Latest Fad: Lie About Losing a Loved One to Feel Morally Superior

Like everyone, I occasionally read something that truly disgusts me. The blog post I just stumbled across by Brendan Skwire is easily the most despicable I've seen in quite some time. But first some background.

A couple of days ago Congressman John Boehner (R-Ohio) was on CNN with Wolf Blitzer. At one point Boehner said America's "investment" of "$2 billion a week or $3 billion a week" was a "a small price" to ensure the safety and security of our country. Here is the full exchange:

BLITZER: How much longer will U.S. taxpayers have to shell out $2 billion a week or $3 billion a week as some now are suggesting the cost is going to endure? The loss in blood, the Americans who are killed every month, how much longer do you think this commitment, this military commitment is going to require?

BOEHNER: I think General Petraeus outlined it pretty clearly. We’re making success. We need to firm up those successes. We need to continue our effort here because, Wolf, long term, the investment that we’re making today will be a small price if we’re able to stop al Qaeda here, if we’re able to stabilize the Middle East, it’s not only going to be a small price for the near future, but think about the future for our kids and their kids. (video here)

I think any fair reader (or viewer) would conclude Boehner's comment was either simply inartful or was referring to the monetary cost (as Boehner's office contends). Unlike when Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) accused our troops of "terrorizing [Iraqi] kids and children," or when Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) compared them to Nazis, Boehner has a clear grasp of the sacrifice our troops are making and the importance of winning in Iraq.

Liberals, led no less by Kerry, Howard Dean, and the zealots on the biggest lefty blogs seized on the remark and INSIST - I say "insist" because Boehner was in Iraq and is currently in Pakistan, and the condemnations by the left flew out the door before he's even had a chance to respond - that he was trivializing the sacrifice of our soldiers. As the Weekly Standard points out, their outrage is amusing. Unfortunately, their dishonesty is simply disgusting.

Case in point:

1) Kerry, in his misleading HuffPo post, completely left out the first part of Wolf's question about the money. Nice parsing, junior senator. Liberal blogs, Democrats, and various media outlets - like the former Wonkette - have followed suit (asserting Boehner was talking about "American lives," as opposed to the monetary "investment").

And the most despicable of all:

2) This liar from brendancalling.com called Boehner's office and LIED about having a relative killed in Iraq. He LIED, telling Boehner's office that his "cousin had his head shot off in Iraq." And then he yucks about it on his blog:

I knew it was time for another phone call. But I didn’t want to do my usual complaining thing: instead, I decided I would pose as a bereaved relative of a dead soldier.

LIED. Not only does his admission call into question the veracity of his retelling of the conversation, but the simple fact that he'd resort to subterfuge is stunning. Why not just call and lodge a protest? You don't like what the Congressman said? Fine. I disagree with you, but fine. But your hook is a lie about losing a relative in the war?

It's the left's reaction to this non-episode that proves how unserious they are about anything beyond capturing power. If a leftist will lie about losing a loved one just to make himself feel morally superior to someone he's never met... well, there are no words.

The left thinks it's "caught" Boehner. In fact it is the left that has been revealed, in Boehner's own words, as a movement that will "break any rule, trample on any precedent... run roughshod over its own members," and apparently lie about losing a loved one... all "to defend a left-wing, big government agenda most Americans utterly reject."

Pathetic.

UPDATE: Full Situation Room transcript here. Boehner from Baghdad: "What we're doing here is looking at what's happening on the ground, talking to local officials, looking at the progress that's been made with the surge and most importantly, thanking our troops for doing the job that they're doing here in Iraq."