On September 9, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey joined Hannity & Colmes co-host Sean Hannity in a smear campaign against former Lieutenant Governor and Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes. The smears came one day after Barnes told anchor Dan Rather of CBS's 60 Minutes that as Texas House speaker in 1968, he recommended President George W. Bush for National Guard duty to his “longtime friend” Brigadier General James Rose, the head of the Texas Air National Guard.

During the September 9 edition of FOX News Channel's Hannity & Colmes, Armey labeled Barnes a “liar,” a “standing joke,” and not a “good person.” Hannity repeated the false claim that Barnes's recent statements on 60 Minutes contradict sworn testimony from 1999, in which Barnes said he had not acted at the behest of the Bush family in recommending Bush for the Guard. As Media Matters for America has noted, Barnes said the same thing in 1999 and on 60 Minutes: that he called Rose at the behest of Houston oilman Sidney A. Adger, a Bush family friend who is now dead.

On the same edition of Hannity & Colmes, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) attempted to discredit Barnes as “a partisan Democrat trying to help Senator Kerry when he's dropping like a rock [in the polls]." While Barnes is a Democrat and is currently raising money on behalf of Kerry's presidential campaign, he has also contributed sizable amounts of money to Republicans. As The New York Times reported on September 15, 2003, Barnes contributed $35,000 to the 2003 campaign of Texas State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, the mother of White House press secretary Scott McClellan. The Dallas Morning News reported on October 25, 1994, that Barnes contributed $500 to Governor Jeb Bush (R-FL) during his unsuccessful 1994 bid for the Florida governorship. And the Austin American-Statesman noted on January 13 that Barnes has served on a fund-raising events committee for Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX).