I was cruising through the blogosphere today when I came across the Blue Star Chronicles. They had a post concerning the Pennsylvania 12 District Congressional race (vs. that perfidious puke, John P. Murtha) that contained – right at the top – a great quote from one of our most cherished Presidents: Abraham Lincoln. That quote, which I reprint below, is as truthful today as it was nearly one hundred and forty five years ago.
~ Abraham Lincoln ~
Truer words never spoken, Abe!
Bull, out.
Lincoln never said this. Ever. This quote is a fabrication of Dr. J. Michael Waller who first wrote it in a Moonie publication, Insight Magazine on December 23, 2003 shortly before the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth gave it life in 2004.
I have two original King & Baird pamphlets in my collection, the identical pamphlet Waller sites as his proof, “TRUTH FROM AN HONEST MAN”. Lincoln never wrote anything like this … here, or anywhere else.
How pathetic has the Republican Party become that it insults the reputation of America’s finest Republican president for their political gain?
Cliff Hancuff
Still, it is a statement of TRUTH no matter who may have said it!
Furthermore, Cliff, don’t try to tell me that the Democrats are never out for political gain. I wasn’t under a rock during the agonizing Clinton years!
Besides, I’m not a Republican.
To clarify for you, the ONLY person who has ever said this is J. Michael Waller. The rest of the thousands of google finds are goofballs ditto’ing Waller.
It’s beyond my comprehension that some prefer their reality dictated by a “Moonie” publication, but that’s just me.
Cliff Hancuff
The World of Journalism Is Flat, Too
I can’t say enough good things about what Brooks Jackson did with my original TRUTH FROM AN HONEST MAN pamphlet I loaned him.
My great, great, grandfather, who I am named in honor of, made the supreme sacrifice for our country in Lincoln’s Union Army serving Stonewall Jackson his only defeat in the Civil War.
Diana Irey has “cut&run” from her use of this Lincoln quote. Write her “handler” Bill Pascoe at bill@irey.com and ask him. He’s the one who arranged this “runaway!”
Cliff Hancuff
The World of Journalism Is Flat, Too
http://factcheck.org/article415.html
This is the origination of this Lincoln “quote”:
http://www.arthuravenuebronx.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1472
that ran in INSIGHT magazine
http://www.insightmag.com/
… which is part of News World Communications (see bottom of page in link above) a wholly owned political mouthpiece of the Unification Church, the “Moonies”.
http://www.mediaowners.com/company/newsworld.html
I wrote Diana Irey offering her documented proof of what Lincoln never said, CCing all her campaign staff on, first on July 14th, and again on August 4th.
http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:c2Ea_lZbzXgJ:community.cnhi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4871074/m/664107374+%22Rovian+Architecture+Unplugged:+The+Waller/Romerstein+Edition%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&ie=UTF-8
I wrote her, and her staff, repeatedly warning them of the consequences of their inaction. If you’d like verification, write her campaign manager of record (Bill Pascoe, former Press Secretary of the RNC, is calling the shots behind the scenes) at jason@irey.com and ask him about my repeated warnings.
If you choose to write, use this as the Subject Line “It’s showtime.”. He’ll know exactly what that means.
When all these efforts failed, I contacted factcheck.org with this very same evidence. Brooks Jackson was able to see what Ms. Irey, and her entire campaign staff refused to.
He published this, last Friday:
http://factcheck.org/article415.html
(note the video clip in the top right corner)
I will leave you to your own moral compass for judgement regarding Bill Pascoe’s “within hours” response here:
http://www.irey.com/news/contentview.asp?c=35681
In conclusion, it warrants mentioning how this “Moonie” Lincoln quote came into common use, without any questions to its authenticity.
Use Google to do a search for this quote. Go back 10-15 pages and you’ll find the older dates of its use. You’ll discover it was the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth who brought this fiction to life within weeks of Dr. Waller’s article.
You will find Larry Bailey of bootmurtha.com has dusted off this Moonie quote and is using it for his “Revival Tent Pass the Collection Plate” scheme, all over the net, including this gem written the chairman of Bailey’s PAC, in which it is used twice, for emphasis:
http://www.thereaganwing.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=PagEd&file=index&page_id=538
It’s no accident that Diana Irey was boons-waggled into using it.
Bill Pascoe and Kelli Phiel are the folks Robert Novak refers to as her “handlers” in this article:
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=15820&o=ENPR003
“Irey, who looks quite young, is a bit green, but her handlers see her as great raw material.”
I’ll give a dollar to anyone who can decipher the grammar, syntax, period occurring in the middle of the sentence, and random capitalization that occurs in the last sentence of this article.
If you are unfamiliar with who Pascoe and Phiel are, let me introduce you.
Pascoe is the gent who hung tough with Jack Ryan, even after Dennis Hastert rightfully withdrew all GOP support for him in 2004, when Ryan was exposed for insisting his wife go to sex clubs with him and have sex in public.
“”Jack Ryan is in the race to stay,” said Bill Pascoe, Ryan’s spokesman.”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0406250361jun25,1,933334.story
Pascoe also the one who called Alan Keyes and convinced him to move from Maryland to Illinois, to replace Ryan. I’ll let you Google that, and for Kelli Phiel’s history working with Pascoe in the 2004 election.
I wish I could tell you I hadn’t warned Diana Irey repeatedly about her “handlers” past, but that would not be true.
