Posted by Jed Lewison on Tue Jun 17, 2008 at 5:10 PM Pacific

McCain campaign invokes Nazis in misleading attack

Over at The McCain Report, official McCain campaign blogger Michael Goldfarb tells another lie:

Kerry: Obama Will Give bin Laden Habeas

Missed this the first time around, but as reports of the call make their way into print, we now learn Kerry made clear that an Obama administration will grant habeas corpus to Osama bin Laden.

Here's what really happened: a reporter asked John Kerry about assertions by McCain operatives that Obama "would want to give Osama Bin Laden habeas corpus rights." Kerry's response:

The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that they have those rights -- this is not Barack Obama, this is the Supreme Court of the United States. If John McCain were president he'd have to give them those rights. This is a phony argument.

Kerry's point was that the Supreme Court ruling is binding no matter who wins the presidency.

Instead of accurately reflecting the plain meaning of Kerry's words, Goldfarb invented a statement that Kerry never made.

Goldfarb then used that invented statement to make the case that Kerry was staking out a policy position unique to Obama, in the process demonstrating the continued validity of Godwin's Law:

The Nazis were given no such rights, but under an Obama administration, Osama bin Laden will be.

So there you have it -- Michael Goldfarb, a leading voice in John McCain's "respectful" campaign.

:: :: ::

Update: It's worth noting that this entire discussion is purely hypothetical precisely because nearly seven years after 9/11, they still haven't caught bin Laden.

McCain campaign invokes Nazis in misleading attack

Over at The McCain Report, official McCain campaign blogger Michael Goldfarb tells another lie:

Kerry: Obama Will Give bin Laden Habeas

Missed this the first time around, but as reports of the call make their way into print, we now learn Kerry made clear that an Obama administration will grant habeas corpus to Osama bin Laden.

Here's what really happened: a reporter asked John Kerry about assertions by McCain operatives that Obama "would want to give Osama Bin Laden habeas corpus rights." Kerry's response:

The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that they have those rights -- this is not Barack Obama, this is the Supreme Court of the United States. If John McCain were president he'd have to give them those rights. This is a phony argument.

Kerry's point was that the Supreme Court ruling is binding no matter who wins the presidency.

Instead of accurately reflecting the plain meaning of Kerry's words, Goldfarb invented a statement that Kerry never made.

Goldfarb then used that invented statement to make the case that Kerry was staking out a policy position unique to Obama, in the process demonstrating the continued validity of Godwin's Law:

The Nazis were given no such rights, but under an Obama administration, Osama bin Laden will be.

So there you have it -- Michael Goldfarb, a leading voice in John McCain's "respectful" campaign.

:: :: ::

Update: It's worth noting that this entire discussion is purely hypothetical precisely because nearly seven years after 9/11, they still haven't caught bin Laden.

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