When Bob Schieffer invited Liz Cheney and Howard Dean on "Face the Nation" to discuss a number of issues related to the upcoming midterm elections, he must have had a feeling sparks were going to fly.
But he certainly couldn't have known bringing up the Administration's claim the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is funneling foreign money into Republican campaigns would lead to Cheney exposing the former Vermont governor in a lie about who helped bankroll his 2004 run for the White House (video follows with transcript and commentary):
BOB SCHIEFFER: Liz Cheney, money in politics. This one is more expensive than the one we had the last time and it was more expensive than the one before. But now, the big question is all of this money that’s coming in that you don’t know where it’s coming from. David Axelrod was on this broadcast last week and was very critical. He said we ought to know where these-- these funds are coming from. And Republicans say, well, people have a right to give money anonymously.
LIZ CHENEY: Well, people give money anonymously to both parties. Frankly, I think that it would be a better system if we had no limits on contributions but a requirement for mandatory transparency and mandatory, we know, within twenty-four hours you’ve to disclose who your donors are. But those aren’t the rules right now. That’s not the law.
BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): But I take if you would like the--
LIZ CHENEY: And David Axelrod did more--
BOB SCHIEFFER: --you would like to see the rules changed.
LIZ CHENEY: Well, yeah. I mean I was an opponent of McCain-Feingold. I’m-- I’m not-- not thrilled with the system that we’ve got now. However, what David Axelrod said to you was stunning. When you told him what’s his evidence that there’s foreign money going to the Chamber of Commerce. He said, well, what’s your evidence that there isn’t. And-- and I think it is really an important thing for people to realize that the President of the United States at this point, when he goes out and he makes this charge which is completely baseless, what he’s really doing, he’s attempting to limit people exercise their First Amendment. I believe he’s attempting to chill political speech. He’s hoping that by making this allegation of ill-- excuse me, illegality that people will stop continue contributing. And I think--
HOWARD DEAN (overlapping): Well, wait a minute.
LIZ CHENEY: --that’s shameful and I think it’s wrong and there’s no evidence that this has gone on. So the Democrats ought to get themselves focused--
HOWARD DEAN (overlapping): There is-- there is--
LIZ CHENEY: --on the substance of these issues--
HOWARD DEAN (overlapping): --plenty of evidence that the-- foreign money--
LIZ CHENEY: --and not on this kind of speeches.
HOWARD DEAN (overlapping): --is going to the Chamber of Commerce.
LIZ CHENEY: There is no evidence that foreign money is going into our political campaign, which is exactly the charge that’s been made.
HOWARD DEAN: Yeah, well-- because nobody knows if it is or not. Look, I-- I think--
LIZ CHENEY (overlapping): There-- Governor Dean--
HOWARD DEAN (overlapping): --you can’t argue.
LIZ CHENEY (overlapping): --that, you know, you and I can make any charge that we want.
HOWARD DEAN (overlapping): --you cannot argue. The-- the Republican argument--
LIZ CHENEY (overlapping): And then assert that there’s got to be evidence against it.
HOWARD DEAN (overlapping): --that then people can anonymously give money in political campaign is outrageous.
LIZ CHENEY (overlapping): That’s not how it works.
HOWARD DEAN: This is really undermining and harming our democracy.
LIZ CHENEY (overlapping): There is--
HOWARD DEAN: One of the worst the Supreme Court decisions ever was John Roberts’-- this notion that you can-- corporations are people. That’s not-- it’s not in the Constitution. Whatever happened to strict constructionism? Nowhere in the Constitution says a corporation is a person--nowhere. This-- this-- this is one of the worst cycles I have ever seen because of the amount of money in an off-year election. It’s appalling.
LIZ CHENEY: Well, it’s a worse cycle from your perspective I’m sure Governor Dean because of the massive amounts of-- of money, because the Republicans are able to mobilize more money than the Democrats. George Soros--
HOWARD DEAN (overlapping): From people like the Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch.
LIZ CHENEY (overlapping): George Soros--
HOWARD DEAN: We don’t want the right wing buying elections.
LIZ CHENEY (overlapping): You just want the left wing--
HOWARD DEAN: And that’s what’s going on here.
LIZ CHENEY (overlapping): You just want the left wing buying elections?
HOWARD DEAN (overlapping): We don’t want anybody buying elections.
LIZ CHENEY (overlapping): I mean George Soros started all of this with MoveOn.org--
HOWARD DEAN (overlapping): I know McCain-Feingold, they weren’t able buy elections.
