http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/ en-us Copyright 2008 Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:08:16 -0400 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.36 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 9:30 p.m. Romney and lobbyists Romney says that one reason that he is like Ronald Reagan is that he does not have "lobbyists at every elbow." Well, he has two elbows, and two prominent lobbyists occupying key positions in his campaign. Perhaps the most prominent example of an uber-lobbyist turned Romney adviser is Ronald C. Kaufman, chairman of Dutko Worldwide, one of the leading "government affairs" companies in the country. Then there is Vincent Weber, a founder of the influential Washington consulting firm Clark & Weinstock, whose clients have included Microsoft, Edison Electric, and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, PhRMA. Weber also serves as Romney's policy chairman. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/gop_debate_jan_30_2008.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/gop_debate_jan_30_2008.html Live Fact Check Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:08:16 -0400 GOP debate in Florida, Jan. 24 Last night's GOP debate from Boca Raton, Florida, was a generally civil affair. The candidates avoided challenging each other's records directly, and did not get involved in factual disputes. Nevertheless, they still made a number of questionable statements, particularly on foreign policy. A sampler: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/the_gop_debate_in_florida.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/the_gop_debate_in_florida.html Candidate Watch Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:20:57 -0400 On the campaign trail. "During my tenure, we had the lowest unemployment records in the history of our state and we created a record number of jobs." --Mike Huckabee, Republican Debate , Myrtle Beach, S.C., Jan. 10, 2008. Governors and mayors running for president love to brag about how they slashed taxes and welfare rolls, cut back government spending, and boosted employment. By using statistics selectively, they can usually prove just about anything about their records. In the hands of a skillful political opponent, the same data can be spun in a much more negative way. Mike Huckabee likes to claim that he created "a record number of jobs" in Arkansas during his 10 1/2 year term as governor, from July 1996 to January 2007. But a review of Department of Labor data shows that fewer jobs were created during that period than either of the previous two decades. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/record_job_growth_under_huckab.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/record_job_growth_under_huckab.html Candidate Watch Thu, 17 Jan 2008 06:00:00 -0400 GOP presidential debate, Myrtle Beach, S.C., Jan. 10, 2008. "I have created a nine point immigration policy that says there is a 120 day period in which people go to their home country and start the process from the back of the line." --Mike Huckabee, Republican Debate, Myrtle Beach, S.C., Jan. 10, 2008. "Huckabee has a new immigration plan out, and it's way, way better than anyone would have expected from him.". --Mark Krikorian, National Review Online, Dec. 6, 2007. It is hardly surprising that Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington D.C. thinktank, should approve of Mike Huckabee's new immigration plan. Seven of the nine points in the Huckabee plan were copied, in some cases almost verbatim, from a plan that Krikorian outlined nearly three years ago in the National Review. Rather than hammer out its own immigration policy, the cash-starved Huckabee campaign http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/huckabees_cutandpaste_job.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/huckabees_cutandpaste_job.html Candidate Watch Sat, 12 Jan 2008 06:00:00 -0400 Diplomatic reporter Glenn Kessler joined me for a live fact check of Thursday night's Republican debate on Fox News from Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. We were backed up by researcher Alice Crites and editor Tim Curran. This was our second live fact check. We inaugurated this new feature with the back-to-back Republican and Democratic debates from Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., last Saturday. You can read the Saint Anselm transcript here. Since this was a live fact check, we did not issue any definitive rulings. Our aim was more modest--to flag questionable statements and contribute to a more informed discussion. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/live_debate_fact_check_1.