I Cogitate

Blackburn's TV tiff gets spotlighted
Representative was asked if she knew name of dead soldier
Bartholomew Sullivan
Memphis Commercial Appeal
September 28, 2007

WASHINGTON -- A recent television interview with U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., has exploded in the blogosphere as pundits debate which is worse: that Blackburn couldn't name the last soldier killed in her district or that the interviewer might have gotten that name wrong.

Hot Air, Flopping Aces, Conservative Belle, Media Blog, The American Pundit, Red State, crooksandliars and The Corner on National Review Online, among others, have all weighed in on what most are calling MSNBC host David Shuster's "gotcha!" admission from Blackburn Monday night.

When Shuster asked her the name of the soldier, Blackburn paused, then said: "The name of the last soldier killed in Iraq from my district? I do not know."

Blackburn had come on the show of reliably conservative host Tucker Carlson to talk about the controversial MoveOn.org advertisement in The New York Times. But guest host Shuster turned the tables on her with what many conservative bloggers consider an unfair question.

Shuster followed up by saying that the soldier's name was Jeremy S. Bohannon, 18. Bohannon died in Baghdad in early August, less than a month after arriving, Tennessee's youngest casualty of the war. On Wednesday night, Shuster was forced to read a correction on the air saying that Bohannon was from a neighboring congressional district.

For many liberal bloggers, the fact Blackburn couldn't name the soldier, but knew all about the discounted rate charged to MoveOn.org for its "General Betray Us" full-page ad in The Times, showed skewed priorities.

Others found Shuster's error unpardonable.

But Shuster's apology may have been premature. The tiny hamlet of Bon Aqua, Tenn., is where Bohannon lived in the months immediately prior to entering the Army. The Census Bureau places his home in Blackburn's 7th Congressional District.

He lived in Bon Aqua for "close to a year" immediately prior to entering the Army, said Tonya Taylor, 35, who permitted him to stay at her house while Bohannon was dating her daughter.

Bohannon grew up, was home-schooled and was buried in McEwan, which is clearly in the 8th Congressional District of U.S. Rep. John Tanner, D-Tenn. But his last legal address was in Blackburn's district.

SHUSTER:  The Republican outcry is beginning to die down over that MoveOn ad, the one running in the “New York Times” that posed the question -- General Petraeus or General Betray Us?  But there‘s a bigger question left unanswered, a question of hypocrisy when it comes to political attack.  Where was the outrage when Rush Limbaugh said this about Republican Senator Chuck Hagel over one of the senator‘s stances on Iraq?  Limbaugh said, “by the way, we had a caller call, couldn‘t stay on the air, got a new name for Senator Hagel of Nebraska.  We got General Petraeus and Senator Betray-Us, new name for Senator Hagel.”

Here to discuss all this is Marsha Blackburn, a Republican Congresswoman from Tennessee.  Congresswoman, thanks for coming in.

REP. MARSHA BLACKBURN ®, TENNESSEE:  Good to be with you.

SHUSTER:  Do you want to take this opportunity to condemn what Rush Limbaugh said about Chuck Hagel?  

BLACKBURN:  What I want to do is talk about the “New York Times.” Probably, Rush Limbaugh could have gotten by without saying that.

SHUSTER:  Could of gotten by?  It was wrong, wasn‘t it?

BLACKBURN:  He was referencing what a caller said.

SHUSTER:  But it was wrong for a caller or for Rush Limbaugh to call Chuck Hagel Senator Betray Us, right?

BLACKBURN:  But Rush Limbaugh did not go in and buy an ad and place it with the “New York Times” and get a special, preferred rate—

SHUSTER:  So there‘s a difference between buying an ad in the “New York Times” and Rush Limbaugh hearing something that he likes to hear from one of his viewers and repeating it on the air.  What‘s the distinction?

BLACKBURN:  Rush Limbaugh should not have done that.  But Rush Limbaugh did not go out and buy an ad and circumvent the “New York Times.”  It takes two weeks for them to tell the truth on this and we find out that they did get a favored rate.

SHUSTER:   They didn‘t know they got a favored rate.  As soon as they found out they got a favored rate, they wrote a check.

BLACKBURN:  I don‘t believe that.  I think they did—

SHUSTER:  I understand that this is an issue that—You‘re very concerned, of course, about the MoveOn ad, is that right?

BLACKBURN:  Everybody is concerned about the MoveOn ad.  Everybody is concerned about what seems to be the violation of the public trust by the “New York Times.”  Look, we all know that their circulation is down, that their stock is down, that they—I think it was last year fired 500 people.  Everyone is aware of that.  My goodness, to find out now that they are fire selling their ad space.

SHUSTER:  Congressman, let‘s talk about the public trust.  You represent, of course, a district in western Tennessee.  What was the name of the last soldier from your district who was killed in Iraq?

BLACKBURN:  The name of the last soldier killed in Iraq, from my district, I do not know.

SHUSTER:  His name was Jeremy Bohannan (ph).  He was killed August 9, 2007.  How come you did not know that the name?

BLACKBURN:  I do not know why I did not know the name. We made contact with the families in our district. When you have a major military post, you are very sensitive to this and sensitive to working with those families, and that is something that my staff and I do daily. Our district director is a gentleman who has served in the U.S. Army and currently serves in the National Guard. And we do everything that we possibly can do to assist those families.  We are very appreciative of the sacrifice.

SHUSTER:  But you were not appreciative enough to know the name of this young man.  He was 18 years old and killed.  Yet you can say chapter and verse about what‘s going on with the “New York Times” and MoveOn.org.

OLBERMANN:  The Bush administration knowingly used, quote, bogus intelligence, unquote, to make lawmakers believe there was a chance of an imminent attack on the U.S. Capitol and thus frighten them into passing a temporary expansion of its powers to spy on Americans under the FISA Act.  That is the charge of the chairwoman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on terrorism risk assessment.

Our third story on the COUNTDOWN, for two years this newscast has recorded the administration‘s willingness to try to terrify the public into voting Republican.  It has chronicled the fears of the politicization of terror, fears originating even from the first Homeland Secretary Tom Ridge.  But these charges from California Democrat Jane Harmon are the most overt accusations yet of a government gone so wrong that it is using the terrorists‘ weapon of fear against its own people and against other legislators who will not go along with the program.

Congresswoman Harmon made her charge at a forum on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, FISA, conducted in Washington by the Center For American Progress.  She says that on August 2nd, hours before lawmakers were to leave for a month long recess, word of specific intelligence led to increased security around the Capitol.  Republican Congressman Zach Wamp of Tennessee said at the time, quote, the leaders of the committees of jurisdiction have been briefed on threats to the Capitol.”

And in urging Congress to give Mr. Bush the extra spying powers he wanted, Senator Trent Lott said on that date that, quote, “the disaster could be on our doorstep.”  Congresswoman Harmon said the unreliability of the so-called intelligence about the attack on the Capitol before the 9/11 anniversary was only made clear the very day lawmakers approved the temporary expansion of Bush‘s spy powers.  “That specific intelligence claim, it turned out, was bogus,” said Representative Harmon.  “The intelligence agencies knew that.”

She added that the administration was guilty of a “Rovian strategy of using terrorism as a wedge political issue.”  Talk about the nexus of politics and terror.  At the same forum with Congresswoman Harmon was Bruce Fein, former associate deputy attorney general under Ronald Reagan, now chairman of the American Freedom Agenda.  Thank you for your time again tonight, sir. 

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