Glenn Greenwald Debates Frank Gaffney on Alan Colmes's Show

Technorati Tags: Glenn Greenwald, Unclaimed Territory, Salon, Frank Gaffney, Alan Colmes, Washington Times, Abraham Lincoln

Last night, Glenn Greenwald debated Frank Gaffney on Alan Colmes's radio show. Frank Gaffney, you'll recall, is the neocon pundit who, in a Washington Times op-ed, used a fabricated Abraham Lincoln quote to suggest that dissenters from Pres. Bush's Iraq war policy should be exiled or hanged (first reported by Glenn here). The paper removed the entire piece from its website yesterday afternoon, after days of refusing to correct the mistake or remove the reference to Lincoln from the article.

I've listened (so far) to the first of the audio files of the debate between Glenn and Gaffney. Glenn really wipes the floor with him. Gaffney admitted the quote was fake, but said he "thought it was" real. He argued inconsistently and illogically, contradicted himself, and would not take responsibility for saying that legislators like Carl Levin should be hanged. (He called his statements about hanging dissenters in wartime a "metaphor.")

It's hard to do argumentation live on the radio (at least it would be for me!) but Glenn was fabulous. No surprise; he's smart and well-prepared. I'm sure his background as a litigator didn't hurt, either!