Truth, Put Your Boots On

What is the old saying - the pursuit of truth makes strange bedfellows? Michael Goldfarb of The Weekly Standard finds himself in alliance with James Kirchick of The New Republic, and both are debunking a new attack on Joe Lieberman.  Let's go to Michael Goldfarb:

Here's the video of Lieberman giving Obama a good smack on Fox. Jane Hamsher, instead of putting the man in blackface, decides to just insert an error in her transcript of the interview [Actually, Fox News did; see "DIGGING DEEP, below - TM]. She quotes Lieberman:

If we did what Sen. Obama wanted us to do last year, Al-Qaeda in Iran would be in control of Iraq today. The whole Middle East would be in turmoil and American security and credibility would be jeopardized.

Unfortunately for this attack meme, anyone who actually listens to the tape will hear that Lieberman said "Al Qaeda *and* Iran".  Ooops. [But in Jane's defense, Fox News almost surely erred in the rush transcript, then corrected it - see "DIGGING DEEP, below.  However, since Ms. Hamsher prominently featured a link to the video and opened with "There's nothing quite like seeing it live", I think it is reasonable to expect her to have actually seen and listened to the tape, yes?  Well, maybe her defense is that she trusted Fox News.  Hmm, time to resume the boycott?] [A bit later - Ms. Hamsher's defense, easily explained by any pop psychologist, is that she does too hear "in Iran".  But what would Greenwald do?  I don't see any update to her initial post.]   

Mr. Goldfarb exhorts Matt Yglesias and the Democracy Arsenal to get the wax out.  Mr. Kirchick thumps Democracy Arsenal.

But can I play too?  How about this, from what I guess is not The Blog of Record; here is the NY Times Caucus Blog, penned by Ariel Alexovich:

Senator Joseph Lieberman, one of Mr. McCain’s biggest supporters, spoke freely (and unflatteringly) about Barack Obama yesterday on Fox News.

“Well, I think that - let me say generally that Sen. Obama doesn’t come to this debate with a lot of credibility,” Mr. Lieberman said. He added, “If we did what Sen. Obama wanted us to do last year, Al Qaeda in Iran would be in control of Iraq today. The whole Middle East would be in turmoil and American security and credibility would be jeopardized.”

(Presumably, Mr. Lieberman meant to say Al Qaeda in Iraq, not Iran — a mixup that has bedeviled Mr. McCain as well.)

Presumably Ariel wants to check whether that internship can be revoked for cause.  Instead of merely providing a link to the Hamsher post, would it be expecting too much of a Times scribbler to actually listen to the tape?  I guess so.

And if the NY Times stumbles, surely the LA Times will trip — Borzou Daraqahi in Beirut devotes an entire post at the LA Times blog to the improbability of Al Qaeda in Iran:

MIDDLE EAST: Another Iran faux pas?

Sen. Joe Lieberman was trying to portray presidential contender Barack Obama as a no-nothing on Iraq. But he may have stumbled himself, inventing a whole new militant group supposedly destabilizing Iraq.

My well-intentioned advice to Mr. Daraqahi - when relying on lefty blogs for factual content, mistrust but verify.  [The LA Times now has an update noting their error and citing the Lieberman staffas their prod.]

Where else has this Foxy Hamsher invention gone?  The Salon Blog Report (sorry, I can't figure out how to permalink the archives) is currently promoting the Democracy Arsenal mis-post as its lead "From The Left" item.

And can we bust Steve Benen, the Salon Blog Report editor, at his own blog?  Yes we can!

Can we bust Steve Benen for promoting this at Air America?  Yes we can!

Can we bust a fellow Firedog at The AlterNet for parroting Jane?  Yes we can!

Can we bust Crooks and Liars for joining in the faith-based initiative by highlighting "Al Qaeda in Iran" and adding this in an UPDATE:

Update: John Amato: OK, we know McCain had to be corrected by Lieberman when he said that Al-Qaeda was being trained in Iran, a major gaffe for the man running on his foreign policy experience, but what’s Joe’s excuse? Seems like he’s planting this one on purpose. In an email exchange with Digby, she said that it worked so well with Saddam and  9/11.

Yes we can!

Can we bust Digby for uncritically accepting this faux-gaffe in the course of a glorious 'what it all means' exposition?  Yes we can!

Can we bust ThinkProgress (InventStuff) for propagating this in their UPDATE?  Yes we can!

Can we bust EIN NEWS for this daft headline:

Lieberman Creates New Imaginary Foe: Al Qaeda in Iran 3 Apr 2008 18:33 GMT

Yes we can!

