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Anatomy of a Smear
Talking Points Memo — How the right-wing echo chamber fabricated the "Pelosi's mouse" talking point from thin air.

Eeek! It's A Mouse!
Daily Kos — If it wasn't for the fact that the traditional media keeps giving these people a challenge-free platform to spew their talking points, this would be pretty funny: Is there really $30 million in the new stimulus package devoted to saving the salt marsh mouse in Nancy Pelosi’s district? That’s what some conservatives are now charging, and the claim seems to be gaining some traction with elected GOP officials and conservative media outlets, who are using it to argue that the bill is stuffed with Dem pork. But there ...

GOP: The Party of Liars
Hoffmania! — ... Very creative and sinister liars, but still liars. $30 million for salt marsh mice is their latest. You gotta admire how they came up with salt marsh mice to begin with. ...

Pelosi's Mouse Explained: What's Actually In The Stimulus Bill
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... But Pelosi's office says even this broader claim isn't true. Spokesman Drew Hammill tells the Plum Line's Greg Sargent, "There are no federal wetland restoration projects in line to get funded in San Francisco... The idea that $30 million will be spent to save mice is a total fabrication." ...

Pelosi's Mouse Explained: What's Actually In The Stimulus Bill
The Huffington Post | Full News Feed — ... But Pelosi's office says even this broader claim isn't true. Spokesman Drew Hammill tells the Plum Line's Greg Sargent, "There are no federal wetland restoration projects in line to get funded in San Francisco... The idea that $30 million will be spent to save mice is a total fabrication." ...

Conservative Lies, Part 2
Preemptive Karma — ... in the bill. And Pelosi’s office is saying that the claim is a “total fabrication.” How did this one get going? Yesterday a House Republican leadership staffer circulated a background email, which I obtained, charging that GOP staffers had been told by an unnamed Federal agency that if it got money from the stim package, it would spend “thirty million dollars for wetland restoration in the San Francisco Bay Area — including work to protect the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse.” Hat tip to Greg Sargent and ...

Of Mice And Men
Blah3 Feed — ... I'm not the least bit surprised that the Moonie Times would print this story - but it's pretty amazing that this story has been spun from whole cloth. Greg Sargent explains. ...

Thursday's Mini-Report
Political Animal — ... to protect the salt marsh harvest mouse in Speaker Pelosi's district. They're lying . * The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee ...

Ah, The Mice Again ...
Talking Points Memo — For the backstory, see Greg Sargent. Did he really hold up a dead mouse on the floor of the House? I can't tell what's in that little bag he shook around there. ...

Fox News’ Fact-Checker Unable To ‘Separate Fact From Fiction,’ Imagines ‘Phantom Earmarks’
Think Progress — ... ” that claimed the House Speaker had stuck millions into the economic recovery package for the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse in San Francisco. The report, which originated from an e-mail to reporters by a spokesman for House Republican Leader John Boehner, quickly became part of the GOP’s talking points against the bill. ...

GOP: $50B For Housing is Too Much; Try Our $121B Plan
TPM Election Central — ... crew at their next bicameral mixer. The Senate Republicans have spent much of this month touting their alternative stimulus, which would have provided government subsidies for lower mortgage interest rates -- the same broad concept as Obama's plan -- at an initial cost of $121 billion. Unless the minority wants its new talking point to be 'we voted for billions of dollars for mortgage aid before we voted against it.' At least that's better than lying about a salt marsh mouse. ...

Latest Stimulus Lie: Harry Reid ‘Is Committed To’ A ‘Red Light Express’ To Nevada Brothel
Think Progress — In the days and weeks since President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, conservatives have distorted its provisions in a desperate attempt to mislead the public about what the package will do. First they mocked parks preservation funds as spending on “grass”. Then they repeatedly and falsely claimed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sought $30 million to save a mouse. And they completely made up a mythical high-speed rail line between L.A. and Las Vegas, gleefully attacking the “magnetic ...

How the Battle Over Health Care Will Be Like the Battle Over the Stimulus
The American Prospect Articles — ... to attack the half-finished legislation emerging from the process -- criticizing, for instance, the high price of one bill before cost-cutting measures were incorporated -- and go after the president for positions he hasn't even adopted. We've heard this story before, during the debates last winter over the stimulus. As Congress actually went about putting the bill together, each piece of the bill was fought over until it seemed that the entire program was contingent on an apocryphal mouse supported by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. As public support for the stimulus started ...