Remember that woman who stood up at a recent McCain rally and claimed Obama is an arab? Thankfully McCain quickly corrected her, but as the following interview that was conducted directly after the event shows, she still believes Obama is an arab.

What’s even more disconcerting is it appears as if she’s sending letters that states this belief and making calls to voters using McCain campaign resources.

On Saturday, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin twice spoke to reporters about the so-called “Troopergate” scandal and the investigative report on whether she had abused her power in trying to get her sister’s ex-husband Mike Wooten fired as a state trooper, and for firing Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan one year after she, her staffers, and her husband Todd began unsuccessfully pressuring Monegan to let Wooten go.

Palin spoke on the phone with Alaska reporters about the report. The McCain-Palin campaign only allowed one question per reporter. The journalists came from the Anchorage Daily News, KTVA-Channel 11 and KTUU-Channel 2. No follow-ups were allowed.

The call can be heard HERE.

“Well, I’m very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing,” Palin said, “any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that.”

That’s just not the case.

There’s plenty more strongly and unequivocally worded journalism if you click through to the original article.

Example:

THEN
2001: “I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us at the expense of middle-class Americans.”

NOW
2007: “I will not let the Democrats roll back the Bush tax cuts.”
2008: “I think that what we need is more tax cuts.”

Earlier today the McCain campaign had the gall to hold a conference call and have McCain’s lawyer from the Keating Five scandal, John Dowd, claim that:

…he vehemently disagreed with the judgment of the Senate Ethics Committee that McCain had made some serious mistakes. “That’s not something that as his counsel I accepted,” Dowd said.

Dowd singled out the late Sen. Howell Heflin (D-AL), who vocally criticized McCain at the time, for particular scorn. “But you know, Sen. Mitchell was the majority leader, and Howell Heflin was his stooge,” said Dowd. “And he was doing what he was told because the rest were Democrats in the hearing. So it’s sort of a classic political smear-job on John.”

And what did John McCain have to say about it…back in the day when he wasn’t losing a presidential campaign, that is?

I created the appearance of impropriety so it was my – I was guilty, and therefore did not represent the people of my state in the manner which they expected of me. [CNN, Larry King, 10/12/02]

The biggest mistake that I made in my life was attending a meeting with four other senators and four regulators because of the appearance of impropriety, and it is something that will always be a mark on my record, and something that people will judge me for the rest of my life. [GOP Presidential Primary Debate, 1/7/00]

Despite my recovery, the Keating Five experience was not one that I have walked away from as easily as I have other bad times. Twelve years after its conclusion, I still wince thinking about it and find that if I do not repress the memory, its recollection still provokes a vague but real feeling that I had lost something very important, something that was sacrificed in the pursuit of gratifying ambitions, my own and others’, and that I might never possess again as assuredly as I once had.  [McCain, Worth the Fighting For Page 204]

For nearly 20 years, John McCain has talked about his involvement in the Keating Five scandal as the biggest mistake of his political career, but now that it’s become a part of the campaign conversation, McCain is too much of a coward to stand up and accept responsibility for his past words and actions.

Now that would be an honest campaign slogan for John McCain. Check out the ad Bill Maher put together:

Now politicians are not saints, and campaigns are not conducted under oath. We all expect a certain amount of deceit from people running for office, in the form of fudging, distortion, exaggeration, and omission. But the McCain campaign’s approach, as this episode illustrates, is of an entirely different scale and character. It is to normal political attacks what Hurricane Ike is to a drive-through car wash.

Take Palin’s claim to have opposed the Bridge to Nowhere. Long after it was exposed as false, she kept making it. The assumption behind the McCain strategy is that truth is irrelevant.

Last week, he released a TV spot on education studded with falsehoods. It quoted The Chicago Tribune calling Obama a “staunch defender of the existing public school monopoly.” But the Tribune didn’t say it. I did, in a signed column in the Tribune, which praised McCain’s support for school vouchers for low-income families.

