The Republican network is humming about another Mike Huckabee whopper — telling Fox News that he made that speech begging for a tax increase — a big hit on YouTube — because of a court order to raise money for schools. It just ain’t so. Arkansas Journal is foaming at the mouth about it.

The word “lie” is powerful. But there are times when it is accurate — “to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive.” Does it apply here?

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On the jump is Democrat-Gazette coverage of the fateful speech. You read it. See if it is about education. It was in May 2003, closing a budget gap was the only thing on the table at that point. The special session on education spending didn’t occur until Jan.-Feb. 2004.

UPDATE: In an overabundance of undeserved benefit of the doubt, I’ve amended my headline a bit, as well as the original text. A trusted source said he’s just heard the Huckabee campaign quoted on Fox (and if you can’t believe them … ) as acknowledging the governor had made a “misstatement” about the video clip.  Surely he heard the video clip. Surely he knew it had nothing to do with the special session on education. Anyway, he’s no longer claiming that as a cover for the remarks, though his minions are filling the blogs with that very lie.

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On the jump, after the D-G article, is the newly operative Huckabee statement on what that Tax Me More Speech was really about. (It was justified, by the way.)

 

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