And the winner is . . .

Apologies for the semi-unplanned sabbatical The Counterpoint has taken. It’s a busy time of year, and duties of other sorts called. But we are back now (really this time!) and in fact are planning on more aggressively getting the word out on Sinclair and Mark Hyman through a variety of channels (more on that in future postings).

But let’s get caught up a bit: recently, Mark Hyman served up an invitation we can’t help but be giddy about. In “Whopper of the Year,” Hyman says that he will be taking suggestions about what the biggest lie was in 2004. Always eager to help, he offers some possible candidates. Not surprisingly, they mostly come from democrats. He lamely suggests that perhaps some might suggest the whopper of the year was “something President Bush said to the 9/11 commission.” One problem with that, Mark: The President wouldn’t allow the public know anything about his testimony and refused to have any record made of his comments. Or maybe you just forgot that small detail.

I suggest we help Mark out by submitting some nominees for Whopper of the Year. Here’s our Top 10 list:

10. Dick Cheney:

[From the Vice Presidential Debate]

"You made the comment that the Gulf War coalition in '91 was far stronger than this. No. We had 34 countries then; we've got 30 today. We've got troops beside us."

9. Condoleeza Rice

“In June and July when the threat spikes were so high…we were at battle stations…The fact of the matter is [that] the administration focused on this before 9/11.”

8. Tommy Thompson

"Even if you don't have health insurance you are still taken care of in America. That certainly could be defined as universal coverage."

7. Dick Cheney

"The senator's got his fact wrong. I have not suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9/11."

6. President Bush

"I haven't had any extensive conversations with [Chalabi]...I don't remember anybody walking into my office saying, Chalabi says this is the way it's going to be in Iraq."

5. Donald Rumsfeld

"You and a few other critics are the only people I've heard use the phrase 'immediate threat.' I didn't...It's become kind of folklore that that's what happened."

[No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people than the regime of Saddam Hussein and Iraq." -Donald Rumsfeld, 9/19/02]

4. George W. Bush:

"That's exactly where the tax cuts went. Most of the tax cuts went to low- and middle-income Americans."

3. George W. Bush

"Gosh, I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden. It's kind of one of those exaggerations."

["I don't know where he [Osama Bin Laden] is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him... I truly am not that concerned about him." - President Bush, 3/13/02]

2. Condoleeza Rice:

[On the August 6th memo] “Commissioner, this was not a warning. This was a historic memo—historical memo prepared by the agency because the president was asking questions about what we knew about the inside.”

But in terms of simple bald-faced chutzpah, we have to give the Whopper of the Year award to Monsieur Hyman Himself . . .

1. Mark Hyman

[From a CNN interview]

Bill Hemmer: “Mark, let me try and cut through this a little bit. Is there a bias at Sinclair against John Kerry?”

Mark Hyman: “I certainly hope not.”

And that’s truly The Counterpoint.