Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is a finalist for PolitiFact's 2011 "Lie of the Year" award(?), thanks to her accusation that Republicans want "Jim Crow laws."
Wasserman Schultz joins President Obama -- who was nominated twice -- as well as Rep. Michele Bachmann, Sen. Jon Kyl, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and a random Facebook post as nominees for this year's award.
It's been a couple of years straight of Republicans winning the award, with GOP strategist Frank Luntz winning last year with the "government takeover of health care" idea, and 2009's winner was Sarah Palin, who invented the term "death panels."
Wasserman Schultz is the only Floridian in this year's race for biggest lie, and regardless of exactly how false her comment was, it's hardly the dumbest.
Here's what Wasserman Schultz said to CNN's Roland Martin in June:
"You have the Republicans, who want to literally drag us all the way back to Jim Crow laws and literally -- and very transparently -- block access to the polls to voters who are more likely to vote for Democratic candidates than Republican candidates."
She later half-apologized for that.
A couple of our favorites on the list are Bachmann's "mental retardation" quote and Kyl's statement that abortions are "90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does."
Bachmann's claim that
Remember, that "was not intended to be a factual statement," according to a statement from Kyl's office.
Obama's lies, on the other hand, aren't as saucy, even though he got two nominations.
The first one was for saying he "didn't raise taxes once," which might be kind of true, since he's done it at least twice.
The president's other statement that his administration took an "unprecedented" look into obsolete regulations was absolutely false but completely boring.
Another lie we think might take the cake is the Democrats' claim that Republicans voted to "end Medicare" -- although there's a caveat to that. After the ad from the DCCC used that claim in a TV ad, the Dems' talking point changed to "end Medicare as we know it," which is somewhat truthful and scary-sounding.
On the other side, the Republican claim -- started by the NRSC -- that the stimulus created "zero jobs" is a pretty good contender too. On the other hand, many people aren't too happy with how the Recovery Act went regardless of how many jobs it created.
Click here to go to PolitiFact's post on the matter and to cast your vote, which has not been proven to cause "mental retardation."
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