Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) quoted a contemporary scholar, not Abraham Lincoln. (Al Grillo - AP)
IN WHOSE OWN WORDS?
Honest, It Wasn't Abe's Comment
Friday, February 16, 2007; Page A21
During floor debate on the Iraq war yesterday, Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) quoted Abraham Lincoln as advocating the hanging of lawmakers who undermine military morale during wartime.
"Congressmen who willfully take action during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs, and should be arrested, exiled or hanged," Young declared.
One problem: Lincoln never said such a thing.
Conservative scholar J. Michael Waller did, in an article for Insight magazine in December 2003. Waller later told Annenberg Political Fact Check that the supposed quote "is not a quote at all" but that a copy editor mistakenly put quotation marks around his words, making them appear to be Lincoln's.
Annenberg has counted 18,000 references to the Lincoln "quote" by those who typically support President Bush's war policy.
After he left the House floor yesterday, Young found out that -- whoops -- he had mistakenly put words in Abe's mouth. His spokeswoman, Meredith Kenny, says the congressman took the quote from an article he read in the Washington Times on Tuesday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/15/AR2007021501525.html?nav=rss_politicsHow could anyone who knew anything at all about Abraham Lincoln think he would ever have said anything as lame-brained, divisive and shallow as the Waller quote? (Conservative scholar? That's what kind of scholarship conservatism is turning out these days? :puke: )
This is so typical of Republics, to get something so entirely wrong about someone who represents the very best America (not to mention the Republic Party) has ever had to offer the world. People who are this PROFOUNDLY ignorant about this country should not be permitted to get away with passing themselves off as patriots. They should be called on their America-hating bullshit and fined through the nose if they so much as look at an American flag, let alone pin one to their lapels. Evil bastids! :insert American smiley spitting three times: