Reply to comment

So I'm watching Real Time with Bill Maher, and a Republican-partisan columnist from The Wall Street Journal is there with Rep. Maxine Waters, Democrat of California.

The Journal columnist just said, during a discussion over the Wall Street collapse, that Ms. Waters took $15,000 from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Ms. Waters called that one a lie and "challenged" him to find those records.

Well, OpenSecrets being just a click away, I checked. Since 2000, Ms. Waters took $7,500 from Fannie Mae in 2006 and $6,300 in 2004, according to a five-minute search of the records. A more thorough search could certainly reveal more, but that's still just shy of $14,000, not $15,000.

So in an argument between partisans where each one is calling the other a liar, the reality is they were each telling half-truths. And the politician conveniently dodged the part about how either way, she apparently did take large contributions from Fannie Mae. Typical, yeah?