Limbaugh/Massa "Phony Soldiers" Controversy Cont'd

Following up on my previous post about how Massa continues to lie about Rush Limbaugh's "phony soldiers" remarks, this letter to the editor appeared in today's Star-Gazette, written by Eugene T. Lavelle of Horseheads, demanding that Massa get his facts straight.

Massa Continues to Lie About Rush Limbaugh's Remarks

Before I get into Massa's latest comments on this, as context for this post, here is the Wikipedia summary of Rush Limbaugh's "phony soldier" comment, made back in late September:

During the September 26, 2007 broadcast of Limbaugh's radio show, he used the term "phony soldiers" allegedly referencing a September 21st Associated Press story about individuals falsely claiming to be veterans in order to receive benefits.[47] A caller, after saying he was currently serving in the Army and has been in 14 years, said, "They never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and spout to the media." Limbaugh interrupted, "The phony soldiers." The caller continued, "The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they're willing to sacrifice for their country."[48] Several minutes later, after the caller had hung-up, Limbaugh read from the AP story describing the story of Jesse Macbeth.[49] Jesse Macbeth joined the Army but did not complete basic training, yet claimed in alternative media interviews that he and his unit routinely committed war crimes in Iraq.[50][51] On June 7, 2007, Macbeth pled guilty to one count of making false statements to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and was sentenced to five months jail and three years probation.[52][53] Media Matters noted Limbaugh's use of the term "phony soldiers" in an article on their website. The article alluded that Limbaugh was saying that all soldiers who disagree with the Iraq War were "phony Soldiers." [54] and their article received substantial press coverage after it was discussed in speeches by Presidential candidates John Edwards and Chris Dodd.[55] Limbaugh argued that he had been speaking only of Macbeth and others like him who claim to be soldiers and are not when he had made the comment about "phony soldiers" and that Media Matters had taken the quote out of context.[56] Media Matters disputed the accuracy of Limbaugh's claim and defends its story.[57]

On October 19, 2007, Limbaugh announced the winning bid in an eBay auction of a letter sent to Clear Channel Communications Chief Executive Officer Mark Mays by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "We call on you to publicly repudiate these [phony soldier] comments," the letter said, ". . . and to ask Mr. Limbaugh to apologize for his comments."[58] The auction's high bid of $2,100,100 by Betty Casey of the Eugene B. Casey Foundation set a new eBay record for largest charity bid.[59] Shortly before the auction closed, Senator Reid addressed the Senate, saying, [60] "I don't know what we could do more important than helping to ensure that children of our fallen soldiers and police officers who have fallen in the line of duty have the opportunity for their children to have a good education." In his radio broadcast later in the day, Limbaugh was critical of Reid's speech, saying Reid had tried "to horn in and act like he's part of this whole thing, folks." Limbaugh also said, "Senator Reid, you did not mention that I am matching whatever the final total is." Matching funds from Limbaugh would increase the total donation to the charity benefiting children of Marines and law enforcement personnel killed in the line of duty to $4,200,200.

Also check out Rush's response to the controversy a few days after he made his initial comments. Now, love him or hate him, there is no doubt in my mind that Rush was clearly referring to the ABC News report of an actual "phony soldier" named Jesse MacBeth, rather than soldiers in general who oppose the Iraq War. Nevertheless, scores of Democrats decided to bash Rush, including Eric Massa, who posted the following YouTube video on his Daily Kos blog page on October 2nd:

Now, I greatly admire Massa's long service in the Navy, but I don't think that gives him the right to accuse anybody of being a coward or a phony for remarks that were clearly not made.

On November 7, 2007, the Star-Gazette published a letter to the editor from Thomas F. Taylor of Horseheads, which demanded that Massa apologize to Rush for his smear. Instead, Massa wrote a followup letter to the Star-Gazette stating that he "refuse[s] to sit silently while [Rush] slanders America's finest," despite all of the evidence to the contrary.

Now, I personally don't care if Massa apologizes to Rush or not. Rush is a big boy, and he handled the situation impeccably by using that silly letter from the Senate Dems to raise money for the children of fallen Marines. Talk about turning lemons into lemonade!

But I "refuse to sit silently" while Massa continues to lie about this drummed up controversy for political gain.