Can we bust the Mother Jones blog for excessive MoJo?  Yes we can!

Finally, can we bust Fox News for botching the transcript?  No we can't Yes we can! [see "DIGGING DEEP", below.]

If we did what Sen. Obama wanted us to do last year, Al-Qaeda and Iran would be in control of Iraq today. The whole Middle East would be in turmoil and American security and credibility would be jeopardized.

Another tough day for Team Reality.  Just mulling out loud here - if someone is going to link to a tape and tell me I really ought to listen to the tape, don't you think they ought to listen to the tape as well?  Fair's fair!

Let's start a pool - how long until we see corrections ebbing and flowing through these prominent lefty sites?

(a) later;
(b) way later;
(c) How about "never" - does "never" work for you?

MORE:  For the truly dark-hearted, a second pool - which big-time lefty journo will be the first to promote this?

(a) Keith Olbermann       (b) Chris Matthews

(c) Paul Krugman           (d) Maureen Dowd

(e) Keith Olbermann       (f) Keith Olbermann

Punters, do keep in mind - the print people can just rely on the bum Hamsher transcript; Olbermann and Matthews would almost surely feel obliged to play the clip and strain to mishear it.  Doesn't mean they aren't capable of it.

DIGGING DEEP:  News.Google tells me that FoxNews originally used the phrase "Al Qaeda in Iran" but links to the rush transcript where Fox has the phrase as "Al Qaeda and Iran".  I have no idea how the Fox transcription process or their corrections/editing process works or how long it took them to correct this mistake (or how it came to their attention), but this disclaimer is featured prominently at the top of their article:

This is a rush transcript from "America's Election HQ," April 1, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

Mistrust but verify. 

As to who got what wrong and how, who knows?  *IF*, I say if Jane Hamsher included a link to the initial rush transcript in her initial posting then one might look askance at Michael Goldfarb's contention that she "invented" the gaffe.

OTOH, Ms. Hamsher may have been prodded by the TNR piece to include a link to the transcript somewhat later in the process.  In that scenario, it may have been that all Mr. Goldfarb had to go on was Ms. Hamsher's link to the video and an unsourced transcript.

The Google cache is not helping me here; if there is a way to crack this, I welcome suggestions.  Something suggestive but not decisive - The Carpetbagger presents the transcript with no link or citation; his reference to a source is "Jane Hamsher has the video".  One infers he simply cut/pasted the Hamsher transcript, but why no link to Fox?  Is this some lefty boycott, an attempt to give the credit to Ms. Hamsher, or is it becasue he was not aware of the Fox transcript?

ThinkProgress also provides a bit of a transcript without actually linking to a transcript, but they do credit Ms. Hamsher in an UPDATE.  Again, suggestive but not decisive.

And you may well ask, what is my excuse?  I am troubled - by the time I waded into this dust-up there were plenty of hints that should have alerted me to a rat-like scent, and eventually I picked up on them - Just for example, I stumbled across this stray lefty who linked only to the Fox transcript, which did not even match his text - a clue!  Frequent commenter Foo Bar also noticed a problem.

Apparently Jane Hamsher is going to stick with the "I heard 'in', so sue me" defense; since people do hear what they want and expect to hear, who can say she is not telling the truth?  However, it certainly leaves one thinking, not for the first time, that the "Reality-Based" Community spends a lot of time in a self-invented reality.

Meanwhile, our fond hope is that we will see appropriate Updates at Salon, the NY Times, Firedoglake, The CarpetBagger, Democracy's Arsenal, and so on, but our breath is unabated.  And of course our not-so-secret hope is that by the end of the week we can mock Krugman, Dowd, Rich, and the usual suspects.

DO KEEP IN MIND: In the Fox interview the very next question was about McCain's gaffe linking Al Qaeda with Iran; Lieberman said this:

LIEBERMAN: Well, just ridiculous. I mean John McCain knows that the Iranians are supporting Shia extremists, and that's different from Al- Qaeda. He misspoke. Every one of the other candidates for president at one time or another has misspoken. I have, too.

When I heard him do that, I leaned forward and I said, "I know what you meant to say, but here's what you said." But you know, what is really important about that exchange, if I may quote from the Bible, that wonderful challenge, "How is it that you can see the speck in your brother's eye but you don't see the log in your own?"

They made a big deal out of John McCain misspeaking. But what senator McCain was saying is Iran is training Iraqis who are killing American soldiers and that's what we should be angry about.

