In the age of digital video and voice recorders, it is amazing that anyone can still be misquoted. But it happens.

We believe the reporters who wrote these stories made honest mistakes that were not intended to become issues in this campaign.  However, there are certain people who will never stop their relentless personal attacks, and they rarely allow the truth to slow them down.

One would think that surely they will now admit that their false negative attacks went too far, and they will correct their mistakes.  We are not holding our breath.

False Negative Attack #1:

In an appearance at Elizabethtown this weekend, Mitch McConnell showed how deeply out of touch he is with the sacrifice our armed forces have given in Bush's folly of the Iraq War. Who are the real victims and "casualties" of the Iraq War? His poor little Republican friends who lost their office.

Describing the party’s 2006 loss of Congressional District Rep. Anne Northup and last year’s loss of Republican Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher as casualties of the Iraq war, McConnell said he’s optimistic Republicans will hold the 2nd congressional district seat left up for grabs with the announcement of Rep. Ron Lewis’, R-Cecilia, retirement.

Yes, poor Anne Northup, one of Bush's biggest enablers in the House, is a casualty of the Iraq War. – Quoted from the “Ditch Mitch” website 2/4/2008

Listen to what Senator McConnell actually said.

Read the entire article here.

False Negative Attack #2:

There was a similar incident in December, when Senator McConnell’s six-minute answer to a question was over-simplified and misrepresented.

In the article that was used to justify the false attacks in December, a reporter used quotation marks around her own 161 word paraphrase of what was actually a 912 word answer.  

And, most recently, he callously quipped that we ought not feel too bad about those who died in Iraq, because, afterall, “remember, these are not draftees, these are full-time professional soldiers” -Vote Vets

Listen to the full audio of the six minute exchange. 

Read the entire article here.

This column by Sen. Mitch McConnell appeared in today's Courier-Journal.

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I've always known David Hawpe and The Courier-Journal's editorial board considered themselves smarter than the average bear, but I never knew you considered yourselves clairvoyant. How else to explain your power to know the outcome of a vote that hasn't even happened yet on a bill that hasn't even reached the Senate floor?

In Saturday's editorial ("Back of his hand"), you claimed I "blocked" the "Senate Democrats' stimulus package, preferring instead a cheaper, less humane House-passed plan." But there's a real problem with that charge: The Senate won't vote on the partisan bill you prefer until at least Wednesday.

And the bipartisan bill you deride as "less humane" and cheap was co-authored by the liberal Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the Republican House leader. And at roughly $150 billion, I don't think that meets anyone's definition of "cheap."

The true point of your editorial was clear by the third paragraph, when you argued for a partisan bill written by "the Senate Democrats" instead of the bipartisan bill. An editorial board that so often demands bipartisanship recoiled at a bipartisan bill that passed the House by a vote of 385-35.

If we are to have an impact on the economy before it slows any further, the time to do it is now. There is simply no time for the type of partisan wrangling your editorial called for.

Every Democratic congressman in the Kentucky and Indiana delegations voted for the bill you call "less humane." I guess you'll attack them next.

The following letter to the editor, written by Bill Stone of Louisville, was published in today's Courier-Journal.

It is essential to a university that everyone with a responsible connection to its operation understand that freedom of expression is essential to the collegial existence. This has apparently not dawned on left-wing state Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, one of the most outrageous partisans in Kentucky politics.

According to a front-page hit piece by Joe Gerth, Marzian disapproves of the fact that world-class U of L doctors and researchers express gratitude for the support of their projects by Sen. Mitch McConnell in a television message.

Marzian, being a member of the legislature, has direct authority to vote on any appropriations for U of L. Thus her letter and contacts with U of L president James Ramsey on this subject can be interpreted as direct and meaningful intimidation.

Marzian has selective outrage. We never heard her complain when Coach Rick Pitino hosted a fund-raiser for Gov. Steve Beshear, or when political science professor Laurie Rhodebeck labeled McConnell as "ruthless" in a recent Courier article. The fact is both had a perfect right to express themselves. The university does not require its employees to suspend their right of free speech when they come aboard.

The same privilege belongs to Drs. Laman Gray, Larry Cook and Donald Miller. These distinguished men of accomplishment wanted the world to know that through his constant and enlightened efforts, McConnell more than any public figure has transformed a relatively mediocre medical school into a nationally renowned center for cutting-edge life-saving discovery. The university, the Cardiovascular Institute and the Medical Center itself is positioned today to be the equal of the likes of the Cleveland Clinic, with much of the credit going to McConnell, for whom the growth and success of U of L is an obsessive passion.

The good news is that neither The Courier-Journal nor Mary Lou Marzian will ever blunt that drive and enthusiasm.