Here is the update: It’s not true.
On Wednesday, Sen. Mike Johanns and 19 other Republican senators Wednesday called for a hearing into reports that the Obama administration used the future of Offutt Air Force Base as bargaining chip in the health care debate.
Nelson has repeatedly said the rumors are completely false. The White House has called them “absurd.”
A defense analyst said Wednesday that base closures simply don’t work that way.
Even Johanns himself said he doesn’t believe the rumors.“When Senator Nelson says it didn’t happen, I trust Senator Nelson. I have no reason not to trust him,” Johanns said.
But he’s still calling for hearings, according to Rachel Maddow tonight.
The report originated from an article by Michael Goldfarb, based on one unnamed source. That was enough to get 20 Republican senators calling for a formal investigation.
Steve Benen points out that the story is absurdly illogical on its face — aside from the unequivocal denials from Nelson and the White House, it does not accord with any pattern of behavior from this administration:
Now, after watching this White House operate for 11 months, this certainly doesn’t sound like the kind of thing the Obama team would do. Have we seen any evidence of these kinds of strong-arm tactics this year? Goldfarb noted that Offutt “is the headquarters for US Strategic Command, the successor to Strategic Air Command,” and was placed in Nebraska for strategic, national security reasons. Obama would threaten to close it over a cloture vote? Without some credible evidence, it’s the kind of dubious story from an unreliable writer that few serious people would find credible.
Few serious people. That lets out Glenn Beck and the rest of the Fox No-News crew. Here’s how it goes: Goldfarb writes story, citing a “staff aide” as his only source. Then Glenn Beck interviews Goldfarb, and along with Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh they use Goldfarb’s slimy reporting to advance the story. So now there are four sources for the fabrication — anonymous staff aide, and Goldfarb himself, plus Hannity and Limbaugh!
And it goes on from there (emphasis in original):
Matt Lewis: “Hearing Ben Nelson has been threatened with closing his air force base.” Posted on Matt Lewis’ Twitter page at 4:50 a.m. on December 15[.]
[…]
Noonan, Continetti advance allegation. In a December 15 Weekly Standard blog post, John Noonan linked to Goldfarb’s post and stated, “In what appears to be a very strange decision, the White House seems to feel that all the money, pain, and headaches that would result from BRAC’ing Offut is fair price in exchange for a single vote on health care reform. Nelson should recognize a bogus threat when he sees one, and dare Emanuel to try.” Additionally, in a December 15 Weekly Standard blog post, Matthew Continetti wrote that Nelson “has been threatened and cajoled into a Yes vote,” linking to Goldfarb’s post.
Malkin: Nelson “is reportedly being threatened with closure of an air force base.” Michelle Malkin wrote in an “update” to a December 15 blog post, “A Hill source says to pay attention to Sen. Ben Nelson. He is reportedly being threatened with closure of an air force base if he doesn’t fall in line and will be offered a ‘blank check’ bribe bigger than Sen. Landrieu’s.”
Ed Morrissey: Obama administration “willing to damage national security to extort his support.” In a December 15 Hot Air blog post, Ed Morrissey wrote, “How desperate has the White House become to get anything passed under the name of health-care reform? According to Michael Goldfarb’s source on Capitol Hill, the Obama administration has targeted the last remaining Democratic holdout, at least among moderates — and they’re willing to damage national security to extort his support. The White House has threatened Ben Nelson (D-NE) with the closure of Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska if he opposes Reid’s latest version, despite its status as the headquarters of US Strategic Command.”
Meanwhile, all this “reportedly” stuff is based on ONE anonymous, unconfirmed source quoted in ONE blog post by a far right blogger with a miles-long reputation for sloppy, biased reporting — AND after having been denied in the most emphatic terms possible by the very senator who supposedly is being threatened, and by the White House, and even after the senator who called for the investigation has said he doesn’t believe the story himself anymore!
But wait — it gets even worse. How does Goldfarb respond to all the denials and all the evidence that he went forward with a fake story without making the least effort to confirm it? He doubles down, and actually has the chutzpah to say that the official denials make the story more likely to be true:
Meanwhile, both Nelson and the White House strenuously deny the allegation. A statement from White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer asserts “This rumor is absolutely false, as the people spreading it well know. This is nothing but a cynical, crass political game that is designed to maintain the status quo. Let’s be clear: the people spreading these falsehoods think nothing is wrong with a system under which families and businesses continue to bear the brunt of skyrocketing costs, insurance companies are allowed to discriminate and drop at will, and thousands of Americans lose their coverage every single day.”
They protest a little too much. I do not know this story is “absolutely false.” To the contrary, I’m confident it’s true. Twenty senators are now calling for an investigation, and each is presumably pretty well sourced in the Senate. If the charges are “absolutely false,” maybe the White House will encourage Senate Democrats to call this Republican bluff. I won’t hold my breath.
So there you go. Make up a story based on outrageously skimpy evidence, and then say the denials are too outraged to be believed.
I hate to say this. It gets even worse. Today, Goldfarb ridiculed Time‘s Joe Klein, for…. What? Going with a story despite official denials. Really and truly. I kid you not:
Despite the increasing headwind against the credibility of his reporting, Goldfarb had the audacity to mock another journalist, Time’s Joe Klein, today for getting “caught making things up.” Goldfarb’s proof that Klein got his story wrong? Official denials in the same vein that Nelson and the White House have denied his story.
Goldfarb responded on Twitter to questions about the consistency of his respect for official denials by saying, “Like everybody else, I believe official denials except when I have a good reason not to.”
I’ve saved the best for last, though. Here is the first paragraph of that follow-up post by Goldfarb in which he claims that the official denials make the story more likely to be true:
Twenty Republican senators have requested that the Senate Armed Services Committee launch an investigation into reports that the Obama White House threatened to close Nebraska’s Offutt Air Force base unless Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson fell into line on health care. Those reports first appeared on this blog. In the letter to Senators Levin and McCain, the committee chairman and ranking member, the 20 ask that “a hearing be held as to whether the BRAC process has been compromised.”
Reports? Reports? What reports? There was only one report — the one Goldfarb wrote the day before! Of course, he stuck in (or his editor made him stick in) “Those reports first appeared on this blog,” as if that helps. It’s still only one report. And that bit about “first appeared”? What does that mean? These multiple reportS “first” appeared on Goldfarb’s blog, written by Goldberg, but then they moved en masse to appear somewhere else? There was only one report on Goldberg’s blog. Goldberg wrote it. There were no other “reportS” on his blog or anywhere else — except for the sycophant wingers who quoted Goldberg’s report as if it were true. So now Beck, Hannity, Malkin, and Limbaugh all quoting Goldberg’s one report based on one unnamed source are reportS?
And tell me again why anyone outside of the make-up-the-news crowd would cite Michael Goldfarb or The Weekly Standard as if he, and it, were reliable sources?
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