David Schuster Calls Republican Shill On Lies

Kudos to MSNBC's David Schuster for slapping down Danny Diaz, designated liar for the Republican National Committee, when Diaz appeared with him yesterday and repeated Governor Sarah Palin's lie du jour that she had been cleared of wrongdoing in the firing of Alaska's public safety commissioner -- despite the fact that an Alaska governmental investigation found she had violated ethics laws.

Schuster also laughed out loud while beating Diaz down when the RNC talking head went on to claim some kind of partisan witch-hunt against Palin, even though the vast majority of those involved in the ethics probe are Republicans.

Have a look:



Of course, Palin has been out-and-out lying about this for days since the report was released saying "I’m very, very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing … any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that."

The only problem being that the Alaska state ethics panel concluded that Palin had "abused her power by violating Section 39.52.119(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act" and that she "knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired."

Does that sound like someone being cleared to you?

There's more on this at the Washington Post Fact Checker blog where Plain was given the four-Pinocchios designation for this ongoing whopper.

And, again, big thanks to David Schuster for doing what people learn about in journalism school -- vetting the truth.