A Lie Told Well

According to the Washington Post, Rick Santorum, the esteemed Senator from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, has managed to pull another Tricky Ricky move. As explained in Senator Resumes Lobbyist Huddles:

After saying in January that he would end his regular meetings with lobbyists, Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.), the third-ranking GOP leader in the Senate, has continued to meet with many of the same lobbyists at the same time and on the same day of the week.

Santorum, whose ties to Washington lobbyists have been criticized by his Democratic challenger, suspended his biweekly encounters on Jan. 30. His decision came as Democrats named him as their top target in November's Senate races, and after the guilty plea of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff to charges of conspiring to corrupt public officials.

But in the month since his announcement, Santorum has held two meetings attended by the same core group of lobbyists, and has used the sessions to appeal for campaign aid, according to participants. Both of those meetings were convened at the same time as the previous meetings -- 8:30 a.m. -- on the same day of the week -- Tuesday -- and they lasted for about as long as the earlier meetings -- one hour.

Now, some might think that he was caught in a lie. But not so. If asked, I'm sure the Senator has a good explanation. That is, "Instead of being held in the Capitol, however, the recent meetings were conducted nearby." You need to appreciate the nuances of politics as practiced by Republicans, that's all.

This arrogant display of mendacity is again in evidence in Santorum: That all depends upon what your definition of the word "charity" is, by Will Bunch of Attytood. Bunch wrote a piece about a letter to the editor of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette from Santorum, objecting to the paper's claim that Santorum had a "personal charity," Operation Good Neighbor. Bunch then proceeded to detail the various instances (with accompanying photos) that Santorum referred to Operation Good Neighbor as his foundation.

As I've said many times before, Ricky's Gotta Go.

For some reason, the Republicans don't even seem to care whether their previous contrary views are published or preserved on video. They feel free to deny, adamantly I might add, things that are easily proven otherwise. I think it's just a matter of they think they could. There are no consequences when they are caught in a "red handed" lie. The spin machine is brought out, and it's so fine-tuned, that the lie is lost somewhere in the partisan attack.

I saw a great line somewhere recently saying that GOP stands for George Orwell's Party. This Administration (and its cronies in Congress) has certainly adopted that as their motto.

The history of our race, and each individual's experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal. -- Mark Twain