Bloggasm

Well, Edwards’s bloggers get forced to resign over supposedly “anti-catholic” remarks, but apparently it’s alright to demand that democratic senators to be hanged and still have a healthy career. In a column at The Washington Times, Frank Gaffney argues that debate in the Senate over the war is treason, and that several senators should be executed:

Frank Gaffney, one of the country’s most influential and well-connected neoconservatives, has a column in today’s Washington Times in which he argues that the debate taking place in Congress over the war in Iraq constitutes treason. Gaffney specifically argues that the condemnations of Douglas Feith from Sen. Rockefeller “really should be a hanging offense.”

Gaffney begins his column by purporting to quote Abraham Lincoln. Gaffney claims that Lincoln said:

Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged.

This quote has become a favorite weapon for those who want to criminalize criticism of the Leader and the War. Jack Murtha’s opponent in the last election, Diana Irey, cited this quote while discussing Murtha’s opposition to the war.

But this quote is completely invented. Lincoln never said it. This “quote” was first attributed to Lincoln by J. Michael Waller in Insight Magazine, in a 2003 article revealingly entitled: Democrats Usher in an Age of Treason. But as Waller himself now admits, the quote attributed to Lincoln is completely fraudulent.

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Related posts: Interview with Kevin Holtsberry from Collected Miscellany, Interview with Andrew Olmsted, But I only Linked to it