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A Day of Sadness

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But there was a second question--the RNC has the video--in which McCain said: "I think the U.S. should take a step back and see what they do when they form the government, see what their policies are and see the ways in which we can engage with them and if there aren't any then there may be a hiatus but I think part of the relationship will be dictated by how Hamas acts, not how the U.S. acts."

Rubin says in the Huffington Post that he provided "a full question and a full answer. Nothing was left out of the question or the answer. Nothing is taken out of context."

I think it was a mistake for Rubin not to have released both portions at once. It's not that McCain's second answer totally undercuts the first, but it certainly qualifies it and provides a fuller picture. I don't think Rubin was trying to be intentionally misleading, but he gave the media only part of the story.

At Power Line, Scott Johnson renders a harsh judgment:

"There is only one problem with Rubin's column. Its thesis is built on a quotation from his interview with McCain that Rubin truncated and falsely represented. The falsehood was quickly exposed by the McCain campaign . . .

"The Washington Post has yet to run a correction or clarification of Rubin's column. One can only speculate why. Perhaps the reason the Post has stood by the column so far is that the column is illustrative of the large truth on which Rubin predicates it: 'If the recent exchanges between President Bush, Barack Obama and John McCain on Hamas and terrorism are a preview of the general election, we are in for an ugly six months.' Both Rubin and the Post have made early contributions to the ugliness."

Finally, Vito Fossella's wife, Mary Pat, speaks out, to the New York Post, after learning that her congressman-husband has a mistress and child:

"I have known Vito since I was 16 years old, and this is not what I envisioned for him and my family. I had no idea of this world he was living."

Classy guy. Maybe he and Eliot Spitzer should set up a dating service.


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