LIZ CHENEY (overlapping): --which was a big backer of yours, Governor Dean. So I think that, you know--
HOWARD DEAN (overlapping): Who was a big backer of mine?
LIZ CHENEY: George Soros, MoveOn.org.
HOWARD DEAN (overlapping): No he wasn’t. No he wasn’t a big--
LIZ CHENEY: Governor Dean, I think that the notion--
HOWARD DEAN (overlapping): --neither-- neither was MoveOn.org, as a matter of fact, just to
set the record straight.
Stop the tape! This was a flat out lie by Dean on national television.
On March 24, 2003, Soros gave $1000 to Dean via his fundraising arm Dean for America.
On November 11 of that year, the Washington Post reported Soros had committed as much as $5 million to MoveOn.org in his failed multi-million dollar effort to prevent George W. Bush's re-election.
Soros's own page at the Federal Election Commission identifies a total of $2.5 million given to the MoveOn.org Voter Fund through March 2004.
MoveOn was indeed a supporter of Dean's as evidenced by the campaign page still available at its website. The hyperlink "Contribute to the Dean campaign" goes to a now disabled page at Dean for America under "MoveOn for Dean."
As such, Dean's contention that he never received backing from Soros or MoveOn is 100 percent false.
But I digress:
LIZ CHENEY: Yeah. Well, the notion, Governor Dean, that somehow people don’t have the right
to express their political views under our Constitution--
HOWARD DEAN (overlapping): They do in public, not in anonymously.
LIZ CHENEY (overlapping): --by contributing-- by--
HOWARD DEAN (overlapping): And cooperations don’t have that right.
LIZ CHENEY (overlapping): --the Constitution doesn’t say that. The Constitution says you’ve got the right to Freedom Speech. So then--
HOWARD DEAN: The Chamber of Commerce has become an arm of-- finance arm of the Republican Party.
LIZ CHENEY (overlapping): Do you have evidence?
HOWARD DEAN: It’s ridiculous.
LIZ CHENEY (overlapping): Governor Dean, do you have evidence that any foreign money from the Chamber of Commerce is going into the American election right now.
HOWARD DEAN: That is not the issue. The issue is we have a right to--
LIZ CHENEY (overlapping): Well, that’s what David Axelrod--
HOWARD DEAN (overlapping): -- we have a right to know if foreign money is going into the--
LIZ CHENEY (overlapping): --and the President of the United States thinks that’s the issue.
HOWARD DEAN: And we have a right to know if foreign money is going--
LIZ CHENEY (overlapping): That’s not the charge the President has made.
HOWARD DEAN (overlapping): We don’t know and we ought to know. And we have a right to know what the Koch Brothers are doing. We do know how much money Rupert Murdoch of Fox gave-- two-- two and quarter million dollars between the Chamber and the RGA. This is-- this is a sick thing. And, you know, the Tea Party people don’t like this either. That’s one of the things about the Tea Party people. They think corporations have too much influence in American life
and they do. And this is going to have a real fix of campaign finance reform. Citizens United was an outrage.
LIZ CHENEY: Gov-- Governor--
BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): Twenty seconds.
LIZ CHENEY: Governor Dean, look. If-- if the President of the United States is going to stand up and make a charge, you can try to throw spaghetti here and see what sticks and hits. The President said there is foreign money from the Chamber of Commerce going into this election cycle through Republican Candidates. That’s not true. It’s not fair and it’s an abomination and a shame that he’s attempting to chill First Amendment rights--
HOWARD DEAN (overlapping): What is he--
LIZ CHENEY (overlapping): --that the action of people in United States.
HOWARD DEAN (overlapping): What he has said is there’s foreign money going into the Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce is proudly stood-- stood up for giving millions and millions of dollars to the right wing--
LIZ CHENEY (overlapping): That’s not what he said.
HOWARD DEAN (overlapping): --of the Republican Party.
BOB SCHIEFFER: All right.
LIZ CHENEY (overlapping): Now you can try to clean up what he said.
HOWARD DEAN (overlapping): That is in fact-- what’s happening.
BOB SCHIEFFER: The bell--
LIZ CHENEY (overlapping): Governor, you can try to clean up what he said.
BOB SCHIEFFER: The bell has rung.
LIZ CHENEY (overlapping): But that’s not what he said.
BOB SCHIEFFER: We got to go.
Honestly, with all the lies Dean has been caught in the last seven years, it's hard to believe any news outlet considers him at all credible.
Nice job, Liz. Brava!
