The Trib Brain Trust Flubs A Story. Again.

Richard Mellon Scaife's editorial board got something wrong in one of today's editorials.

Yea, yea I know. What a surprise!

First the Trib:

Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla. -- who claims Republicans' idea of health care is to ask the sick to "die quickly" -- has asked Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate, fine and perhaps jail a Florida activist who reacted to the congressman's behavior by establishing the mycongressmanisnuts.com Web site. If the pecan fits ... .

Interesting thing is, if you look real close, you won't see why Grayson asked for the investigation. Go ahead, look again. I can wait.

You're back? Great. Perhaps the brain trust is thinking that the readers of the Trib will "connect the dots" and assume that Grayson was asking for the investigation because the Florida activist established the website.

That's not what Grayson wrote to the AG, of course. Not that you'd know it by the Trib's editorial, of course.

Here's the letter to the AG Holder from Representative Grayson. Grayson's complaint can be found in the letter's first paragraph:

I am writing to request investigation and prosecution of Angie G. Langley, 969 W. Lakeshore Drive, Clennont, FL 34711, personally, and also against the campaign committee "MyCongressmanIsNuts.com," P.O. Box 1063, Orlando, FL 32802 (the "Committee"), for criminal violation of 18 US.C. 1001. Ms. Langley is the Treasurer of the Committee.

So the next question is, what's "18 US. C. 1001"? Here it is:

(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully—

(1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact;
(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or
(3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry;

shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years...

And now back to Grayson's letter. He wrote that:

Ms. Langley and the Committee falsely represented to the Federal Election Commission that the Committee "supports or opposes more than one candidate," In fact, however, the committee name corresponds to a website that attacks me. and only me, while soliciting contributions to be used against only me. Moreover, Ms. Langley has falsely depicted herself as a constituent, in order to further this scheme.

Then there's this:

In the committee's Statement of Organization, Ms. Langley falsely claimed that the committee supports or opposes more than one candidate, and that it is not connected with any other organization. The website, however, clearly shows that the committee opposes only me. This also was true in the committee's news release, and Langley's statements in media coverage regarding the website. Moreover, in the Fox 35 interview, when the interviewer said "so your goal is to unseat him [meaning me]," Ms. Langley's response was "absolutely, that is our entire goal."

You can find the Committee's Statement of Organization here.

And on page two it does say the committee supports/opposes more than one federal candidate.

So that's a lie on an FEC document. Not a big lie, of course. Not an "Iraq has WMD and so we have to invade to disarm them before those WMD are used by the terrorists in another 9/11 attack" sort of lie, but a lie none the less.

Not that you'd know it from the Trib's editorial, of course.