Hot Air's Ian Catches "Fact Based" Chris Matthews Making Things Up
Nice catch by Ian: Rudy told David Letterman that "it was the policy of the Clinton Administration to have regime change in Iraq". And Matthews does the gotcha dance, claiming that that's not what it says and wondering how his briefers could let Rudy go out so ill-prepared:
Except he wasn't ill-prepared at all. Rudy says the policy of the Clinton Administration was regime change in Iraq. And so it was.
To settle the Rudy/ Chrissy debate, Ian linked a Wikipedia entry, but I'll go straight to the source:
SEC. 3. SENSE OF THE CONGRESS REGARDING UNITED STATES POLICY TOWARD IRAQ.Also, from the bill's summary:It should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime.
Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 - Declares that it should be the policy of the United States to seek to remove the Saddam Hussein regime from power in Iraq and to replace it with a democratic government.The Iraqi Liberation Act wasn't an authorization for war, but there's no way that it's not about regime change. If anyone here was ill-prepared, it's Matthews.
But here's another thing beyond what Ian noticed: neither Rudy nor Letterman even referred to the Iraqi Liberation Act in that clip except by implication, since that's where Clinton stated his policy. I expect Rudy was actually talking about the 2002 Authorization to Use Force, which several Democrats voted for. But the Iraqi Liberation Act as an authorization for war? Nobody said that. Matthews just pulls that straw man out of thin air so he can burn it on MSNBC.