Flying Pig Moment: AP Points Out Clinton Lie

How on earth did this one reach the wires?

WASHINGTON - It's become something of an urban legend that the Bush administration is out to retrieve enlistment bonuses from wounded veterans of the Iraq war, a claim perpetuated by Hillary Rodham Clinton in the latest Democratic presidential debate.

The New York senator told a national TV audience Tuesday night that the administration has shown negligence in its treatment of veterans and gave as a leading example a policy that doesn't exist.

THE SPIN: "The Bush administration sends mixed messages," she said. "They want to recruit and retain these young people to serve our country and then they have the Pentagon trying to take away the signing bonuses when a soldier gets wounded and ends up in the hospital, something that I'm working with a Republican senator to try to make sure never can happen again."

THE FACTS: The Pentagon's long-existing policy is to pay enlistment bonuses in full to soldiers who leave the armed forces early for reasons beyond their control. Officials last year reported clerical mistakes that resulted in a few wounded veterans being asked for bonus money back, said those cases would be redressed and revised the wording of its policy in September so lapses wouldn't be repeated.

One case was uncovered by a presidential commission formed earlier last year to recommend improvements in veterans' care. "It certainly didn't rise to the level of an important issue in our work," Susan Hosek, a Rand Corp. economist who was the commission's research director, told AP in December. "If it had, we would have made sure that it was highlighted in our report ... we literally only heard about it once, that I know of."

Don't ever let the facts get in the way when you're trying to pretend you give a shit about the troops.

If she ever told the truth, now that would be newsworthy.