Buzz Patterson used this “Moonie” quote at a chapter heading in his book, Reckless Disregard. If you own a copy, check page 65. He was not the only retired military man to adopt this Republican operative’s invention. Ollie North did too:
http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0974579335&id=dQipO2AmNrUC&pg=PA113&lpg=PA113&dq=oliver+north+lincoln+%22congressmen+who+willfully%22&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=fBfOMtFSxlavNGKBMbFtreMEwfo
Least you wonder about my interest in all this …
My family settled in what is now the 12th District of Pennsylvania in 1820, and have lived there ever since.
My great, great grandfather, after whom I am named in honor of, served in Lincoln’s Union Army. He made the supreme sacrifice for our country on March 23, 1862, serving Stonewall Jackson he only defeat in the Civil war.
Lincoln was, to borrow a title, “A Uniter�?
When some goofball Republican operative abuses the reputation of our greatest Republican president, in a Moonie publication no less, for the expressed purpose of political gain for today’s Republican Party … it troubles me.
I suspect it will trouble you, too.
Cliff Hancuff
The World of Journalism Is Flat, Too
For late breaking cat-herding news regarding these noodlehead Republicans:
http://community.cnhi.com/eve/forums?a=userposts&sortType=1&u=679108164
My bad.
I’ve very sorry.
Cliff Hancuff
The World of Journalism Is Flat, Too
Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged.
Okay I give up…..until further notice.
I reserve the right to leave the sentence above as a statement of truth in my own personal opinion and will simply say…..it has been said. Afterall, if it is good enough for the ENEMEDIA, it should be good enough for me.
I have removed the quotation marks as they were allegedly inserted in error by an editor. Although, at the time I conducted a search on the alleged quote, every source was attributed to President Lincoln.
According to Cliff Hancuff – aka FReeper “chancuff” since July 12, 2006:
“Lincoln never said this. Ever. This quote is a fabrication of Dr. J. Michael Waller who first wrote it in a Moonie publication, Insight Magazine on December 23, 2003 shortly before the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth gave it life in 2004.”
UPDATE 8-30-06:
I found the “quote” used and attributed to President Lincoln in April 2001. So much for Cliff Hancuff’s insistance that it was a creation of Waller in 2003 and made famous by the Swift Boat Veterans in 2004. Sorry Cliff!
By Hancuff’s own words he has been spamming FreeRepublic and the “blogsphere”
Apparently Cliff Hancuff is quite old to know as absolute fact that President Lincoln did not utter these words, ever, and has made it his life’s mission to be sure the world knows it as well. Those of you that are interested, may find Cliff Hancuff’s words here: http://thebullspeaks.com/archives/2006/05/18/abe-spoke-the-truth/ , and here: (bad link) and here: (chancuff’s user account, deleted by Free Republic) for starters.
Although this issue has not come up on this blog for several months now, I thought, since you took an obsession to this issue, I should respond to your comments.
You quote Dr. Waller’s quotation,
‘”Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled or hanged” — that’s what President Abraham Lincoln said during the War Between the States,’ as the authentic quote in Dr. Waller’s Insight article.
However, if you take a look at factcheck.org (you were the one who alerted them of this error as you so arrogantly state on the Washington Post website:
“As the person who originally discovered that J. Michael Waller invented this Lincoln “quote” and brought my discovery to Brooks Jackson, Executive Director of factcheck.org, I’m in a unique position to poke fun at Waller on his blogs…”
Posted by: Cliff Hancuff | February 20, 2007 04:44 AM,”
so I’m surprised a FReeper like yourself could not accurately quote from the website YOU ALERTED), Jackson quotes Waller’s article as such:
“Origin of a
Specious Quote
Then:
“Congressmen who willfully take action during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs, and should be arrested, exiled or hanged,” that’s what President Abraham Lincoln said during the War Between the States.
-J. Michael Waller, “Democrats Usher in An Age of Treason.” Insight magazine, 23 Dec. 2003.”
hmm…interesting. There is NO hyphen, as you claim there is – Are you saying factcheck.org has it wrong? Because I have a copy of the December 23, 2003 issue right in front of me, and I would have to attest that factcheck.org accurately quoted Dr. Waller, which is ironic, since you have been berating Dr. Waller on misquoting his piece for months.
This could prove Mr. Stanley’s (editor of Insight Mag) assessment that Waller could have italicized his quote, inferring it as a paraphrase of his opinion of Lincoln politics and beliefs.
Stanley then states that Insight editors “might have changed it to a direct quote by mistake, following an Insight policy of not opening a story with italicized quotes.” – therefore, an editorial error, not journalistic.
Also, if you did your research, you would have known Dr. Waller pointed out the “Civil War” v. “War Between the States” mistake in his response to factcheck.org, stating that “[he] filed [the] story with the lead sentence ending in the words “Civil War,” which [his] southern editor switched to “War Between the States.” And realistically, who gives a crap.
Before you start berating Waller for being an unworthy Annenberg Professor and scholar, in general (which I highly doubt you have the credentials for, as I could not find single scholarly piece you have written on the internet), do your research. This was obviously an editorial mistake. However, since you spend all your time attempting to insult people online (and I know you do, as I tried to research you to see if you even had somewhat of a reputation to possibly be in anywhere near of a position to insult Dr. Waller (which know one does so it really wouldn’t matter anyway), the first 10 Google pages were your insulting and irrelevant messages on blog sites. I stopped checking after the 10th because I simply got bored) you wouldn’t have the sense to see the truth.
It seems that I am now in the “unique position to poke fun” at you.
By the way, the fact that you were in “the unique position to poke fun at Waller” (as you stated so clearly on the Washington Post website) might be, perhaps, because you are, in fact, *gasp* wrong