Mitt Romney is out of the race, but not out of mind.

   In December 2007, Romney ran a television commercial saying that John McCain “voted to allow illegals to collect Social Security.”

   This is an outright lie.  No one in this country illegally would be provided any Social Security benefits under Senator McCain’s immigraton plan.

   Mitt Romney sure knows how to bow out gracelessly.

   In his speech yesterday to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Romney said this:

   “{I don’t want to} forestall the launch of a national campaign and be making it easier for Senator Clinton or Obama to win.  In this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.”

   Thanks, Mitt! If you would have stayed in the race, Clinton or Obama might have won, and the United States would have surrendered to Al Qeada. But, thanks to your selflessness (and your wife’s unwillingness to continue throwing away tens of millions of dollars), we’re safe!

   Mitt Romney has dropped out of the presidential race. Long live fibber Mitt Romney.

   One of our favorite Romney fibs comes from a television ad that he released in December 2007.  The ad says that Romney “got tough on drugs like meth” while governor of Massachusetts.  The ad also attacked the drug record of Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor.

   The only problem with this statement?  It’s not true.  The “tough” legislation that Romney supported never passed.  Also, Massachusetts laws on meth are much weaker than those in Huckabee’s Arkansas.  According to factcheck.org, “Convicted meth dealers face both minimum and maximum prison terms in Arkansas that are four times longer than those in Massachusetts.”

   Romney is a big-time fibber.  And now he’s gone from the race.

   Dick Cheney often fibs. Of course, his most prominent fibs–repeated frequently–is that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and that Al Qaeda was somehow linked to September 11.

   Now there’s a new Cheney fib: that by January 20, 2009, Iraq will be a self-governing democracy.

   In a December 5, 2007 interview with Politico.com, the Vice President called the US surge strategy “a remarkable success story” that historians will study for years.  He said, “I am fairly confident that we’ll have {Iraq} in a good place, where we’ll be able to look back on it and say, ‘That was the right decision.  It was a sound decision to go into Iraq.’”

    Cheney asserted that by the middle of January 2009, it will be clear that “we have in fact achieved our objectives in terms of having a self-governing Iraq that’s capable for the most part of defending ourselves, a democracy in the heart of the Middle East, a nation that will be a positive force in influencing the world around it in the future.”

   “All that by 2009?” the interviewers asked.

   “Yes, sir,” he replied.

   If that’s the case, Mr. Vice President, why do President Bush and John McCain claim that it will be necessary for the United States to remain in Iraq for decades?

   We at Right Wing Fibs would be remiss if we did not include a fib from Mitt Romney on December 6, 2007,  in his “Mormon speech” at Texas A and M University.

   The Mormon candidate declared, “Freedom requires religion, just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the wihdows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God.  Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone.”

   This is absolute nonsense–on both counts.

   Freedom most certainly does not require religion.  For example, post-war Europe has a great deal of freedom–and church attendance levels are at an all-time low. Contemporary Europe is an open, vibrant, irreligious community.

   Also, if freedom requires religion, then the Founding Fathers should have incorporated religion into the Constitution.  But, of course, they did not.  Instead, in Article VI, they prohibited a religious test for political office.

   Just as freedom does not require religion, religion does not require freedom.  Just look at the Middle East.  Theocratic states–based on religion–allow very little religious or political freedom. The Muslim world imposes a tremendous amount of “unfreedom.”

   Mitt Romney, in trying to appear deeply philosophical, uttered fibbish nonsense.

   It’s time, once again, to review the fibs of John McCain.  Why?  Because he’s a serial liar.

    This one occurred during the Republican presidential debate on January 5, 2008 in Manchester, New Hampshire. McCain bragged about being the “only” Republican candidate who supported President Bush’s troop surge in Iraq: “I said at the time that General Petreus and his strategy must be employed, and I was criticized by Republicans at that time.  And that was a low point, but I stuck to it.  I didn’t change.”  Then Mr. Straight Talk Express boasted, “I supported that.  I argued for it. I’m the only person on this stage that did.  And I condemned the Rumsfeld strategy before that.”

   America’s Former Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, then protested that he supported Bush’s surge “the night of the president’s speech.” 

   McCain interjected, “Not at the time.”

   Rudy continued, “The night of the president’s speech, I was on television.  I supported the surge.  I’ve supported it throughout.”

   Then McCain acknowledged that he didn’t mean that he was “the only one on this stage” who supported the surge.

   Also, on January 10, 2007, ABC News reported that Mitt Romney strongly supported the surge.

   After winning the New Hampshire primary, McCain bragged  that he had won “because I went there and told them the truth.”

   I’m afraid not!

   We keep coming back to John McCain.  Maybe it’s because he’s a constant fibber.

   The latest: McCain out and out lied about a statement he made concerning his knowledge of economics.  In a January 24, 2008 Republican presidential debate in Boca Raton, Florida, McCain was asked by moderator Tim Russert about a previous statement that he was “not well versed” on economics.

   McCain’s immediate lie: “Actually, I don’t know where you got that quote from.”

   The next day, McCain admitted that he had lied.

   “It was in the context of a conversation on my qualifications to serve; that I am proud of my record as chairman of the Commerce Committee, of being involved in every single issue that affects the country.”

   In late November 2007, McCain told The Wall Street Journal, “I’m going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about miltary and foreign policy issues.

   ”I’m going to be honest”? For McCain, that would be a switch.
  

   Bill O’Reilly lives in the Full-Spin Zone. 

   On the January 15, 2008 broadcast of “The O’Reilly Factor,” Bill O claimed that there are very few homeless veterans. That is a fib.

    “We’re still looking for all the veterans sleeping under the bridges,” he told radio talk show host “Big Eddie” Schultz.  Schultz retorted, “They’re out there, Bill.  Don’t kid yourself.”

   Bill O cracked, “They may be out there but there’s not many of them out there.”

   The only problem with O’Reilly’s assertion?  It’s not true.

   The US Department of Veterans Affairs states, “On any given night, there may be 200,000 homeless veterans on the streets of America. Many suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction, or mental illness.”

   In addition, a 2005 report by the Alliance to End Homelessness estimated that homeless veterans constituted one-quarter of all homeless people in the United States.

   They’re out there, Bill. 

   Source: “Not Many Homeless Veterans” 

   John McCain won the Florida presidential primary on the basis of a fib.

   Seeking to change the subject from economics (an admitted McCain weakness) to Iraq and foreign policy (supposedly a strength), McCain told a fib about Mitt Romney’s stance on withdrawing troops from Iraq.

   In a January 26, 2008 rally in Fort Myers, Florida, McCain said, “Governor Romney wanted to set a date for withdrawal (from Iraq) similar to what the Democrats are seeking, which would have led to a victory by Al Qaeda, in my view.” He continued: “”If we surrender and wave a white flag, like Senator Clinton wants to do, and withdraw, as Governor Romney wanted to do, then there will be chaos, genocide, and the cost of American blood and treasure would be dramatically higher.”

    Governor Hair Gel accused McCain of “dishonesty”and distortion.

   And he’s right.  McCain’s accusation is a huge distortion of the facts. McCain cites an interview that Romney gave on April 3, 2007 to ABC News, in which he discussed the need for “timetables and milestones”in Iraq. However, Romney also added that these would be private understandings between President Bush and Iraqi President al-Maliki.  He also stated that “You don’t want the enemy to understand how long they have to wait in the weeds until you’re gone.”

   Romney did not call for a definite date for withdrawing troops from Iraq. His position in no way resembles that of Senators Clinton or Obama.  McCain told a lie.

   Mike Huckabee isn’t doing too well in the polls, so I thought we’d feature a golden oldie before he drops out. 

   In an October 21, 2007 Republican debate, the Man from Hope tried to point to the Founding Fathers to justify his opposition to abortion:

     “There are some real issues out there in this country we need to be fighting for on behalf of the people.  Now, one of them, quite frankly, is the sanctity of human life…because I do believe that it is one of the defining issues of our culture and civilization in that it expresses our understanding that every single human being in this society has intrinsic value and worth.”

   He continued: “When our Founding Fathers put their signatures on the Declaration of Independence, those 56 brave people, most of whom, by the way, were clergymen,  they said that we have certain inalienable rights given to us by our creator, and among these life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, life being one of them.  I still believe that.”

   The only problem with Huckabee’s statement?  Only one of the 56 Founding Fathers was an active clergyman.  One. That sole minister was John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister and president of the College of New Jersey (which became Princeton University).

   Frank Lockwood,  religion editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, notes that four other Founding Fathers had briefly been ministers: Lyman Hall, William Williams, Charles Ausustus Goodrich, and Philip Rush.  He adds: “Several were preacher’s kid.  But I can’t find any historical evidence to support the claim that a majority were clergymen.”

   Five out of 56?  That’s hardly “most.”  Sorry, Mike.