Lies & the Lying Liars Who Tell Them_ A Fair & Balanced Look at the Right - Al Franken [90]
You fly down along the Mall and see the monument to George Washington, a structure as grand as the man himself. To the north is the White House, where John Adams once prayed “that none but honest and wise men may ever rule under this roof.” Next you see the memorial to Thomas Jefferson, the third president . . .
. . . blah, blah, blah . . .
. . . Then you cross the Potomac, on approach to the Pentagon. But just before you settle down on the landing pad, you look upon Arlington National Cemetery, its gentle slopes and crosses row on row.
I never once made that trip without being reminded how enormously fortunate we all are to be Americans, and what a terrible price thousands have paid so that all of us—and millions more around the world—might live in freedom.
I was starting to tear up by the time Cheney got to Arlington Cemetery. I’m a sucker for that kind of stuff. But when he said “crosses row on row,” I flinched. The gravestones in Arlington National Cemetery are not crosses.
Had he really said that?
Cheney was lying. The graves in Arlington are marked with white rectangular headstones, rounded at the top. There are no “crosses row on row” that Cheney could have seen from his helicopter.
The phrase “crosses row on row” comes from a poem, “Flanders Field,” about a World War I cemetery in Belgium. It seems bizarre that a guy who made that helicopter trip so many times, particularly the secretary of Defense, would not remember the unforgettable sight of Arlington’s vast gardens of stone. The most generous explanation I can think of is that Cheney had been watching Saving Private Ryan the night before he accepted the nomination, and had the cemetery from the last scene stuck in his head.
Flanders Field, Belgium (left)
Arlington National Cemetery. See? (right)
Can you imagine if Al Gore had said this? The media’s reaction would have dominated the campaign for the next month.
“He is desecrating our war dead!”
“He says, ‘I never once made that trip’ without looking down at those graves—did he ever look even once? Did he ever visit the graves of America’s heroes?”
“Has there ever been a more shameless attempt to wrap yourself in both God and country?”
“My Jewish father died defending Al Gore’s religious freedom, and he is not buried under a cross. How dare he? How dare he?!”
But it wasn’t Gore who said it. It was Cheney. And from the liberal media? Silence.
28
Bush Can’t Lose with Clinton’s Military
Did Clinton gut the military because there was no evidence that countries like Iraq, Iran, North Korea, and an increasingly aggressive Communist China would represent serious future threats to America and our friends and allies? No. Rather, it was because he loathed the military.
—Sean Hannity, Let Freedom Ring
Do I continue to quote Let Freedom Ring because there is no evidence to support his claims? Partly. But mostly it is because I loathe Sean Hannity. And because I think he represents a serious threat to America and our friends and allies.
On page 82 of Hannity’s ringing denunciation of the left, he produces what is quite simply the greatest table I’ve ever seen:
* * *
COMPARISON OF DEFENSE BUDGETS
New tanks requested in president’s budget
Reagan-Bush 1986: 840
Clinton-Gore 1996: 0
New tactical aircraft requested in president’s budget
Reagan-Bush 1986: 399
Clinton-Gore 1996: 34
New naval ships requested in president’s budget
Reagan-Bush 1986: 40
Clinton-Gore 1996: 6
* * *
This is a table created by a child for children.
Where to start? First of all, in 1996 we didn’t need any new tanks. The end of the Cold War had reduced the likelihood of an enormous tank battle across the plains