So, did Lieberman invent "Al Qaeda in Iran" and forget his own invention thirty seconds later?  Or did Fox fluff the original transcript?  We make these tough calls every day.

Comments

[GMax]

SI! Se Puede!

That is hillarious.

[centralcal]

(c)

[DebinNC]

Huffington Post

[DebinNC]

Oops.. my mistake. HP was about McCain, not Lieberman.

[SteveMG]

Any bets on whether the pretend news anchor Keith Olbermann blasts Lieberman tonight for this "lie"?

He's one of the big players in the lefty loop(y) that goes from leftwing websites to the MSM.

[Porchlight]

Townhouse v2.0!

[Sara]

Another Maguire classic.

[Danube of Thought]

Where can we hear the audio? Did Maguire include a link?

[Danube of Thought]

Never mind--you link to it through the "quotes" link. And it couldn't be clearer that he's saying "and." Sheesh.

[Seixon]

I can't wait until the Norwegian media picks this up. Well, OK, they won't. It's Lieberman, after all.

[GMax]

Yes Tom I think you a true code breaker and are reading encrypted Townhouse memos. None of the moron brigade bothers to verify it, it was just too delicious. It was even more than delicious, they could pummel Lieberman and McCain at the very same time. Like getting ketchup and mustard for your ballpark burger.

[SteveMG]

Two sidebars stories to this are (1) the continued insistence by the Left and the press that Shi'a would never support Sunni and vice versa (despite the *documented evidence of them assisting one another in fighting the Great Satan and/or Israel) and (2) the fervid attempts by the progressive bloggers to attack and weaken McCain foreign policy credentials.

In this instance, we see them attempting a "twofer".

*From the 9/11 Commission Report (link):

"In late 1991 or 1992, discussions in Sudan between al Qaeda and Iranian operatives led to an informal agreement to cooperate in providing support-even if only training-for actions carried out primarily against Israel and the United States. Not long afterward, senior al Qaeda operatives and trainers traveled to Iran to receive training in explosives. In the fall of 1993, another such delegation went to the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon for further training in explosives as well as in intelligence and security." (more at the link)

[SteveMG]

Arrh, never mind. Kirchick made the same points I made (or tried to).

Read the links first, then comment, dummy.

[clarice]

I loved it so much I blogged it--it IS another TM classic..Bravo!

[SteveMG]

How does TM produce all this so fast?

Geez. Scary.

Stay away from those $5,000 call girls at least until the election is over, TM. We'll need you.

Aftewards, well.....

[Bill in AZ]

a work of art TM...

[TM]

Thanks, all. I stood on the shoulders of giants at TNR and Weekly Standard. And it's only fair to thank our friends on the left who keep the laughs coming...

[Ann]

Another Maguire classic...Ditto!

SteveMG,
I agree, it drives me crazy when someone says AQ is not in that country or this country. We should just call them all "radical Islamic jihadists" that want to cut our heads off and they are in our country, Iran, Iraq, Syria, etc. They are all the same enemy.

It would be easier if we were fighting "Martians" or little green men.

(Did any of that make sense? Maybe, I'm the dummy. :)

[Chants]

c-never

Tom, this blog entry goes to 11.

[SteveMG]

I agree, it drives me crazy when someone says AQ is not in that country or this country.

I'm quite sure AQ would slaughter all the Shi'a and vice versa once they were done killing the Jews and Americans.

However, until then they'll set aside their differences and focus on the task at hand.

The record shows it.

[Sara]

Zawahiri Admits To al-Qaeda’s War On Islam

[SteveMG]

Cyrllic alphabet, English alphabet, ideograms, (a) through (z), it's Olbermann.

Not even close.

Even when they played the tape (e.g., the Rudy comment about Obama willing to negotiate with Ahmadinejad and Syria), Olbermann and Huffington blasted Giuliani for claiming that he said al-Qaeda.

[Danube of Thought]

Because I am so old, I plead an excusable unwillingness to go to the various Moonbat sites. So let me inquire of anyone who has: do any of them respond on the merits to what Lieberman said? I.e., do they address the fact that last April Obama introduced legislation that, had it been enacted, would have resulted in the last American soldier leaving Iraq on Monday?

And let me add my amazed congrats to TM.

[Cecil Turner]

I'd take issue with this bit of conventional wisdom as well:

OK, we know McCain had to be corrected by Lieberman when he said that Al-Qaeda was being trained in Iran, a major gaffe . . .

