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Yesterday I fulminated a bit about the rapidly developing conservative claim (abetted by dumb media reports) that the President had claimed Jesus would support his tax policies during remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast yesterday. Suffice it to say, he said nothing of the kind. But now it’s getting worse: on the floor of the Senate, Orrin Hatch claimed Obama was comparing himself to Jesus. Here’s The Hill’s summary:
“In 2008, the president declared that his nomination was the world historical moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal,” Hatch said in a speech from the Senate floor.
“Someone needs to remind the president that there was only one person who walked on water and he did not occupy the Oval Office.”
Hatch skewered the president for a remark he made at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday morning, during which he suggested Jesus might support his plan to raise taxes on wealthy Americans.
I’m sure some conservative CSPAN watchers enjoyed Hatch’s fine exercise of wit, but his quip began with a complete fabrication about what Obama said in 2008, and concluded with a fabriction of what he said yesterday. To help us understand the context, The Hill chipped in with another fabrication of what the president said yesterday.
C’mon, folks, don’t you have enough differences with the president to talk about without just making stuff up?
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linus bern on February 03, 2012 3:32 PM:
Your last line is one that I constantly marvel at. I would think that there are an endless number of actual problems to complain about, and yet the last 3 years have been spent racing from one fictional outrage to another.
It makes you think that if the only things they can find to complain about are imaginary, they must generally approve of how things are actually going.
Josef K on February 03, 2012 3:43 PM:
on the floor of the Senate, Orrin Hatch claimed Obama was comparing himself to Jesus.
Orrin Hatch is still alive?!? Are we sure it wasn't a zombie or life-size ventrioquist doll?
As for his statements, consider it Exhibit #1,999,999 for why no Republican officeholder should be allowed out in public without wearing a leash and a muzzle.
T2 on February 03, 2012 3:46 PM:
they are GOPers......lie first, think later (much later)
TR on February 03, 2012 3:55 PM:
And someone needs to remind Sen. Hatch that there's a commandment against bearing false witness.
DAY on February 03, 2012 3:58 PM:
Martin Bashir just said that Phil Gingrey WALKED OUT of the prayer breakfast!
(the Georgia gentleman reportedly muttered "who let the darkie in" as he stalked out.)
Peter C on February 03, 2012 3:59 PM:
They make EVERYTHING up. What, in the past 30 years haven't they made up?
When the only thing keeping you from lying is the fear of a devine thunderbolt from the sky, you test it once and then spend the rest of your life lying.
Quaker in a Basement on February 03, 2012 4:06 PM:
C’mon, folks, don’t you have enough differences with the president to talk about without just making stuff up?
It's not that they lack differences to talk about, Ed. It's that they don't dare talk about those differences honestly. When they do, they lose.
It's much safer to feed sweet, sweet hay to low-information cattle than it is to explain the plans for making sausage.
schtick on February 03, 2012 4:13 PM:
I think the really sad thing for all their ignorant lying ass posturing, they get shit like this into the Congressional record. Maybe someday someone will bother to read this shit and see what really lying ignorant tards the tealiban was and that's why the party is history.
crapcha....completing hatcons....no it's HATEcons
Robert on February 03, 2012 4:20 PM:
Here's the only thing about the "differences" the Republicans have with the President that is actually true:
Barack Obama is in the White House, having beaten John Square Jaw McCain by 6% and buried him in the College, and they desperately wish that had not happened and want a different result this November. 99.9% of all the other differences Republicans in federal office supposedly have with the President is just "made up shit"!
axt113 on February 03, 2012 4:41 PM:
Who cares, the bible and Jesus are just stupid fairy tales that Christians like to read
Bj Smith on February 03, 2012 4:59 PM:
It is barely February,just imagine what it will be like as the election grows closer.This election isn't about issues for them. The atmosphere is very much like the 60's. We better all hope decency defeats hate.
rdblybl on February 03, 2012 5:00 PM:
These jackasses expose themselves completely at every turn. Why in the world would anyone with a brain give the time of day?
hells littlest angel on February 03, 2012 5:03 PM:
With authoritarians, a willingness to lie and to believe in lies is a demonstration of faith in and commitment to the ideology. It demonstrates uncompromising, unreasoning toughness, like a Yakuza gangster chopping off a finger. Bullshit is a right-wing sacrament.
rdblybl on February 03, 2012 5:17 PM:
These folks have no plan whatsoever other than to run against Obama. Make damn sure you all get out and vote...and get out the vote!
delNorte on February 03, 2012 6:30 PM:
"Someone needs to remind the president that there was only one person who walked on water..."
If he's going to play the holier-than-thou card, Hatch needs to bone up on his Bible, because Peter also walked on water, until fear got the better of him:
Matt. 14: Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"
montag on February 03, 2012 6:33 PM:
If the primary is any indication, the entire Republican platform will be simply "Make up good shit as you go along". They have nothing else to run on.
Texas Aggie on February 03, 2012 6:49 PM:
As several others have mentioned, if the repubs didn´t make stuff up to complain about, what would they have? If they try to complain about stuff that really happened, they'll antagonize a lot of voters who approve of just about anything that the repubs hate.
smartalek on February 03, 2012 8:00 PM:
"If he's going to play the holier-than-thou card, Hatch needs to bone up on his Bible"
Wow -- the lines just write themselves, don't they?
But I will rise above that,
and instead simply point out that
(a) if any of today's Publicans actually read their Bibles, and took seriously what they found there, they wouldn't be Publicans;
and
(b) I believe Hatch's ostensible fealty is to The Book of Mormon.
As I haven't read that one, I'm not qualified to comment further.
thisdave on February 03, 2012 8:03 PM:
Peter C: "When the only thing keeping you from lying is the fear of a devine thunderbolt from the sky, you test it once and then spend the rest of your life lying."
Nicely done, sir. No doubt Hatch sees a devout man of god and country in the mirror. What he shows to the rest of us is a fundamentally immoral buffoon, unhinged by hatred of The Other.
linus bern on February 03, 2012 9:48 PM:
Quaker, your explanation seems so blindingly obvious that I am embarrassed not to have come upon it myself. Thank you for that.
Grupetti on February 03, 2012 10:46 PM:
"(b) I believe Hatch's ostensible fealty is to The Book of Mormon."
The Book of Mormon is in addition to, not in place of the Christian Bible.
Skip on February 03, 2012 10:47 PM:
"C’mon, folks, don’t you have enough differences with the president to talk about without just making stuff up?"
In a word, no.
But not to worry, Fox and Talk Radio will jump on the chance to correct Hatch's lies on air, so that the people of America would know the truth. Any moment now...
New GOP motto: Lies You Can Believe In
OT: Why can't Crapcha at least spit out some good ole fashioned cuss words to make it more fun? Frackin' A!
a on February 03, 2012 11:45 PM:
"Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal..."
I cannot begin to imagine what sort of sycophant swill Ed has been sipping for him to be able to convince himself that Hatch's description of the above is a "complete fabrication".
Robin 'Roblimo' Miller on February 04, 2012 2:41 AM:
Hawaiians have been walking on water for many years, and now the rest of the world is starting to do it, too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_up_paddle_surfing
What's supposed to be the big deal about it? Just need to have the proper equipment.
h4x354x0r on February 05, 2012 10:50 PM:
I might point out that Jesus knocked over the carts of the money changers in the temple, fed people, healed the sick...
Regardless of whether Obama said anything of the sort, Jesus was indeed a peace activist, human rights activist, and quite socialistic. The fact that they roundly despise what Jesus actually did and said, while proclaiming to be holier-than-thou devout followers, should drive home the magnitude of their mental illness.