Tired of the Unbelievable Crap. . .

shoved at us this political season:

Think Progress has a post on the lobbying activities of John McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis. As Ryan Powers of Think Progress notes, in an interview with NBC, John McCain said he would be happy to have his campaign manager's lobbying record examined. However, when The New York Times did just that, McCain's campaign responded very angrily, calling The New York Times "pro-Obama."

Since McCain has tried to tie Obama to lobbyists for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it would seem to be only fair--to most rational people--to examine that claim and to research, also, how McCain's campaign stacks up in the same light. And guess what? Over a five-year period, Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager "made nearly $2 million lobbying for the two mortgage giants.". Now this is not information that New York Times reporters have made up out of nothing. They examined public records and interviewed "current and former officials at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."

When journalists began examining Sarah Palin's record, the McCain campaign responded in a similar way. Any real questions lobbed at McCain's choice for VP were touted as unfair, biased, even sexist. We've entered an age when facts do not matter, when simply trying to establish facts is seen as subversive, anti-American, unfair, mean. Non-partisan fact check organizations also get slammed by Karl Rove. (One of the young women who works with me asked me today, "Why are people still listening to that man?") In other words, why even bother about the facts? Why try to get to the truth? Arrrgh!

But the long campaign to get people to disregard facts is working. In a recent conversation, a relative told me that she thought Fox News was unbiased, very fair. When I asked her if she knew who owned Fox News (as I have asked in the past if she knew who is the CEO of Fox News), she said she "didn't want to know." That attitude is frightening in a democracy. I don't know how one combats it. But the McCain campaign sure knows how to use it.

Update: Republicans report that John McCain has chosen William Timmons, Sr. to head McCain's White House transition team. Timmons was until recently a lobbyist for Freddie Mac. See Steve Benen's comments on the choice.