Tossing cookies and stories

Republican rule seems to be, when caught misleading the public, you blame those who doubt you for being "revisionist:"

Speaking on Stateline with the Governor on WBAL-AM yesterday, [Gov. Robert L.] Ehrlich said he would not tolerate questions about the veracity of the incident.

"This revisionism is real dangerous. And to the extent anyone is out there now saying, 'Well, no, those Oreo cookies really weren't thrown at Mike Steele, that's now an urban legend, whatever, made up by the Republicans,' I mean these people have got to get real," Ehrlich said.

So what's the problem? Oh:

Several debate attendees, however, could not corroborate Ehrlich and Schurick's version of events.

"It didn't happen here," said Vander Harris, operations manager of the Murphy Fine Arts Building at Morgan State. "I was in on the cleanup, and we found no cookies or anything else abnormal. There were no Oreo cookies thrown."

(snip)

Clint Coleman, a spokesman for Morgan State who was at the event, said he saw lots of unseemly behavior but no Oreos.

"There were a lot of things, disturbances, by this group of outsiders who were bent on disrupting the debate," Coleman said. "But I never actually saw Oreo cookies being thrown at him."

As for "raining Oreos," Coleman said, "I can tell you that did not happen."

Neil Duke, who moderated the event for the NAACP, said last week that he didn't see any cookies.

The article continues to quote people who were at the debate, but who never saw any cookies thrown.

What I have never understood about politics is why, when it is so easy to get caught up in a lie like this, it seems that a politician would be willing to tell the story nevertheless, or at least allow the story to perpetuate. Now Steele and the seemingly bogus story are linked in history. And Steele won't respond to the story anymore.

I'm not fully read on Maryland politics, but I do know a story about a lying politician is not going to be a boon for his poll numbers. He's already behind in the polls to Democratic front runner Ben Cardin, and I can't believe this is going to help him close the gap.