They keep attributing a quote to Lincoln that was not even his- “Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged.”. Here is Rep. Don Young (R-AK) using it on the House floor yesterday.
The problem is Lincoln never said that. Glenn Greenwald explains how this quote came to being:
But this quote is completely invented. Lincoln never said it. This “quote” was first attributed to Lincoln by J. Michael Waller in Insight Magazine, in a 2003 article revealingly entitled: Democrats Usher in an Age of Treason. But as Waller himself now admits, the quote attributed to Lincoln is completely fraudulent. Waller wrote in an e-mail to FactCheck.org (h/t William Wolfrum):
(NOTE – Glenn is now blogging for Salon. You can read him at the link above. If you don’t subscribe to Salon then simply click through on the ad).
So will Rep. Young rescind his comments? Think Progress has the answer on that one:
This morning, Young’s spokeswoman Meredith Kenney told ThinkProgress that Young does not plan to take any action to correct the record or clarify his House statement.
Kenney claimed that Young had learned of the quote from Tuesday’s Washington Times op-ed by Frank Gaffney, and pointed out that the Times has not yet issued a correction or retraction. But when pressed to answer what Young would do if the Washington Times published a correction, she said she “couldn’t confirm or deny†that Young would correct his statement.
The Washington TImes should take responsibility for their actions (also – this earned Gaffney of the Washington Times Keith Olbermann’s worst person in the world award), but more so a United States Congressman should take responsibility for his own. This makes you want to go up to Young and say “Well if the Washington Times jumped off a bridge would you?”. This is the same stereotypical behavior demonstrated by Republicans as a whole.
So why do these Republicans want to keep using this bogus quote? I wonder how they would feel if we started making up quotes about them. How about this one:
Rep. Don Young: “Lincoln was a traitor to this great nation. By his freeing of the slaves, he worked to destroy America and embolden our enemies“.
Sure I just made that up, but since we are now playing a game of “make up quotes”, then it should be fair. Perhaps this quote will start getting repeated and then why should anyone rescind their comments as long as I don’t? This is the way Young wants to operate.
Instead why don’t young show some level of maturity and ask for a minute on the floor to state he made a mistake using that quote. Why don’t he set the record straight not only on the House books, but with America? If we want to start playing a make up quote game then things can get really ugly in American politics (or should I say more ugly). Does Young have any decency in him?