Knucklehead Award Friday Part Two

Our second winner today is Joel Havemann of the LA Times. He gets the award for the following in a story about Blue Dog Democrats. Mr. Havemann describes why the Blue Dog Coalition was founded.

The Blue Dog Coalition was founded in 1995, a year after the election that cost the Democrats the majority they had enjoyed for decades. The name refers to the founding members' sense that they had been "choked blue" by extremists in both parties.

Unfortunately the description doesn't jar with what is said on the Blue Dog website.

The 35 conservative and moderate Democrats in the group hail from every region of the country, although the group acknowledges some southern ancestry which accounts for the group's nickname. Taken from the South's longtime description of a party loyalist as one who would vote for a yellow dog if it were on the ballot as a Democrat, the "Blue Dog" moniker was taken by members of The Coalition because their moderate-to-conservative-views had been "choked blue" by their party in the years leading up to the 1994 election.

Tsk, Tsk Mr. Havemann. You fail miserably at the most elementary of fact checking. The Times should put you on the obituary desk, that's If the paper wants to protect its credibility. But first, I make you Joel Havemann the second Knucklehead of the day.

Hat tip- Florida Cracker
Linked to- Basil's Blog, Third World County,