Fact checking the mendacity of ‘Mittens’

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Steve Benen started his "Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity" posts back in January when he was blogging at the Political Animal blog. He has since moved to the Rachel Maddow blog. I had intended to follow his posts as a regular weekly feature, but it kind of got lost in Steve's move.

In any event, it does not appear that the media villagers and Beltway bloviators have learned anything from this invaluable service being provided by Steve Benen — they keep repeating the standard issue GOP talking points as their corporate masters instruct them to do.

This week's post from Steve Benen serves as a helpful reminder to the media villagers that he is still doing the job that you so woefully fail to do. The Maddow Blog – Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. IX:

There may come a point at which the issue of Mitt Romney's propensity for falsehoods reaches some kind of critical mass. In fact, we may have already reached that point.

David Bernstein argued persuasively this week, "I think we've seen, over the past couple of months, an important tipping point where much of the national political media now recognizes … that, in the Romney campaign, they are dealing with something unlike the normal spin and hyperbole. They are realizing that Romney and his campaign simply cannot be trusted, in any way, about anything."

I thought of Bernstein's piece on Tuesday when MSNBC's "Morning Joe" did two segments on Romney lying, rather blatantly, about his record on health care. It came the day before Rick Santorum also began targeting Romney as someone willing to "not tell the truth" to win.

Once a candidate earns a reputation for being shamelessly dishonest, it's awfully tough to reclaim a degree of credibility. And with that, here's this week's installment of Romney's biggest falsehoods of the week.

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Paul Waldman wrote this week, "So here's my question: Just what will it take for reporters to start writing about the question of whether Mitt Romney is, deep within his heart, a liar?"

With each passing week, I find myself asking the same question.

Read Benen's Top Ten list of mendacity for this week The Maddow Blog – Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. IX.

I also have not posted in some time about the "big lie" that is the foundation for the Romney campaign: his alleged competence at job creation. During his tenure as governor from 2003 to 2007, Massachusetts ranked 47th among states for job creation. The National Journal this week quotes experts testifying that Romney’s job creation record as Governor of Massachusetts was lackluster at best.