Washington Post: Bush campaign built on lies

Of course, they can’t actually use the word “lie,” since only Democrats lie. But in this piece, Dana Milbank and Jim VandeHei creep perilously close to it. Here’s a summary graph:

Scholars and political strategists say the ferocious Bush assault on Kerry this spring has been extraordinary, both for the volume of attacks and for the liberties the president and his campaign have taken with the facts.

And just one of the many examples they cite:

“Senator Kerry,” Cheney said, “has questioned whether the war on terror is really a war at all. He said, quote, ‘I don’t want to use that terminology.’ In his view, opposing terrorism is far less of a military operation and more of a law enforcement operation.”

But Kerry did not say what Cheney attributes to him. The quote Cheney used came from a March interview with the New York Times, in which Kerry used the phrase “war on terror.” When he said “I don’t want to use that terminology,” he was discussing the “economic transformation” of the Middle East—not the war on terrorism.

Emphasis added.

Filed under: politics/2004