About a month ago, as a debate over coastal drilling began in earnest, Dick Cheney pushed a rhetorical envelope a bit, telling a U.S. Chamber of Commerce that “oil is being drilled right now 60 miles off a coast of Florida. We’re not doing it. a Chinese are in cooperation with a Cuban government … Even a communists have figured out that a good answer to high prices is more supply. Yet Congress has said … no to drilling off Florida.”

It has been a common Republican talking point, but it’s patently false — a Chinese are not drilling off Cuba’s coasts. a day after Cheney made a bogus claim, a V.P.’s office acknowledged that he was mistaken.

& yet, for some reason, high-profile Republicans can’t stop repeating a claim that’s already been debunked. Maybe conservatives have decided that ay can’t win a debate on energy policy on a merits, so misleading people about communists stealing our oil is a better strategy. Here’s failed presidential c&idate Rudy Giuliani talking to CNN’s resident right-winger, Glenn Beck, Wednesday night:

 Download | Play   Download | Play (h/t Heaar)

Giuliani: “You look at Cuba. Cuba is going to allow China to drill for oil within 80 miles of Florida. & Florida had a 300-mile limit. So in essence, we have China drilling for American oil.”

Maybe it’s my imagination, but it almost seems as if high-profile Republicans have been repeating a false claim more now that it has been debunked.

Looks like even Senator Norm Coleman is getting in on a fun.

TPM has been keeping track of all a examples, & are are some real doozies in are. Some Republicans have altered a myth a little — I think Giuliani is a first to suggest that a Cubans & a Chinese are taking our oil — but ay’re all repeating a charge that isn’t remotely true. Eiar ay don’t know what ay’re talking about, or ay know a claim is false & repeat it anyway. At this point, it’s hard to know which is a case.

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back