As Abraham Lincoln said, low-life right-wing scumbags who make up or pass on phony Lincoln quotes should be arrested, exiled or hung

QUICK QUIZ

Who said, "Congressmen who willfully take action during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs, and should be arrested, exiled or hanged"?

(a) Abraham Lincoln [right]

(b) a lying right-wing scumbag named J. Michael Waller

(c) countless scumbag pols and propagandists following in Waller's wake, who should surely be arrested, exiled or hanged

ANSWER:
All of the above except (a)

Note: Waller, when challenged, seemed surprised that quotation marks had somehow materialized around these inspirational words of his when they were printed in Insight magazine in Dec. 2003. What was in fact printed was:

"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.

By way of an experiment, take away the bogus quotation marks. Hmm, it still says that Lincoln said this! And thus is still a lie! Good one, Waller!

The latest in the chain of lying ding-dongs is Jack Abramoff pal Rep. Don Young, as reported by Nico at ThinkProgress.com:

Young Will Not Retract Fabricated Lincoln Quote

During yesterday’s House debate on Iraq, Rep. Don Young (R-AK) made the case for escalation by citing a fabricated quote falsely attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “Congressmen who willfully take action during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs, and should be arrested, exiled or hanged.” Watch it:

[VIDEO]

This morning, Young’s spokeswoman Meredith Kenny told ThinkProgress repeatedly that Young does not plan to take any action to correct the record or clarify his House statement.

Kenny said that Young had learned of the quote from Tuesday’s Washington Times op-ed by Frank Gaffney, and noted that the Times has not yet issued a correction or retraction. Kenny said she “couldn’t confirm or deny” that Young would correct his statement even if the Times published a correction.

Kenny added that Young didn’t literally mean that those supporting the Iraq resolution should be “hanged,” merely that they should not be “undermining the morale of our military.”

UPDATE: You can rest easy, Abe--for now

'Wash Times' Finally Pulls Column With Fake Abraham Lincoln Quote--After a Congressman Uses It

By Editor & Publisher Staff

Published: February 15, 2007 10:00 PM ET updated 3:00 PM
NEW YORK More than two days after an inflammatory quote used by a regular Washington Times columnist was shown to be fabricated -- it was attributed to Abraham Lincoln, no less -- the newspaper still had not removed it from the article, nor carried a correction. Finally, this afternoon, it pulled the entire Frank Gaffney, Jr. column.

Before that, Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) cited the quote on the floor of the House on Thursday in the debate over the Iraq war "surge." He took it to be true, apparently. Rep. Young added, referring to Lincoln: "He had the same problem this President has, with an unpopular war. The same problem with people trying to redirect the commander in chief."

Young's spokeswoman, Meredith Kenny, said the congressman took the quote directly from The Washington Times column. "Now that he's been informed these are not the actual words of Lincoln, he will discontinue attributing the words to Lincoln. However, he continues to totally agree with the message of the statement," Kenny told The Washington Post. . . .