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/live_debate_fact_check_1.html Live Fact Check Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:40:24 -0400 The poet and the pol "You campaign in poetry, but you govern in prose." --Hillary Clinton, Nashua, N.H., Jan. 6. I will get back to fact checking tomorrow, but first let me share my impressions from four exciting days in New Hampshire. When I heard Hillary Clinton quote Mario Cuomo in a packed sports hall in Nashua on Sunday, I knew instantly that she had captured the essence of the 2008 presidential campaign. The most important distinction in this race, at least at this stage, is not between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. It is between the Poetry Party and the Prose Party. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/poetry_versus_prose.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/poetry_versus_prose.html Candidate Watch Tue, 08 Jan 2008 10:53:16 -0400 Monday, 9 a.m. I'm still in New Hampshire. Here are a couple more fact checks on Saturday's Republican debate in Manchester that we did not get around to posting in our live debate fact check. I am off to listen to Bill Clinton in Peterborough, and then Mitt Romney this afternoon. "I supported the president and the war before you [Mitt Romney] did. I supported the surge when you didn't". --Mike Huckabee. Huckabee was simply wrong on this, as the Romney campaign was quick to point out. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/nh_one_day_to_go.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/nh_one_day_to_go.html Candidate Watch Sun, 06 Jan 2008 10:36:25 -0400 We assembled a team of crack fact checkers to truth squad the Republican and Democratic debates at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, and call the candidates out for any inaccuracies. Environmental reporter Juliet Eilperin was sitting next to me in the media filing center. She is also an expert on Congress, having covered it all her life. We were joined in Washington by John Solomon, a veteran political reporter for the Associated Press and now the Post, and diplomatic reporter Glenn Kessler. Prior to the foreign policy beat, Glenn covered economics. I was a foreign correspondent for the Post for more than a decade, and also covered education, so I hope we will be able to weigh in quickly on most factual disputes. Backing us up In Washington were ace researcher Alice Crites and editor Steve Ginsberg. Since this was a live fact check, we are not going to issue http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/live_debate_fact_check.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/live_debate_fact_check.html Live Fact Check Sat, 05 Jan 2008 22:44:14 -0400 New Year's Eve party, Des Moines, IA. "Governor Huckabee is a fiscal conservative who cut taxes almost 100 times in the state of Arkansas." --Mike Huckabee for President website. When Mike Huckabee shot to the head of the pack in Iowa, his Republican rivals piled on to him for his record as governor of Arkansas. Mitt Romney has been particularly aggressive, accusing Huckabee of being "liberal" on taxes and spending. The conservative Club for Growth has said that it is "hard to take Huckabee seriously" because of his economic record in Arkansas. So what is the truth? Did Huckabee cut more taxes than he raised during his ten years as governor--or was it the other way round? http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/huckabees_record_on_taxes.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/huckabees_record_on_taxes.html Candidate Watch Wed, 02 Jan 2008 06:00:00 -0400 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Columbia University, September 24, 2007. Winner of the 2007 Pinocchio awards Congratulations to all the contestants for a splendid showing in 2007. The competition for the top places has been intense, but after due consideration, I have finally managed to narrow the field down to the top five fibs in two categories, "Presidential Candidates" and "Best of the Rest." Obviously, many of you will disagree with some of my choices. I have accepted advice from colleagues, friends, and readers but, in the end, this is a selection of personal favorites that makes no pretense to scientific accuracy. In the "Presidential Candidates" category, I am also handing out a special Geppetto truth-telling award. For a year-end wrapup on the "Fibs of 2007," see my front-page article in Sunday's WaPo here, accompanied by this graphic. On to 2008! Keep those suggestions coming. A Happy New Year to all. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/the_pinocchio_2007_awards.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/the_pinocchio_2007_awards.html Candidate Watch Mon, 31 Dec 2007 06:00:00 -0400 Obama in an Indonesian 'madrassa'. "I've watched the blogs try to say that you can't trust [Obama] because he spent a little bit of time in a secular madrassa. I feel quite the opposite." --Hillary Clinton supporter Bob Kerrey, CNN 'Situation Room', December 17, 2007. "Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?" --Mike Huckabee, New York Times magazine article, December 16, 2007. Sorting out truth from falsehood is the basic mission of the Fact Checker. But politics is a complicated game, and often times politicians make statements that cannot be pigeonholed so neatly. The above quotes are examples of statements that are both "true" and "false" at the same time. "True" in the sense that they are technically accurate. "False" in the sense that they create a misleading impression that can be as powerful as an outright lie. Let's analyze each of those two statements. