Defending Bill, Lanny Launches 'Blizzard of BS'

November 28th, 2007 7:19 PM
NewsBusters.org - Media Research CenterTheir infidels are committing suicide by the hundreds on the gates of Baghdad . . . Be assured, Baghdad is safe, protected. There are no American infidels in Baghdad . . . There is no presence of American infidels in the city of Baghdad. -- Saddam's Information Minister Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf, AKA "Baghdad Bob."

Not bad, Bob. But if you want to see how flackery is done at its supremely sycophantic best, you should have tuned into tonight's "Tucker" to catch Lanny Davis's act, as he defended Bill Clinton's claim to have opposed the Iraq war "from the beginning."

View video here.

NewsBusters.org - Media Research CenterOn a day when everyone from Chris Matthews to David Shuster to Bill Press for gosh sakes mocked Bill Clinton, and Joan Walsh of Salon.com called him "dishonest," for his bald-faced claim to have opposed the Iraq war "from the beginning," Davis managed to defend his old boss.

In introducing Davis, former Clinton White House Special Counsel, Tucker displayed Clinton's statement from May, 2003: "I supported the president when he asked for authority to stand up against weapons of mass destruction in Iraq." Sure doesn't sound like someone who "opposed" the war "from the beginning." Ah, but you're not Lanny Davis.

TUCKER CARLSON: "I supported the president when he asked for authority to stand up against weapons of mass destruction in Iraq." That was the vote on which his wife famously voted yay -- yes -- to support in effect the invasion of Iraq. You're not going to tell me with a straight face, having lived in Washington at that time, that they didn't know what we all knew, which was: that was a vote for war. There's no lying about it now: we remember it very, very clearly. You voted for that, it was a vote for war. Period! He supported it.

LANNY DAVIS: You want to spin the word "authorizing."
CARLSON: It's not spin: it's true!
DAVIS: You want to ignore to your audience the word "authorizing." Is that word there?

CARLSON: Are you sincerely telling me --

DAVIS: Is that word there?

CARLSON [becoming exercised]: I don't know what you're talking about! I just read the quote! "I supported the president when he asked for authority."

DAVIS: The quote is authorizing, authority. So we'll have a respectful disagreement because --

CARLSON: I don't know what we're disagreeing on! OK, let me ask you --

DAVIS: We're disagreeing, there was no vote to intervene and rush to war, rather than -- what did Bill Clinton say?

Tucker could take it no more.

CARLSON: You know what? This is a blizzard of BS.