The Ever Wise Boonton

Assorted Cheney lies:
1. "Now, in my capacity as vice president, I am the president of Senate, the presiding officer.... The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight."

National Prayer Breakfast on 2/1/01. Brad-de Long has the picture.

2. "We busted the A.Q. Khan network. This was a proliferator out of Pakistan that was selling secrets to places like North Korea and Libya."

A. Q. Khan is sitting in comfort, considered a national hero and a friend of the corrupt and brutal dictator of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf (you might remember Musharraf as one of the global leaders Bush could not name last time he ran for president). In fact, Musharaff officially pardoned Khan! Not only is Khan suffering not at all for endangering you, me, and the entire world, Musharraf has not allowed U.S. intelligence officials or U.N. weapons inspectors to interrogate him. Jonathan Alter

3. Kerry voted for tax increases 98 times

Cheney accused Kerry of voting for taxes 98 times. That's down from the 350 times wrongly claimed by Republicans, but it's still a stretch. Those 98 votes include times when Kerry voted for lower taxes -- but not as low as Republicans wanted. And times when many procedural votes were cast on a single tax increase or package. CNN

As usual any number that gets tossed around in a campaign such as 'Senator X voted for Bad Thing(tm) 91,999 times!' is almost always a distortion.

4. Kerry will increase taxes on the 900,000 small businesses who create 7 out of 10 new jobs.

On one occasion, Cheney said the Kerry-Edwards tax plan would raise taxes on 900,000 small businesses, and he said that was a bad idea because small businesses create 7 out of 10 jobs in America. But the two statements have nothing to do with each other. Those 900,000 small businesses—double the real number that would be affected, according to CNN—don't create 70 percent of the nation's jobs. Chris Suellentrop