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/true_but_false_1.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/true_but_false_1.html Candidate Watch Wed, 19 Dec 2007 06:00:00 -0400 Mike Huckabee in Greenville, SC, Dec. 8, 2007". "In Arkansas, Governor Huckabee supported broadening a particular merit scholarship -- not in-state tuition - to include high-achieving children who were applying for citizenship...The proposal to make children of illegal immigrants eligible for in-state tuition was not part of the Governor's plan." --Huckabee press release, www.mikehuckabee.com, December 15, 2007. Now that he has become a front-runner, Mike Huckabee is feeling the heat from other Republican candidates who are scrutinizing his record as governor of Arkansas for evidence of "liberal" or "Democratic" inclinations. One leading rival, Fred Thompson, has accused Huckabee of having "championed" an effort to permit illegal immigrants to benefit from in-state tuition rates at state universities. Huckabee has denied the charge, claiming that his support was limited to a much more restrictive scholarship program. Huckabee's denials fly in the face of the record. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/pinocchios_for_huckabee_on_ill.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/pinocchios_for_huckabee_on_ill.html Candidate Watch Tue, 18 Dec 2007 06:00:00 -0400 Radio show, Des Moines, IA, Nov. 30 "[Wayne Dumond's] parole eligibility happened in 1992 during the time when Bill Clinton was still governor [of Arkansas.] Rather than me having an issue with that, if Hillary is the nominee, [the Dumond parole] will be as much an issue for her and for her husband as it ever will be for me." --Mike Huckabee, Hannity & Colmes Show, Fox TV, Nov. 15, 2007. The Clintons can no doubt be blamed for a lot of things that happened in Arkansas, but it is a huge stretch to blame them for the 1999 release of Wayne Dumond. A convicted rapist and alleged murderer, Wayne Dumond went on to rape and murder another woman in Missouri after he was freed from prison in Arkansas. While the decision to free him was taken by the parole board, Huckabee strongly supported it. The case has come http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/most_revealing_fibs_mike_hucka.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/most_revealing_fibs_mike_hucka.html Candidate Watch Sat, 15 Dec 2007 06:00:00 -0400 Huckabee and Thompson have been feuding lately. MIKE HUCKABEE: Fred's never had 100 percent record on right to life in his Senate career. The records reflect that. --Fox News Sunday, November 18, 2007. *** GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You've taken to calling Governor Huckabee a 'pro-life liberal'. What does that mean? FRED THOMPSON: Yes. Well, it means he's pro-life, but he's liberal in everything else...Like taxes, like illegal immigration enforcement. --ABC This Week with George Stephanopoulos, November 18, 2007. Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee have been having a private feud going recently. The two Republican candidates are both trying to court the conservative evangelical vote, which means flaunting their "pro-life" credentials and doing whatever they can to pin that nasty "L label" on to their rival. In the process, they have managed to misrepresent each other's records. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/11/who_is_more_prolife_fred_or_mi.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/11/who_is_more_prolife_fred_or_mi.html Candidate Watch Tue, 20 Nov 2007 06:00:00 -0400 Before everybody relaxes for the weekend, some facts to ponder over Halloween: Barbers for Dodd "Presidential Candidate Chris Dodd today announced that his campaign will begin running a new ad entitled "Jim's," highlighting his ability to achieve results as President....The 60-second spot will run in Iowa and on national cable networks and introduces John and Jesse, two barbers at Jim's barbershop in Winterset, Iowa, where the ad was shot." --Dodd campaign press release, October 24, 2007. There's one minor problem with the Dodd ad, and we are indebted to the Des Moines Register for pointing it out. "John" and "Jesse" are not barbers. They are not Democratic voters. In fact, they are not even from Iowa. They are actors from Chicago. There is a "Jim's barbershop" in Winterset, but it is run by a registered Republican, Jim Kinser, who let the Dodd people have the run of his store, but http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/10/barbers_for_dodd_gorbie_endors_1.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/10/barbers_for_dodd_gorbie_endors_1.html Candidate Watch Fri, 26 Oct 2007 06:00:00 -0400