Topic: WorldNetDaily
Earlier this week, WorldNetDaily named its "lie of the year." Apparently, WND's own reporting wasn't eligible for the award, because things like repeatedly asserting that the Constitution states that only persons born to two citizen parents are "natural born citizens" would certainly qualify.
WND's Jerome Corsi has turned in an Dec. 27 article that will surely be a finalist for next year's award that is sadly too late for this year's contest. He begins:
Barack Obama has overruled the wish of the late Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, to name a Japanese-American congresswoman as his Senate successor, choosing instead to reward a Hawaii ally who played a key role in sidestepping Obama’s birth certificate controversy to certify him for the Hawaii presidential ballot in 2008.
Two things are wrong with that paragraph:
1) Obama does not appoint senators to fill out an unexpired term; governors do -- in this case, Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie.
2) Corsi provides no evidence whatsoever that Obama played any role in Abercrombie's appointment of his lieutenant governor, Brian Schatz, to fill out Inouye's term. After noting that Inouye's "deathbed" wish was that U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa be his successor, Corsi writes:
Everything seemed in place for Hanabusa until Obama decided to take the family to Hawaii for Christmas.
“We have a death-bed wish from a senator that is about the 30th person to lie in state at the Capitol. I think chances of that not happening are slim to none,” John Hart, chairman of Hawaii Pacific University’s Communications Department, told the Hawaii television station.
When Hawaii’s Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz flew back to Washington, there was no doubt Abercrombie succumbed to the wishes of Obama in making the final determination of Inouye’s successor.
That's it. Obama vacationed in Hawaii, and somehow that forced Abercrombie to appoint Schatz. Corsi provides no evidence that Obama had any contact whatsover with Abercrombie or anyone else regarding Inouye's seat.
Corsi is simply making stuff up -- or, to put it less charitably, he's lying. There's still time for WND to pick a new "lie of the year" -- the year's not over yet, after all.
