Associated Press has published an article challenging strongly some of the evidence and arguments advanced to refute claims the N-word was used against members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
If the article is correct this is deeply troubling on several levels.
I have written several times that classical liberals aka conservatives must be perfect. No mistakes. Of any kind. Ever. One mistake by one person in a group of one hundred or a thousand or a million and the entire group will be held guilty. Whether the orange team scores 10 points or 100 points if they get one red card and/or the violet team scores a single point then the violet team wins game over. Whether this is fair or not is not the issue.
Yes there are still several questions. But this does not look good for (1) the protesters or especially (2) those who argued that racial epithets were not used against members of Congress.
Update: Pretty strong response by Jim Hoft at Big Journalism. For what it is worth was unable to find what Congressman Shuler said to the Hendersonville Times-News. There are several details in the Associated Press article that seem odd. We have a serious problem here. This has turned into a poker game where each player refuses to fold but just keeps raising the bet. Eventually someone is going to lose an enormous pile of credibility. But how can the general public determine who is telling the truth and who is not?
Update 04/15/2010: James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal went to the trouble of speaking to Congressman Shuler’s office. The Associated Press reporter misunderstood. Especially interesting is a piece by David Weigel of the Washington Post. He saw and heard things that did not make the Tea Party crowds look good. But he heard nothing racial and “calls this round for the conservatives” concluding:
I think we’ve seen a paradigm shift, and that the March 20 story will be remembered by conservatives as evidence of how the media accepts attacks on conservatives without due diligence. (emphasis added)
At this point I am going to check and let the other player decide just how much they want to raise the bet for this hand.
Update 04/17/2010: Associated Press officially confirms that Congressman Shuler did not corroborate racial epithets used against members of Congress on March 20. What he confirmed was an epithet used against Congressman Barney Frank. It is not quite true the “three congressmen say they are telling the truth”. One of them has not said anything directly. Rather others say what he heard.
