Back in 2003, before he became a U.S. Senator, political commentator and comedian Al Franken wrote a book titled, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. It is a book in which Franken, according to the publisher, bravely and candidly exposes the Right “for what they are: liars. Lying, lying liars.”
The back cover states in part, “We have to fight back. But we can’t fight back like they do. The Right’s entertainment value comes from their willingness to lie and distort. Ours will have to come from being funny and attractive.”
Of course, 13 years ago, the Right vehemently disputed Al Franken’s accusations.
There is even an entire web site dedicated to “Fact Checking Al Franken,” where Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, et al, are allegedly “vindicated.”
One of the reviews of Franken’s book, while not rating it as great as Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot, points out, “It’s frustrating that Franken neglects to point a finger at the Democrats’ own widespread timidity…”
Well, here we are 13 years later, in the middle of a presidential campaign and the Lying Liars are still lying and Democrats are still too timid to call them out.
However, there is one YUGE difference this time.
Democrats just need to sit back and — as the back flap of Franken’s book says– enjoy the Right’s entertainment value as they not only lie and distort, but, this time, also expose their own lies and distortions.
The distinguished panel of GOP presidential candidates did exactly that at the Republican debate in South Carolina, aka “The ‘You Lie’ Debate.”
These Republican candidates not only exposed their own lies, but also the lies of a past Republican president.
Michael Bender at Bloomberg.com, calling the debate “A Republican slugfest in South Carolina,” counts the number of times in which the word “lie” or a variation thereof was used during the slugfest: “at least 19 times.”
Guess who used the “You lie” line the most.
You guessed it: Donald Trump, although Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio were not too far behind.
Perhaps one of the most memorable “You lie” moments came when the Donald said that former President George W. Bush lied about the presence of WMD in Iraq. “He lied” the Donald said about Bush and doubled down, “He got us into the war with lies.” For good measure, Trump also added later, addressing Jeb! “The World Trade Center came down during your brother’s reign, remember that.”
The most intense, rapid fire “You Lie” barrage came when Cruz claimed that for most of his life Trump’s policies have been “very, very liberal.”
Cruz must have struck a nerve, because Trump interrupted him with “liar, you probably are worse than Jeb Bush. You are the single biggest liar.” He followed up with, “This guy lies. Lemme just tell you, this guy lied about Ben Carson, when he took votes away from Ben Carson in Iowa… This guy will say anything. Nasty guy.”
At one point, Trump accused Jeb! Of threatening to “take his pants off and moon everybody,” lamenting that “Nobody reports that.” This writer has not been able to fact-check this claim.
Ironically, as moderator John Dickerson invited the candidates to come on stage for what would become the “You lie” debate, he recalled George Washington writing, “the truth will ultimately prevail, where there is pains taken to bring it to light.”
The six Republican presidential candidates certainly took pains to bring their lies to light.
Senator Al Franken must feel pretty good. Thirteen years after he wrote it, his book has been officially corroborated by a slew of Republican presidential candidates.
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