There's not so much direct evidence of AQ training, but the ridiculous "analysis" by media campaign followers (essentially: Al Qaeda is Sunni, Iraq is Shia . . . what, is you ignorant?) ignores some rather well-documented evidence of Iran supporting both, like:

Iran is supporting both Sunni and Shiite terrorists in the Iraqi civil war, according to secret Iranian documents captured by Americans in Iraq.

An American intelligence official said the new material, which has been authenticated within the intelligence community, confirms "that Iran is working closely with both the Shiite militias and Sunni Jihadist groups."

[Cecil Turner]

And then there's this:

Given the overwhelming evidence of Iranian support for both the extremist militias of the Sunni al-Qaéda and the Shi‘ite Badr and Wolf Brigades and al-Mahdi Army that have caused so much chaos and destruction to Iraqi society . . .

Numerous other reports claim similar support, including a couple from a former CIA Ops officer (Clare Lopez):

“We know that Iran has set up a network of terrorist training camps on Iranian soil, which employ al Qaeda experts to train Iraqi insurgents in the latest explosives techniques.”

If "gaffe" means "telling an unpalatable truth" . . . well, then, yeah, guess he did.

[GMax]

Breaking Jake Tapper of ABC is starting to get the impression Obama or Obama campaign lied to him about quitting smoking. Apparently when he asked the campaign about it they claimed he had quit but on MSNBC Obama admitted his plan to quit was not going that well.

Its not the smoking, its the lying dude.

[Daddy]

Great post TM. I cannot wait to see who the Dem's nominate for their next Vice Presidential Candidate. Ala, Joe Lieberman and Geraldine Ferarro, it'll be fun to know who will be the next number 2 Dem politician on the ticket to wake up 4 years down the road and find themselves ostracised by the Party as racists or sexists or militarist tools of the Conservatives. Shoot, if only we could get them to nominate VP candidates by the thousands, we could expand the rolls of the VRWC in nothing flat. And maybe that's why Hillary and Barrack won't accept the number 2 post under each other; they don't want to wake up some morning in 2012 as a closet Bill Buckley.

[centralcal]

LOL, Daddy!

[GMax]

OT

There are now reports of police raids on the victorious ( In parliament ) opposition in Zimbabwe and also foreign journalists being rounded up. Sounds like its steal the election time, or maybe we dont need no stinkin' elections time.

A minor condolence is at least Mugabe didnt let dunce extraordinaire Carter into the country to bless the whole rigged mess.

[Foo Bar]

Finally, can we bust Fox News for botching the transcript?

Yes, we probably can bust them for botching the transcript and fixing it later. Check out the keyword highlighting in the sole result (which is subject to change or disappear, but should be good for a while) of this Google search.

I agree that all these bloggers ought to go back and fix things, but it appears the error originated with Fox News.

[Soylent Red]

Good call Cecil...

I've never seen anything, anywhere, that suggests AQ is choosy about whom they get their money and weapons from.

Further, if you hearken back to the the hoary old left-lib meme that Iraq wasn't harboring AQ, the left would seem to want it both ways.

Bottom line is, terror organizations are a tool of despotic Middle Eastern politics. What brand or flavor you use is entirely situational and subject to availability.

[Sue]

Is FooBar saying Hamsher is using Fox as a source? Holy moley. Her crowd won't like that if word gets out.

[TM]

Foo Bar - hmm, great minds, same channel, I had actually put in an update before your comment.

However, dare we fault Jane for her lead:

There's nothing quite like seeing it live:

She links to what was almost surely a bum transcript, but she provides a prominent link to the video and certainly conveys the impression she has also watched the tape.

Maybe on a better day she would see it live *and* listen to it live.

Too bad - she could have made Faux News look bad, but instead they make her look bad. And how does one excuse the Times, which linked to Jane Hamsher, not the bad transcript?

[Sara]

I don't understand this need for the left to imbue al-Qaeda with some kind of noble motives. They operate, it seems to me, the same as all those other Middle Eastern despots - on the philosophy that:

The Enemy of my Enemy is My Friend.

[Danube of Thought]

Again: do any of them discuss the merits? Do they have anything at all to say about the fact that, had Obama's legislation passed, the field would have been abandoned on Monday?

Of course, I suppose there could be a "strike force" somewhere, just itching to go clean up the neighborhoods in Fallujah, etc., all over again.

[Sue]

It has never ceased to amaze me that AQ is in every country on the planet but Muslim countries. Kind of weird how they stay away from Muslim countries.

