More Far-Left Hackery!

It was just the other day that Think Progress had to issue an apology and retraction for erroneously accusing John McCain of plagiarism.

Now less than a week later we have another round of far-left hackery against another reviled neocon warmonger: Firedoglake and Democracy Arsenal have both attacked Senator Joseph Lieberman for his statements on Iran's role in Iraq.

Jane "Hammering" Hamsher calls Lieberman an "attack chihuahua" for questioning Barack Obama's credibilty in his attacks on John McCain's Iraq statements on FOX News (via YouTube):

More egregiously, Ilan Goldenberg at Democracy Arsenal attempts to smear Leiberman's knowledge of Iran and Islam, claiming that McCain's surrogates are taking "Barack blasting" to a new level with attacks allegedly ignorant of Islamic sectarianism.

Not to worry. James Kirchick clears things up with a succinct slap-down:

Ilan Goldenberg of the National Security Network claims that, in an interview yesterday, Joe Lieberman said:

If we did what Sen. Obama wanted us to do last year, Al-Qaeda in Iran would be in control of Iraq today.

Goldenberg is apparently a believer in the meme that Sunnis and Shia's can never work together, exclaiming "There's no such thing as Al Qaeda in Iran!" Never mind the fact that the 9/11 Commission actually did find extensive ties between Al Qaeda and Iran (in that several of the hijackers passed through Iran in the months leading up to the attack, that "Iran made a concerted effort to strengthen relations with Al Qaeda after the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole," that Iran harbored Al Qaeda members after the fall of the Taliban, etc. etc.), what Lieberman actually said was "Al-Qaeda and Iran." Watch the interview here.

Goldenberg cites Jane Hamsher, of the liberal blog firedoglake, as his source for this amazing find. She's a reliable figure on matters involving Lieberman, having once doctored a photo of the Connecticut Senator in blackface. So I'm sure she would never distort something as pedantic as this. Apparently the credulosphere isn't just illiterate when it comes to terrorism, but the English language as well.

Update: The transcript of the interview is here. Perhaps Goldenberg and Hamsher will correct their mistakes.

Don't bet on it. America-bashing radicals rarely concede their ignorance.

See also, Michael Goldfarb, "The New Art of Inventing Gaffes," who includes beer-addled Flophouse blogger Matthew Yglesias to the hideous hacking cohort (via Memeorandum).