And He’s Also Responsible for Chocolate and Putting the Star Atop the San Jacinto Monument.
Sometimes PolitiFact Texas makes me crazy.
They claim to seek the truth in political ads, but sometimes they are just so far off base that it’s comical.
That happened again today.
Jeff Wentworth, a Republican State Senator, ran a teevee ad stating that “he restored prayer and the pledge in our schools.”
That, of course is not true. The story correctly reports that in 1962, the Supremes barred prayer in schools. Wentworth says that he was referring to a 2003 piece of legislation he authored as being the “restored prayer” he was talking about.
Well, he caught himself a bad case of Mitt Romney because that’s not what he said in 2003.
Wentworth said during the 2003 legislative session that the minute-of-silence requirement was not a move to bring organized prayer back into the classroom. “The goal is to instill loyalty and patriotism in public school students, and give them the opportunity to have 60 seconds of quiet at the beginning of the school day” Wentworth was quoted as saying in an April 9, 2003, Dallas Morning News news article.
The story also quoted Wentworth as saying: “It is not school prayer. The language of the bill is very clear about that. … It would not allow audible prayer.”
Hummmm … Not school prayer in 2003, very much school prayer in 2012.
Plus, you’ve got the problem that nobody has ever disallowed the pledge in Texas schools.
So, what does PolitiFact say? Half-True.
This rating was brought to you by the letters W, T, and F.
Our ruling
Wentworth authored a measure mandating a daily chance for students to pray, though school-led or organized prayers like the ones of his youth remain unconstitutional. Also, Texas lawmakers affirmed the right of students to pray or meditate on their own nearly a decade earlier.
Aside from requiring students to be quiet for a minute, the Wentworth-originated law resulted in students reciting the pledge, as his ad says, though it seems like that had was already occurring in some schools.
Finally, Wentworth did not personally achieve the touted changes, though he was a key advocate.
We rate his claim Half True.
How the dickens do you get half-true out of that? That is no-true. No prayer, no pledge, no bragging rights.
Gee, Guys, what the hell does it take to Facts from PolitiFact?
“This rating was brought to you by the letters W, T, and F.”
Hahahahahahahahaha. Whoot!
1Boy howdy. PolitiFact is getting just plain goofy. You should watch Rachel Maddow call them out. I think she may have something on the Yu tubes or her website. They seem to be getting more wishy washy as time goes by.
2So prior to 2003 the schools were catching and punishing students who indulged in a minute of silent prayer? What are they, the Psychic Network?
3We have been inundated with Jeff Wentworth’s ads and Elizabeth Ames Jones’ ads against him every day during the evening news. I will be so glad when the primaries are over! Thank goodness Lloyd Doggett is running to replace Charlie Gonzalez in my district, and apparently his two opponents have not raised enough money for teevee ads. I don’t mind his since they talk about what he has done for people in his prior district(s) and don’t trash his opponents. Now if they’ll stop redrawing his district all the time.
And in addition, we get the David Dewhurst and Ted Cruz ads over and over and over…my mute button on the remote is getting quite a workout. But I want to know when it became such a heinous crime to be “moderate.” One of the PAC ads against Dewhurst slams him for being a moderate and even though I don’t like the guy, I cannot understand why being a moderate is such a bad thing in some people’s eyes.
I did what any good Democrat does – I voted early (very low turnout) and I won’t admit if I voted often or not. LOL
4I’m seeing a pattern here. We have similar goofiness from Politifact Tennessee. Whoever runs that group is putting a shine on a pooper.
5I wonder if the Supreme Court knows that their 1962 ruling was overturned by a State Senator. There seems to be an important precedent here.
6a) Republicans a long time ago gave up on the idea that they need to tell the truth.
b) Politifact……. is not.
I voted, early, by mail…..
I hope people who haven’t yet voted, will get to the polls today…..
7PolitiFact and FactCheck have been taken in by the doctrine of false equivalency. It’s not really a lie if the person who utters is is Conservative because if we called it a lie, then people would think we were not being fair and objective.
8Hey, be careful about bashing Wentworth. There are far worse options in that primary race. I live in far south Austin and will probably be “represented” by the winner of the R primary. I got a phone call this week from some young man reading a script (that he was clearly not comfortable with!) about women’s health and the extremism of the Texas Legislature. Turns out he wanted to know if I was willing to vote in the R primary for Wentworth, “to keep the seat out of the hands of extremists.” Not on your Chad! No way am I going to get branded with an R by my name.
9Yeah Jane! Let’s hear for more extremism in the Texas Legislature. I want public funded public education. i want clean air and water. I want folks to be nice. I want poor women to have a chance at getting PAP smears and blood tests when they need them. I even want us to quit starting wars. See? I’m clearly an extremist.
10And I’d druther have Wentworth than some scum whose names I will not call. But we can always hope for a miracle.
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