You should already know this, but Mondays bring two of the blogosphere's regular must-reads: Matthew Yglesias' "Weekend Update" at Tapped — which surveys the weekend's op-ed pages, and "The Sunday Talkshow Breakdown" at Liberal Oasis — which, er, breaks down the Sunday talk shows.
Today's STB catches the following people saying not-true things without challenge from their "tough" Sunday-morning interviewers: George W. Bush, Karen Tumulty, John McCain, George Pataki and Rudy Giuliani.
This bit, from Giuliani on Meet the Press, is particularly inexcusable for wrapping a false GOP talking-point slander in a back-handed compliment:
I agree that John Kerry is a hero. He is entitled to that no matter what happens in this election. That'll be a place that he has in American history for which we should respect him and honor him. I also think we shouldn't emphasize just those four months of his life, however. There's been, you know, 20, 24, 25 years since then …
Ah yes, the "four months" bit. Rudy got the Rovian memo — let's all pretend John Kerry's four years of military service is only four months. This bit is tired, debunked and discredited — but not yet so old that Tim Russert sees fit to correct it.
Rudy Giuliani rose to the occasion on a very important occasion. His actions on 9/11 and the days that immediately followed were heroic enough to almost make up for the fact that it was his bright idea to locate his emergency response HQ in the World Trade Center. Anyway, to Rudy, I say this:
"I agree that Rudy Giuliani is a hero. He is entitled to that no matter how he comports himself in this election. That'll be a place that he has in American history for which we should respect him and honor him. I also think we shouldn't emphasize just those four days of his life, however. There's been, you know, a few years since then, not to mention the years before …"
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