Amy Holmes Fail!

It is always annoying when a pundit says something that, as a viewer, you know is flatly untrue but the host of the show apparently is not aware of the error. (And I don't mean statistics that can be interpreted in multiple ways - even if a certain party stretches credibility for the sake of their interpretation.)

A noteworthy example from last year was when Newt Gingrich said on The Daily Show that Richard Reid (the "Shoe Bomber") was read his Miranda rights (by the Bush Justice Dept) only because "he was an American citizen" - when, in fact, Richard Reid is NOT an American citizen and, in that way, his situation was no different than the "Underwear Bomber". This showed the hypocrisy of the GOP (and the political Right) as they were blasting A.G. Eric Holder and the Obama Administration despite the fact they were following the same protocol that the Bush Administration had (when the GOP had not raised any objection to the reading of Miranda rights). (Note: While Jon Stewart did not correct Newt Gingrich during the interview - he did acknowledge Newt's factual error after they came back from commercial break).

Well, on last Friday's Dylan Ratigan Show, there was a factual error stated by conservative pundit Amy Holmes. There was a discussion of the budget and the need to make significant alterations to the entitlement programs when Ms. Holmes said:

Back in 2005, George Bush tried to do this and some say he wasted an entire year of his presidency and that's when Harry Reid was Majority Leader and Harry Reid didn't want to do it... so as long as Harry Reid is in charge of the United States Senate and the Democratic Party, I don't think you're going to see real progress.

I heard that and Dylan Ratigan just let it go. The fact is that Harry Reid was NOT Majority Leader in 2005! The Republican Party had 55 seats in the 109th congress and the Majority Leader was Bill Frist. George W. Bush could not get his privatization of Social Security plans through the Congress controlled by his own party. The public hated the proposal... according to the Brookings Institute:

Observors noticed that the more the President talked about Social Security, the more support for his plan declined. According to the Gallup organization, public disapproval of President Bush's handling of Social Security rose by 16 points from 48 to 64 percent--between his State of the Union address and June.

Anyway, I didn't want to do this post to re-debate the Bush plan. I just wanted to point out the inaccuracy of Amy Holmes and the failure to correct by Dylan Ratigan. And, in the bigger picture, the hugely relevant point is that as Republicans try to re-write history (again!) with regards to their fiscal discipline --- it is important to always keep in mind the famous quote typically attributed to the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynahan:

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.