Abraham Lincoln once said that there was a man who loved the truth so much he used to add on to it, and he may have been thinking of men like Tom Cotton when he said it.

Cotton may well have set a new record for himself when he stood up at the debate Tuesday night and charged that “Mark Pryor cast the deciding vote for Obamacare” – along with so many of the other cliches of his campaign. But does he actually believe it?

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Probably not.

He probably just hopes that his audience is dumb enough to believe it, and that Arkansas media won’t learn how to use the Google Machine.

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In Alaska, Mark Begich is accused of casting the deciding vote.

In Oregon, Jeff Merkley is the villain of the day.

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In New Hampshire, Jeanne Shaheen is the one.

In Virginia, it is Mark Warner.

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And yeah, in Louisiana, it was that damned Mary Landrieu.

But hey, in our hearts, we all know it was really, truly, Al Franken of Minnesota now, don’t we?

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In each and every one of these cases, the accusations are being made by Republican candidates and conservative groups, who count on the fact that they can whip folks up into an emotional frenzy – you know, the Facebook crowd – who will take that message to heart, and spread it to friends and neighbors, and even repeat it in letters to the editor.

It is cynical and manipulative, and each and every one of them, if they were capable of it, should feel ashamed.

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But they aren’t, and so they don’t.

And so the lies continue.

******

Quote of the Day

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“I love Saturday morning cartoons, what classic humour! This is what entertainment is all about … Idiots, explosives and falling anvils.” – Calvin and Hobbes

rsdrake@cox.net

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