we follow the intention of the Majority Leader now.”

    “You get more done when you work with the minority than when you drive the minority into the corner and make them a solid, solid force. And history has shown that. The Senate works on a bipartisan basis. We represent 50 different states. There is no reason to have a political machine in the Senate. That is what you are seeing.”

    Payback’s a bitch, I guess.

  • which dems seem anxious to apologize for which verbal gaffes?

    Edwards…Durbin…Kerry…… .to name a few…..

    The difference is that the media would never dare call out Don Young about this blatent lie but to fit the narrative of Dems as “elitist, hypocrites” the media will run with some trival comment by a DEM like its the end of the world…

  • Yes, using a fake Lincoln quote is bad, but is it as bad as calling for people to be hanged for disagreeing with Bush? Which is a greater offense and needs to be apologized for more?

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