Sean Hannity Gets It Wrong On Republican Opposition To Troop Surge During Unbalanced Review of Bush’s Speech

January 25, 2007

Poor Sean Hannity and the FOX News producers must be panicking at the level of disapproval of President Bush. Despite the lovely balance of the previous night’s Hannity & Colmes, they could not seem to stomach a single voice of opposition, except for Alan Colmes, the following night (1/24/07). The result was a thoroughly unbalanced roster of guests for a second night of discussion on Bush's State of the Union speech: Tony Snow and Newt Gingrich. Even then Hannity could not advocate for Bush and tell the truth at the same time. Gingrich didn’t seem the least bit interested in correcting the record and added some distortion of his own.

...With his sincere face, Hannity lied into the camera about the level of Republican opposition to Bush's troop surge. “It’s remarkable to me that there are people that are believing – mostly Democrats, one or two Republicans – that we can’t win this, that America can’t have the resolve and confidence to finish this job.”

Gingrich said, “I think for the people who believe that being defeated is an acceptable outcome, that they owe the country a burden, the responsibility to say how they would manage the process of defeat.”

Colmes corrected the record by noting that there are several Republicans opposed to the troop escalation. “I don’t see Democrats talking about or wanting defeat and I see a number of Republicans, more than a handful, and people like Lugar, people like John Warner, a great number and a greater number every single day not going along with the president on this.”

In fact, according to the Washington Post, there are three Republican Senators co-sponsoring Warner’s resolution opposing the troop increase: Coleman, Collins and Smith. In addition, as the Post reports, another group of senior Republican senators, including Domenici, Cochran and Stevens “are searching for their own avenue to express their concerns.”

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