The Great Liars

No More Mr. Nice Blog has a great reminder that for all this discussion by the right wing that Kerry supposedly lied about saving a man's life while commanding a swift boat, bigger whoppers were told by icons of the right like Ronald Reagan. Personally I had forgotten about some of these outright lies that Ronald "Facts are stupid things" Reagan said. Some obvious example cry out for correction like "We have never interferred in the internal affairs of other countries." Or "The United States is a peaceful nation, we have never attacked another country without provocation."

No More Mr. Nice Blog notes that:

Starting on page 428 of President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime, Lou Cannon, Reagan's most respected biographer, recalls reports that Reagan twice, in 1983 and 1984, told people (Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir in the first instance, Simon Wiesenthal and Rabbi Marvin Hier in the second) that he had been in Europe at the end of World War II and photographed the death camps.

In fact, Reagan's World War II military service was entirely stateside, as part of the the First Motion Picture Unit of the Army Air Corps in Culver City, California.

So, I suppose it is ok to lie if your heart is in the right-wing place?

Lets remember that with all these vietnam veterans campaigning against Kerry, where are all the veterans who served in the national guard who should be able to talk about serving with Bush? It boggles the mind that Kerry, who did not shirk service, is being attacked for maybe not acting braver than everyone else. But we must not lose sight of one simple fact -- he did serve! He did go to Vietnam while Bush wrote that he did not want to go to Vietnam. Kerry volunteered to go while Bush had strings pulled for him to keep him state side and in a national guard position and he didn't even show up for half of his duty and skipped out on physicals that would have deemed him unfit to fly. Of course, we do know that Bush took advantage of the military's excellent dental benefits.

I guess it takes pretty big whoppers to make Bush into a war hero president. And I don't think this country can swallow lies that big.