Rep. Kendrick Meek of Florida is out with an ad that rewords an earlier attack on his Senate Democratic primary opponent, Jeff Greene. We had called Meek’s previous ad false for saying Warren Buffett personally criticized Greene. But Meek tweaked the claim in a new ad, and this time he gets pretty close to the truth.
Earlier, Meek’s ads falsely pushed the idea that Warren Buffett said that Greene’s Wall Street dealings were "financial weapons of mass destruction."
A Democratic Party ad says Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania was a "Wall Street wheeler dealer" trading in financial products that "wound up nearly destroying our economy." We find that to be false.
The ad also falsely claims that Toomey "wrote the law" that it blames for weakening government oversight of Wall Street. Toomey, a former congressman, did have a hand in the legislation, but he was by no means its principal author.
This week, readers sent us comments about Social Security privatization, Medicare competitive bidding and our supposedly rightward tilt.
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.
Q: Is there a mosque inside the Pentagon?
A: The Pentagon has a non-denominational chapel that holds services for employees who follow various religions.
President Obama claimed that Republican leaders are pushing to make “privatizing Social Security a key part of their legislative agenda” should they regain control …
On this week’s political talk shows, we found false and questionable statements about Rand Paul, unemployment and then-Sen. Obama’s impact on immigration legislation.
Paul Didn’t Go That Far
On CBS’ "Face the Nation," Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine twisted the words of Rand Paul, the Republican nominee for Senate in Kentucky. Kaine claimed that Paul, a tea party member, "says the Civil Rights Act shouldn’t have been passed." That’s not true.
Paul did kick up a controversy when he told MSNBC host Rachel Maddow that while he personally did not agree with discriminatory practices,
An attack ad by a corporate-backed shadow group linked to GOP candidate Bill McCollum claims his rival for the party’s nomination for governor of Florida, Rick Scott, "profited from porn." But that charge is based on a loose connection between Scott and a website’s partnership with Playboy Mexico.
The ad first appeared Aug. 6 in the "video files" of the ScottFraudFiles.com website, which at the bottom of every page states that it is a "Political Advertisement Paid for and Approved by Bill McCollum,
Republican Pat Toomey’s new ad in the Pennsylvania Senate race states that the $862 billion stimulus package "gave us record debt without creating jobs." He’s wrong on both counts.
The ad, which was released Aug. 10, criticizes Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak for a number of his votes that prove, the ad claims, "Washington is failing." It says: "Bailouts, takeovers, a stimulus that gave us record debt without creating jobs. Congressman Joe Sestak voted for all of it."
In episode 24, we look at how union and corporate money is coming into play in the Minnesota governor’s race. A union- and Democrat-funded group is airing misleading attack ads against GOP candidate Tom Emmer. And in New Mexico, a wildlife group attacks a Republican nominee for the House.
For more on the stories discussed in this episode, see:
Corporate-Labor Smackdown in Minnesota Aug. 6
In N.M., Wildlife Group Mislabels Pearce Aug. 11
AFSCME, the big labor union, is running a misleading ad attacking one of the GOP’s premier House candidates. In an attempt to protect a vulnerable freshman Democrat, Rep. John Boccieri of Ohio, AFSCME badly misrepresents his Republican challenger’s stance on taxation. AFSCME’s ad …