Republicans Have No Shame

Here's the backstory... Howard Kaloogian, a Republican candidate for the Congressional seat vacated by criminal Duke Cunningham, posted the following picture on his website with the note that "We took this photo of dowtown Baghdad while we were in Iraq. Iraq (including Baghdad) is much more calm and stable than what many people believe it to be. But, each day the news media finds any violence occurring in the country and screams and shouts about it - in part because many journalists are opposed to the U.S. effort to fight terrorism."



Wow. OMG! Why won't the America-hating lih-buh-ral media show us that?

Bloggers, most notably Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo and the crew at Daily Kos smelled something fishy, so they began investigating. And so less than a day later, a few bloggers examined the picture and realized the truth... it's not a picture of Baghdad. It's actually the Istanbul suburb of Bakirkoy. In TURKEY. Who knew Turkey was in downtown Baghdad?

Kaloogian admitted the error, but in the true Republican spirit, passed the buck- He blamed his webmaster.

He has a history of questionable behavior on the Iraq issue.

I post this not as a 'gotcha!' moment, but because I believe this is emblematic of the way the GOP is trying to deceive the American people about what is really happening in Iraq. These are typical and common Republican shenanigans. Hopefully people will keep that in mind this November.

[PS- UPDATE- He posted a real picture of Baghdad... and it's pretty pathetic.]

[PPS- It appears he's an even bigger liar- the picture is likely from last year.]

[PPPS- More utter lack of shame and intelligence from Republicans: Right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt blasted Time reporter Michael Ware (the magazine's Baghdad correspondent) in an interview while looking for sympathy for himself for being on the war on terror front lines... in his Empire State Building studio. Such bravery! That Mr. Hewitt makes it up the elevator to his studio without being blownup by an IED is a testament to his skills. Kudos to all the brave right-wing pundits putting themselves on the line by defending our country in battle an unpopular President and his disastrous war. ]