FactCheck.org Slams Grayson’s “Taliban Dan” Ad

by Stephan Tawney on September 27, 2010

Independent fact checking organization FactCheck.org has slammed the latest sleazy ad from Representative Alan Grayson (D-FL). The ad, which accuses opponent Dan Webster of sympathizing with the Taliban, rips quotes out of context in order to produce Grayson’s version of reality.

We thought Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida reached a low point when he falsely accused his opponent of being a draft dodger during the Vietnam War, and of not loving his country. But now Grayson has lowered the bar even further. He’s using edited video to make his rival appear to be saying the opposite of what he really said.

In a new ad, Grayson accuses his Republican opponent Daniel Webster of being a religious fanatic and dubs him “Taliban Dan.” But to make his case, Grayson manipulates a video clip to make it appear Webster was commanding wives to submit to their husbands, quoting a passage in the Bible. Four times, the ad shows Webster saying wives should submit to their husbands. In fact, Webster was cautioning husbands to avoid taking that passage as their own. The unedited quote is: “Don’t pick the ones [Bible verses] that say, ‘She should submit to me.’”

In other words, Webster was actually telling the audience that wives shouldn’t submit to their husbands. Grayson, the sleazebucket that he is, ripped that quote from context and framed it as if Webster was saying the exact opposite. Here’s the full quote from the conference:

So, write a journal. Second, find a verse. I have a verse for my wife, I have verses for my wife. Don’t pick the ones that say, ‘She should submit to me.’ That’s in the Bible, but pick the ones that you’re supposed to do. So instead, ‘love your wife, even as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it’ as opposed to ‘wives submit to your own husbands.’ She can pray that, if she wants to, but don’t you pray it.

He was telling other men that they shouldn’t follow that quote. Grayson clipped off the “don’t pick the ones that say” and simply used “she should submit to me” to completely distort Webster’s views.

This is the second such baseless attack on Webster from the Grayson campaign in recent days. FactCheck.org blasted Grayson’s last sleazy ad, too:

As we wrote last week, Grayson falsely claimed Webster “refused the call to service” during the Vietnam War. In fact, Webster received routine student deferments in high school and college, and was disqualified for medical reasons after college.

Grayson can’t run on his tax-and-spend record in Florida’s conservative-leaning 8th congressional district. So he resorts to lying about Daniel Webster, a fine man who tried to serve his country in the military and now wishes to do the same in Congress.

If you’d like to help Webster’s campaign against the sleazy tactics of Alan Grayson, here’s his campaign website. Every penny helps fight these leftist smears.



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