August 9, 2014

You've got to hand it to these Republicans. They sneak by some truly bizarre and false statements in these interviews without blinking an eye. Why, it's almost like they've had training or something.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen paid a visit to José Díaz-Balart's show today to discuss President Obama's plan for humanitarian aid and airstrikes in Iraq. In the process, she dropped a few lies right on José, who proceeded to let them fly right on by.

First, she claims that the only reason this has President Obama's attention is because that region is oil-rich. No one disputes that, but it's possibly also because there are Americans and others in that region, too. And it could also be the potential for genocide, of course. But here's where it gets really good.

Speaking of Syria, Ros-Lehtinen said "those of us who supported the president in Syria when he said we're going to do limited airstrikes and we said 'okay, we're in' and then he pulled the rug from under us and said...'we're going to get Congress to act', and then he went away."

Wait, wut?

Parsing her words here, it appears that a small cadre of Congresscritters were down with the idea of dropping some bombs in Syria. Accordingly, the President said he would seek Congressional approval because after all, Congress has the power to declare war, not the President, right? We all know that right-wingers are totally all about the Constitution, so here was the President taking it to Congress as he rightfully and respectfully should.

Let's also remember that Congress voted two thumbs down on any military action in Syria, too.

So who was it again who went away, Rep. Ros-Lehtinen?

The worst part of the whole thing was that Díaz-Balart just let the lie fly into the air and hang there with nine black tails on the end. Undissipated, that cloud went on to taint every other thing this woman said on television.

I realize it's not a simple thing to anchor a television show, but having some facts at one's fingertips is certainly helpful.

So for the record, there was no intervention or action in Syria because Congress said "hell now, absolutely not." Now they seem to want everyone to forget that.
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