I'm not making this up! Alaska Representative Don Young (of Bridge to Nowhere and Don Young's Way fame) just effectively called for the execution of any representative who votes for the Iraq War Resolution tomorrow in a speech on the floor of the house today during the marathon debate on the resolution.
Here is what he said:
Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged.
He attributed this quote to Abraham Lincoln, without providing any reference to where he got this quote or when and where Lincoln supposedly said it.
There's a problem with this quote, though (among several): Lincoln never said it, or anything remotely close to it!!! Think about it! A Republican representative just lied on the floor of the house and called for his opponents' execution!
More below the fold.
Young got this quote from the Washington Times, the Moonie-owned right-wing rag that for some reason continues to be taken seriously by the media (including Brian Lamb's own beloved CSPAN, who read from its articles regularly on its morning call-in shows). It came from a column written by nutjob neocon Frank Gaffney on Wednesday in the Times:
Truly 'inappropriate' behavior
By Frank J. Gaffney Jr.
February 13, 2007
Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged.
— President Abraham Lincoln
It is, of course, unimaginable that the penalties proposed by one of our most admired presidents for the crime of dividing America in the face of the enemy would be contemplated — let alone applied — today.
Still, as the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate engage in interminable debate about resolutions whose effects can only be to "damage morale and undermine the military" while emboldening our enemies, it is time to reflect on what constitutes inappropriate behavior in time of war.
Scarcely anyone seems to consider the conduct of the Congress inappropriate, to say nothing of a hanging offense. As various sitting members, whose day jobs increasingly are those of presidential candidates, jockey to outbid one another in their defeatism, the talk is not about whether such behavior is appropriate in time of war — or consistent with the national interest.
This despicable column was called out and harshly condemned by Glenn Greenwald in a post on his new Salon blog yesterday, and again today, in which he debunked this lie (Lincoln never said this, and in fact spoke out against the Mexican-American war, which would obviously completely contradict the quote that Gaffney mis-attributed to him) and revealed its actual source:
But this quote is completely invented. Lincoln never said it. This "quote" was first attributed to Lincoln by J. Michael Waller in Insight Magazine, in a 2003 article revealingly entitled: Democrats Usher in an Age of Treason. But as Waller himself now admits, the quote attributed to Lincoln is completely fraudulent. Waller wrote in an e-mail to FactCheck.org (h/t William Wolfrum):
The supposed quote in question is not a quote at all, and I never intended it to be construed as one. It was my lead sentence in the article that a copy editor mistakenly turned into a quote by incorrectly inserting quotation marks.
It was Waller, in The Washington Times' Insight Magazine, urging that anti-war Congressmen be hanged -- not Abraham Lincoln. But to justify their plainly un-American assault on our most basic constitutional liberties, neoconservatives like Gaffney simply invent quotes, attribute them to Abraham Lincoln, and continue to use them long after they have been debunked.
I urge you to read both of Greenwald's posts on this matter (and to read his blog on a regular basis as he truly is one of the finest political bloggers today).
In any case, not only is Gaffney's column and this quote still up on the Washington Times' web site, but they refuse to correct or retract it, despite having promised Greenwald that they would do so. When these people lie, they LIE.
Which Don Young did today on the floor of the house in his speech on the Iraq War Resolution (at around 1pm EST). But far worse, he openly called for the "arrest, exile or hanging" of any member of congress who votes for the resolution tomorrow. If this is not a matter for the ethics committee and grounds for censure if not impeachment, I don't know what is.
I haven't been able to find a video of this online yet, but CSPAN has a page where you can watch individual speeches, and perhaps they'll add this one later today. Crooks and Liars might also put it up eventually, or perhaps someone might put it up on YouTube. I actually recorded it and if no one else puts it up I'll see if I can do this myself, and if I do I'll post an update here with the link (or to any other links that are made available).
Not content to let this despicable action stand, when I found out about it I immediate called my congressman here in Seattle, WA, Jim McDermott, and told them about this speech and usged them to tell the congressman about it so that he or one of his colleagues can rebutt Young on the floor of the house before debate ends tonight, and bring it up with the caucus leadership so it can be turned over to the ethics committee. I URGE everyone here to do the same. Young must either apologize for this outrage or be censured or impeached, and the GOP must be made to pay the price for this despicable act.
I cannot believe what I've been witnessing this week. We are literally watching the emergence of the American Fascist Party into full public view, and we have to expose it and utterly crush it before it has a chance to do yet more damage to our democracy, our country and the world.
Update: Hat tip to trifecta below for coming up with a link to Young's speech in the comments below:
Update 2: I took out the "BREAKING!" since there seem to be so many of them these days, and frankly, as bad as what Young said was, it doesn't really qualify for such status compared to all the other stuff we're hearing about these days. Apologies for misusing this term.
Now if Bush or Cheney had said this...
Update 3: Glenn Greenwald will be appearing along with Frank Gaffney of all people on Alan Colmes' Show on Fox Radio later tonight to discuss this and other matters. Glenn has a fearsome mind and does not hesitate to call out bullshit forcefully so this should prove to be quite enlightening. The show's actually begun but Colmes said that they'd be appearing later.
Update 4: Mary Ann Akers has a piece about this on WaPo with some followup in which she writes about what happened after Young was informed of his "mistake":
Shortly after he left the House floor Thursday, Young found out that -- woops -- he had mistakenly put words in Abe's mouth. Young's spokeswoman, Meredith Kenny, said the congressman took the quote directly from an article he read in The Washington Times on Tuesday, which as of Thursday had not been corrected.
"Now that he's been informed these are not the actual words of Lincoln, he will discontinue attributing the words to Lincoln. However, he continues to totally agree with the message of the statement," Kenny said. "Americans, especially America's elected leaders, should not take actions during a time of war that damage the morale of our soldiers and military -- and that is exactly what this non-binding resolution does."
And no, Kenny said, Rep. Young was "not advocating the hanging of Democrats.
Yeah, right. He didn't mean that at all. And Bush really does ready all those books.
Update 4: I sent a brief email to the folks at Countdown, recommending this story for Worst Person in the World, with a link to this diary. So guess who was the top nominee for Worst Person in the World on Friday's show? See for yourselves (you'll have to wait through the commercial):
http://video.msn.com/...
Good choice, Keith!