The ad couldn’t be bothered explaining why Obama is wrong about vouchers. Instead, it said his “one accomplishment” was a bill mandating sex education for kindergarteners. “Learning about sex before learning to read?” asked the narrator, implying that 5-year-olds would be taught the proper use of condoms before being taught their ABCs. Which, as it happens, is not true.

There is a good reason why John McCain‘s campaign is having some trouble with truthiness these days.

McCain’s claim to be a “maverick” rests on the liberal positions he took during the days when he openly fought with Republican leaders and the party’s conservative base.

Because he cannot very well motivate Republicans by reminding them of the times he and they have quarreled, he has to distract and dissemble.

The McCain campaign says:

JohnMcCain.com – McCain-Palin 2008: Setting the Record Straight: Covering Those With Pre-Existing Conditions

MYTH: Some Claim That Under John McCain’s Plan, Those With Pre-Existing Conditions Would Be Denied Insurance.

FACT 1: John McCain Supported The Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act In 1996 That Took The Important Step Of Providing Some Protection Against Exclusion Of Pre-Existing Conditions.

FACT 2: Nothing In John McCain’s Plan Changes The Fact That If You Are Employed And Insured You Will Build Protection Against The Cost Of Any Pre-Existing Condition.

FACT 3: As President, John McCain Would Work With Governors To Find The Solutions Necessary To Ensure Those With Pre-Existing Conditions Are Able To Easily Access Care.

The purpose of the McCain program is to convince employers to dump employer-sponsored coverage and so thicken the higher-copay, less-generous individual insurance market where insurers make their money by excluding those with pre-existing condition.

Fact 1 is simply irrelevant–that was twelve years ago, and that was a very different John McCain from today’s obsequious servant of Republican party prejudices. It is dishonorable for McCain to claim today that he is the same man he was then. Fact 2 is dishonest–if your employer doesn’t dump employer-sponsored coverage, then you are indeed covered. But the point of the plan is to get employers to dump employer-sponsored coverage. And fact 3 is dishonest as well: hope is not a plan.

If McCain’s lips are moving… He is lying:

The problem is that in an era where things can easily be verified, “I don’t remember” is sometimes passable and “I never said that” or “I never did that” is unacceptable and easily verifiable. 

• We know that he lied about not writing letters to the FCC to benefit one of his campaign contributors;
• We know that he lied when he said that he never asked for nor received a single earmark;
• We know that he lied about privatizing Social Security;
• During the primaries, he lied about his potential running mate, Romney on more than one occasion;
• Over the past week, he lied about Obama and visiting the troops. In fact, his new ad on this is also a lie.
• He lied this week (again) about not using the word “timetable”;
• He lied about his admission that he is the damn fool when it comes to the economy;
• His campaign lied about oil spills after Hurricane Katrina;
• He lied about his voting record when questioned by a veteran about it;
• He recently lied to either a child or to conservative bloggers about immigration;
• He lied about his POW experience (i.e., Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Green Bay Packers), and while this isn’t as big a deal to me, it should be raised if stupid petty nonsense about Obama gets raised.
• Of course his wife Cindy lied about her recipes for cookies when she stole them from Family Circle magazine. Of course, stealing is something that she knows well, as she also stole painkillers from a veteran’s charity that she was in charge of.
• He lied recently to FoxNews about a Town Hall event they were working together on;
• He lied about decreasing oil prices being because Bush lifted the offshore drilling ban;
• He has lied about Obama’s and Clinton’s health care proposals;
• He lied about his position on Bosnia and Kosovo in trying to prove his credentials;
• He lied about Clinton and Obama’s comments regarding renegotiating NAFTA;
• He lied about his opting into public financing when it was convenient for him to opt back out;
• He lied a few months back about Iran-Contra.
• He lied about his involvement (not sexual but political) with Iseman and her firm.

And that is just off the top of my head and a quick search.So let’s start calling him what he is. A full on liar. Not only “forgetful”, not only “misinterpreted”, not only “misquoted”, not only mean-spirited and stretching the truth.