Train Station

With perfect timing this evening, I got in the car and put on the local NPR station to catch Marketwatch. David Frum was on the air giving a commentary on the Obama stimulus and economic program, and, within five seconds of me starting to listen, repeated the Republicans' now approaching legendary lie about high-speed rail:

High-speed rail in the Boston-Washington corridor might pay off. A Maglev train from Disney World to Las Vegas? That's politics, not economics.

It sure is, David. Republican politics, and pure fiction.

I'm all for the so-called liberal media presenting "both sides" in a debate, but isn't there a good faith obligation to ensure that the information presented is factual, or at least to point out when it is not?

Relatedly, earlier today I caught this story about Palm Springs Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack, who inherited her seat from Sonny Bono.

Met with Republican Rep. Mary Bono Mack from Riverside County's Coachella Valley. While a social moderate, Sonny Bono's widow is a solid conservative. Talked to her about Obama's $780 billion stimulus legislation. She's outraged that the plan has "$1 billion wasted on a magnetic-levitation train from L.A. to Sin City" - all at Nevada Sen. Harry Reid's doing.

After expressing my doubt that the Las Vegas line was actually in the bill's language, Bono Mack directs her staff to "get him the bill, it's right there, show him." A few minutes later, a staffer emerges with a copy and quietly says "it's not in the bill."

There's no excuse of ignorance at this point. It's simply willful lying. Here's David Shuster giving Congressman Darrell Issa the smackdown (via calitics.com).



It's all they've got, and it's the lie that won't die.