The things you hear from a liberal radio host who calls himself "the czar of the truth."
Here's a snippet from Ed Schultz's radio show yesterday, a rebroadcast of a town hall meeting in Boulder he moderated over the weekend, with Schultz responding to Glenn Beck's criticism of Obama's penchant for appointing czars (click here for audio) --
SCHULTZ: Government's such a bad thing, we got all these czars. Let me tell you something, I'm the czar of the truth.
"Truthiness" is closer to the mark. On Friday, Schultz provided yet another example of how his adherence to "truth" is flexible indeed.
Schultz was describing late Sen. Edward Kennedy's funeral scheduled for the next day, which conservatives said could be comparable in its politicization to the infamous memorial service for Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., after he was killed in an October 2002 plane crash (here for audio) --
SCHULTZ: There's probably only one person in the history of the Senate that could match Ted Kennedy's enthusiasm and fire and vigor and vitality and enthusiasm for life, and that was Paul Wellstone. OK? He was a hard charger and I will tell you to this day, I have always said this, I've said this to Homey (member of Schultz's radio crew) many times and Vernie (ditto), I've said, I'm not so sure we'd be in Iraq if Paul Wellstone had still been walking the face of the earth. OK? He would have been a dissenting voice beyond what was out there already. And there would have been 24 votes instead of 23, but I don't even know if that vote would have taken place. I mean, he was a thorn in the side of the Bush administration.
But the 23 votes referred to by Schultz, of the US Senate voting on authorization for use of military force to topple Saddam's regime in Iraq, included Wellstone's vote. The Senate vote took place Oct. 11, 2002. Wellstone was killed in a plane crash two weeks later, on Oct. 25, in northeastern Minnesota.
Not only does Schultz get the timing of Wellstone's death and the Senate vote backward, Schultz points out how he has made this assertion "many" times to two people he works with -- and neither has apparently ever corrected him on it. Peas in a pod and all.
Another example of Schultz's flimsy familiarity with the truth, from this past Thursday, while comparing Kennedy's funeral to Reagan's in June 2004 (audio here) --
SCHULTZ: Now, the length of the funeral needs to be talked about as well. Notice how this is very normal. The Kennedy family, Ted Kennedy, I'm sure they had this all planned out, they're not milking it. The funeral is Saturday. This is not your Ronald Reagan two-week gig. OK? How long, it was almost like they were waiting for that sunset.
Wrong again, Ed. Reagan died on June 5, 2004 and was buried June 11, less than a week later, after his body had lain in state at the Capitol and a state funeral was held, as befitting a man twice elected president.
