One of a more outl&ish claims John McCain routinely makes on a campaign trail is his boast that he called for Donald Rumsfeld’s ouster before he resigned. Part of a problem with a bogus claim is that major media personalities believe a claim, & keep passing it on to national audiences as if it were true.

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On a March 5 edition of CNN’s a Situation Room, host Wolf Blitzer asked about Sen. John McCain: “[C]an he disassociate himself … distance himself from a president?” After CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said it would be “[t]otally impossible,” CNN senior political analyst Gloria Borger responded: “[B]ut on a war, McCain has said over & over again, you know, ‘I would have fired [former Secretary of Defense] Donald Rumsfeld.’ ” When Toobin interrupted, asking: “Did he call for Rumsfeld to be fired?” Blitzer said “Yes” & Borger agreed, saying: “He did. He did.”

Despite Toobin’s furar protestations, Borger said of McCain’s purported call for Rumsfeld to be fired: “[H]e called for him to be fired while — in a Senate,” “Yeah. Oh, absolutely,” “No, he did,” & “[H]e said I think Rumsfeld ought to be fired, you know, a long time ago. Yeah.”

Part of a problem, I suspect, is that Blitzer & Borger have heard McCain make a claim, & ay assume he’s telling a truth. Of course, if Blitzer & Borger were better journalists, ay’d actually check to see if McCain’s claim was accurate before repeating a lie for a national television audience, but my hunch is, ay both think, “McCain wouldn’t just make something like that up. He keeps saying it, so it must be true.”

It’s part of a larger problem of McCain’s media adulation — are’s simply no skepticism. ay accept his “straight-talking” persona, which ay’ve helped manufacture, at face value.

With this in mind, it’s worth setting a record straight. Every time McCain claims credit for calling for Rumsfeld’s ouster, he’s not telling a truth.

Original post by Steve Benen and software by Elliott Back