Patty Murray campaign ad lies? Who knew?

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I'm not a big Dino Rossi fan. In fact, I think he is going to lose when he should have won going away.

That said, no lie needs to go unpunished, and the Seattle Times nails our state cow for this latest whopper:

The Truth Needle

The Seattle Times has launched a new feature to help voters discern fact from fiction between now and the November election. The Truth Needle will examine the claims of candidates and campaigns in the top races and decide whether they are true or false.

The Truth Needle False: Ad wrongly depicts Rossi's answer on Boeing, Airbus

False: An ad for U.S. Sen. Patty Murray accuses Republican challenger Dino Rossi of saying Boeing workers should not have a level playing field to compete for an Air Force tanker contract.

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Dino Rossi's "no" quote at issue.

Sen. Patty Murray defends ad.

Related

• Video Patty
  Murray's ad
• Video Editorial board meeting with the News Tribune
  of Tacoma

The claim: In a television ad titled "Airbus," U.S. Sen. Patty Murray accuses Republican challenger Dino Rossi of saying "no" when asked whether Boeing workers should have a level playing field to compete against a European rival for a $35 billion Air Force contract.

What we found: The ad is based on an exchange last week between Rossi and a News Tribune of Tacoma staff member during an endorsement interview with both Senate candidates.

The ad shows Rossi at the interview and says he was asked, "Should Boeing workers have a level playing field?" The ad then shows him replying, "No, not as far as I'm concerned. No."

But Rossi was never asked the words shown in the ad. A videotape of the interview shows his answer actually was in response to a convoluted exchange about whether government subsidies to Boeing and its chief competitor should be considered when awarding the contract.

Whether Rossi misunderstood the questions as he later claimed, or was ill-informed on the topic is a subject of debate. (After the interview, Rossi argued that he meant subsidies to Boeing shouldn't be considered in the contract decision.)

But because the ad substitutes a different question for the one he was asked, we find the ad's assertion is false.

Some background on the Air Force contract: In 2001, Boeing won a Pentagon contract to build the next generation of airborne refueling tankers. The contract was awarded without competition, but Boeing later forfeited it because of a procurement scandal.

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Here's a clue: If you've got to lie to win, (A big part of why I oppose Herrera) then you don't deserve to win.

And while I get that Patty can't run on the issues (She'd get blown out if she did) lying like this is just another nail in the despicable one's coffin.
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