A Republican-leaning group, American Action Network, makes misleading claims in an ad portraying Democratic Sen. Patty Murray as pro-tax and anti-small business. Meanwhile, Murray goes too far in her attack on the complicated business …
NRCC Overstates Dems’ Voting Record with Pelosi
A number of new TV ads by the National Republican Congressional Committee purport to tell us how often a Democratic incumbent voted with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But the ads overstate …
Stimulating the Dead
Q: Were stimulus payments made to dead people and prison inmates?
A: Yes, 89,000 of them, according to an official audit. About half of the $22 million was returned. The audit blamed both Congress and the Social Security Administration.
Would Miller ‘Destroy’ Alaska’s Economy?
In Alaska, a new group founded and financed by for-profit native corporations falsely charges in an ad that Republican Senate nominee Joe Miller’s proposals "would destroy a third of Alaska’s economy" by erasing "our fair share of federal dollars." A conservative, Miller advocates less federal spending — but he hasn’t said he would eliminate it, and that’s what would have to happen to "destroy a third of Alaska’s economy."
The ad also raises the possibility —
American Future Fund
Republican-leaning group formed by Iowa political figures.
Kirk, Giannoulias Misstate Facts in Debate
The Illinois Senate candidates strayed from the facts on Sunday’s "Meet the Press," which featured a debate between Republican Mark Kirk, a House member, and Democrat Alexi Giannoulias, the state treasurer.
Bridge Claims Go Nowhere
Kirk exaggerated his role in combating the "bridge to nowhere," a name given interchangeably to two Alaska bridge projects that have become symbols for government pork:
Kirk: "The Kirk Amendment passed in the House … attacked the bridge to nowhere,
Stop the @#%! ‘Profanity’
Do "bleep" and "@#%!" count as low-down, shocking "profanity"? Michele Bachmann says they do.
The GOP House member from Minnesota is claiming in a fundraising appeal to conservative donors that her Democratic election opponent, Tarryl Clark, released a "shocking, profanity-laced attack against me" and has thus reached "a new low."
Here’s the video in question. (It’s a satirical Web video, not a real TV ad.) Readers can judge for themselves how "shocking" it is.
The ad’s narrator says,
FactCheck Mailbag, Week of Oct. 5-Oct. 11
This week, readers sent us comments about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, left-leaning semantics, stimulus efficiency and FactCheck business cards.
In the FactCheck Mailbag, we feature some of the e-mail we receive. Readers can send comments to editor@factcheck.org. Letters may be edited for length.
60 Plus Association
Republican-leaning group that calls itself “the conservative alternative” to AARP.
Toss-ups: Missouri Mudslinging
Ethics has become a theme in the Missouri Senate race, and we find that both candidates are distorting the facts in TV ads that make accusations of serious ethical lapses: Republican Rep. Roy Blunt claims without evidence that Democrat Robin Carnahan’s …