I don’t think Abraham Lincoln would recognize today’s Republican Party. Today’s “Party of Lincoln” would reject Abe as a bleeding-heart. That doesn’t mean they don’t have use for him. Take Washington Times columnist Frank Gaffney:
Frank Gaffney, Jr. opened his latest column with this: “Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged.” — President Abraham Lincoln.
He continues: “It is, of course, unimaginable that the penalties proposed by one of our most admired presidents for the crime of dividing America in the face of the enemy would be contemplated — let alone applied — today. Still, as the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate engage in interminable debate about resolutions whose effects can only be to ‘damage morale and undermine the military’ while emboldening our enemies, it is time to reflect on what constitutes inappropriate behavior in time of war.”
One problem: Lincoln never said it.
Gaffney didn’t make it up. No, that was the work of another conservative writer, J. Michael Waller, writing in Insight magazine — a sister publication of the Washington Times.
Once the truth gets its boots on, it’s nice to know that so many of the pants that need a swift kick are gathered together in just a few convenient places.
Updates from Editor & Publisher: As of Thursday night, The Washington Times had neither removed the quote from the Gaffney column nor run a correction.
On Thursday, Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) cited the quote on the floor of the House during the debate on the Iraq war “surge.”
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