FactCheck Wrong

Apparently, the web site FackCheck.org was playing loose with the facts when it debunked Vote Vets ad that claims Sen. Allen voted against body armor. It's amusing to see how the right wing neo-radicals attack the ad. As I read Media Matters’ analysis of the ad and FactCheck’s parsing of words, I’m reminded of all the times during the 2004 campaign the GOP said Kerry voted to raise taxes dozens of times, citing even bills where he didn’t vote to decrease them and all sorts of bills that were only tangentially related to taxes. Now it is the right who cries foul in its defense of George Allen because the sponsor of the bill didn't use the words "body armor."

Again, the hypocrisy of the right astounds me.

Comments

[Brian]

Bob, it seems that the title of your post is unsubstantiated.

[Brian]

It seems rather disingenuous to claim that a vote against a non-specific appropriation is a vote against body armor. I suspect that if body armor had been specified, the amendment would have had an easier time passing. The link to the amendment does not work, by the way.

[Bob]

Again, Brian, if I read the amendment correctly, the amendment was only for a dollar amount. If you can find something more, please let me know.

[Brian]

I read both what MM and FC had to say. What matters is the language in the bill/amendment. The rest is pointless spin.

[Bob]

The amendment has only the dollar figure. The controversy comes over the meaning of the word "body armor." Read the Media Matters post. The right is arguing semantics.

While the Republic and FactCheck have conceded that Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), the amendment's sponsor, made clear in a press release that the $1 billion measure included funding for helmets and bulletproof vests, both outlets have nonetheless argued that, because Landrieu did not specify "body armor" as a "priority" when discussing the legislation on the Senate floor, the assertion that Allen voted against body armor is "false" and "scandalous."

[Brian]

So you've declared on side wrong and the other right w/o actually having seen the evidence that would be the deciding factor?

[Bob]

It was an amendment and I haven't seen the text.

[Brian]

Bob, does the actual language of the bill mention body armor?