[hit and run]

TM:
Too bad - she could have made Faux News look bad, but instead they make her look bad.

Rove.

[Rick Ballard]

"Of course, I suppose there could be a "strike force" regional advisory mediation workgroup somewhere"

"strike force" carries some heavy negative connotations that would be found to be doubleplusungood under Chairman President Obama. The word "strike" denotes a reprehensible act by an oppressor against a weak and helpless victim while the word "force" carries a similiar yet subtly distinct message concerning the imposition of the strong's will upon the weak.

Under Chairman President Obama's unified diversity plan, neither "strike" nor "force" will ever be necessary. Well, except for those rare occasions when a concept judged to be doubleplusungood is actually expressed. There are limits to what is tolerated under the "zero tolerance for intolerance" plan.

[Ann]

WooHoo!

Another fundraiser scandal for Hillary?

[royf]

To me the best example of Sunni and Shia cooperation is Syria and Hezbollah. As well as Iran and Syria.

The liberals and their arrogant attitude act like your stupid if you talk about the two sects working together. But they are the stupid ones, They fall for muslims lies and propaganda time after time.

[narciso]

Besides Mugniyeh and Bin Laden back in the late 90s, besides Seif al Adel (aka Colonel
Mohammed Mokkawi)living in Iran as well as
Saad Bin Laden, besides the fact that one of
the streets in Tehran is named after Sadat's
assasin; Istambouli. Borzoi (isn't that a dog name)of course, eludes the point, saying
AQ was going to take over Iran; which isn't true, it's unclear that they would even take over Iraq' but holding parts of Ambar/
Al Dulaimi province is enough' look at what they've done with Waziristan in Pakistan; specially after the truce with Musharaff a year and a half ago.

[Ann]

Kase Lawal, William Jefferson, Joe Wilson, Nigeria, Niger, Clinton.....

Wouldn't it be fun if someone connected the dots. It has to be a Rovian plot.

[clarice]

Iran is still to my knowledge sheltering Osama's son.

[SteveMG]

It has never ceased to amaze me that AQ is in every country on the planet but Muslim countries.

This is going to be re-visited numerous times over the campaign.

McCain will have to overcome the advantage that Obama has with the press who, for some odd reason (and it's not, I think, mostly ideological), just cannot grasp the possibility of these various sects (religious or atheistic, e.g., North Korea and Iran/Syria) cooperating with one another on larger goals.

[Danube of Thought]

Such notions are beyond their ken, SteveMG. Not one in ten of today's journalists is aware that after Pearl Harbor, FDR invaded, in order, Tunisia, Sicily, Italy, and France.

The questions that would have been posed back then by today's reporters would be "what did Tunisia have to do with Pearl Harbor? What did Italy or France have to do with Pearl Harbor?" The concept of malevolent nations or groups acting with a common purpose, despite having little else in common, is simply too complex for them. It cannot be covered in a sound bite, and thus it is unworthy of consideration.

[J. Peden]

Shouldn't Progs clue the real world in on the fact that it is not behaving correctly?

[Uncle Pinky]

Well;

It's been a long day and it will be an early morning ahead, but I can not retire before offering my humble ('umbled, for we Pinkies are 'umble people) recognition of a truly fine post.

Mr. Tom, your snark-fu is the best in the land and more refreshing than Irish butter and honey on fresh-baked bread.

Pool 1:c, in a walkover
Pool 2:b Seems counter-intuitive, but he's got so much more air-time to be a fool in.

Does that make me "truly dark-hearted"? I signed the contract with somebody else's blood. Does that count?

[MayBee]

From the transcript FooBar linked to:

LIEBERMAN: Well, just ridiculous. I mean John McCain knows that the Iranians are supporting Shia extremists, and that's different from Al- Qaeda. He misspoke. Every one of the other candidates for president at one time or another has misspoken. I have, too.

I mean, one paragraph later the man makes it very clear he doesn't think it's AlQaeda IN Iran.

[steveaz]

Crazy thing is, Al Qaida and most of the organized obstacles to America's project in Iraq (ex. the Sadrists), could well be being trained in Iran...and still the Dem's media hacks like Chris Mathews would not allow themselves to report it.

The stated reason being, to report it would be to "Beat Bush's Drum of War..." or some other such Prog nonsense.

These progressives wear more silk netting than a Victoria Secrets model.

[MayBee]

This is making me remember that there was a time many people thought Osama was hiding out in Tehran.

Anyway, TM. First rate.
You so often are that I forget to compliment you.