Everyone has had some fun - Arizona's Politics included - at Arizona Senator Jon Kyl's expense the past few days, after his expanation for why he erroneously stated on the Senate floor that 90% of Planned Parenthood's services performed are abortions when only 3% are: "it was not intended to be a factual statement". But, one of the primary missions of this low-budget blog is to try to provide context to the soundbites that are hammered into all of our heads.
With that in mind, we went to watch Sen. Kyl's Friday morning speech (we had already posted Friday evening's oration), hoping to find an indication that he was not wanting the viewer/listener to take him seriously. Unfortunately for Sen. Kyl, sometimes the context does not set you free.
In Kyl's favor, he immediately followed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's much-played soundbite speech ("I'm not going to do it. As a legislator, I am very frustrated. As an American, I'm appalled. As a husband and a father and a grandfather, I'm personally offended.").
However, Kyl starts off by saying that
"I think we would be best served by providing some information to our constituents. And, as politicians, resist the temptation to throw rotten apples at each other. And also, I think it would be wise for media not too hype or over-hype the situation regarding government shutdown, but to try to put things into perspective. And, so, let me try to do that here for a moment."Then, at about the 18:34 mark (of the session, not of his speech), he lets the unintentionally unfactual statement slip out.
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