ALEX CASTELLANOS, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Let's be a little gentle.
Look, every elected official in this country works under the system we
have, which is you try to get a little bit of your tax money back. You
just don't want to leave it all in Washington. The amazing thing about
Sarah Palin is when she became governor she actually stood up and said
no. And she made it -
BEGALA: That's not true.
CASTELLANOS: She took a strong stand. That is rare and that never
happened.
ROBERTS: All right.
BEGALA: That's just not true. You know, John, the facts matter.
There's lots of things that are debatable who is more qualified or
less experienced or more this or more passionate, whatever. It is a
fact that she campaigned and supported that bridge to nowhere. It is a
fact that she hired lobbyists to get earmarks. It is a fact that as
governor she lobbies for earmarks. Her state is essentially a welfare
state taking money from the federal government.
ROBERTS: We still have 56 days to talk about this back and forth.
BEGALA: This is the problem. We have this false debate when we ought
to have at least agreed upon facts.
And Castellanos isn't some campaign flunky, he's a guy that CNN pays to tell you things that aren't true. Still it would be absurd and pointless to debate whether CNN has some modest obligation to tell you things which are not false.
(ht ctblogger)