Hannity Smears and Lies...Right on Schedule...
Just another chapter from the 'Anything to Win' file.
By Brad Friedman on 9/14/2004, 4:59pm PT  

As predicted here the day after Ben Barnes came out to explain how he helped Bush leap to the front of the National Guard line, the smears based on the Republican Talking Points have made their way into the Media. Though that GOP web page gives no evidence of Barnes lying, nonetheless, they claim (falsely) that he's changed his story on this issue. In fact, he never has.

Barnes has never claimed that anyone from the Bush family approached him for this favor. Rather that he was asked by a friend of the Bush family, a Houston oilman by the name of Sidney A. Adger.

But truth or decency doesn't matter to Sean Hannity. As reported by the ever-meticulous Media Matters:

During the September 9 edition of FOX News Channel's Hannity & Colmes, Armey labeled Barnes a "liar," a "standing joke," and not a "good person." Hannity repeated the false claim that Barnes's recent statements on 60 Minutes contradict sworn testimony from 1999, in which Barnes said he had not acted at the behest of the Bush family in recommending Bush for the Guard.

Later in the program, Barnes was accused of being "a partisan Democrat trying to help Senator Kerry". While Media Matter notes that Barnes is indeed currently raising money for Kerry, he has also supported many Republicans --- including Jeb Bush and White House press secretary Scott McClellan's mother!!! --- over the years...

As The New York Times reported on September 15, 2003, Barnes contributed $35,000 to the 2003 campaign of Texas State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, the mother of White House press secretary Scott McClellan. The Dallas Morning News reported on October 25, 1994, that Barnes contributed $500 to Governor Jeb Bush (R-FL) during his unsuccessful 1994 bid for the Florida governorship. And the Austin American-Statesman noted on January 13 that Barnes has served on a fund-raising events committee for Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX).

Apparently that information didn't show up on those Republican Talking Points for some reason. Anything to win.

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