In a March 20 article regarding recent misstatements overseas by Sen. John McCain, PolitiFact.com again echoed the McCain campaign by characterizing as a momentary lapse his admittedly false claim at a March 18 press conference in Amman, Jordan -- “It's common knowledge and has been reported in the media that Al Qaeda is going back into Iran and is receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran.” PolitiFact examined the Al Qaeda-Iran misstatement as well as McCain's likening of the Jewish holiday of Purim to Halloween, and wrote that Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) “twice bailed out his friend, correcting misstatements by McCain before they became big stories. In fact, having been so quickly corrected, they might not even be worth mentioning. But since McCain is often so quick to point out that he's the presidential candidate with the most foreign affairs experience, we felt it fair to give his comments some scrutiny.” PolitiFact also repeated its March 18 claim that “McCain recovered quickly, but we rate his statement False for saying everyone knows that Iran and al-Qaida are working together.” In fact, as Media Matters for America noted the first time PolitiFact made the claim, McCain did not “recover[] quickly”: He made the misstatement more than once during the press conference, as well as the day before during a March 17 interview with nationally syndicated radio host Hugh Hewitt -- facts PolitiFact again did not note.

Moreover, the assertion that the misstatements “might not even be worth mentioning” echoes a reluctance PolitiFact previously expressed to highlight McCain's falsehood; in its March 18 item, PolitiFact prefaced its discussion of McCain's remarks by saying “We're not trying to pile on Sen. McCain over his misstatement.”

PolitiFact also continued a longstanding media practice of referring to McCain as a “maverick,” writing that Lieberman's correction of McCain's errors “sheds some light on McCain's close relationship with fellow maverick Lieberman, who reached across the political aisle to endorse McCain.” In fact, McCain has a lifetime rating of 83 by the American Conservative Union and has shifted rightward on high-profile issues such as immigration and taxes. And far from defying his party, McCain has aligned himself with President Bush on major issues. Indeed, The Washington Post reported on March 6 that White House officials said that “McCain and Bush are on the same page on the big issues, such as terrorism, Iraq, immigration and taxes.” PolitiFact itself wrote on October 3, 2007, that McCain's “backing of the overall U.S. mission in Iraq has made it difficult for McCain to differentiate himself from the president, pollsters say. It also has helped tarnish his most prized political asset, the maverick reputation that won him the New Hampshire primary in 2000.”

PolitiFact also highlighted McCain's “gaffe” of “liken[ing] the Jewish holiday of Purim to Halloween.” According to the article, McCain said at a press conference in Israel later that day:

Nine hundred rocket attacks in less than three months, an average of one every one to two hours...Obviously this puts an enormous and hard to understand strain on the people here, especially the children. As they celebrate their version of Halloween here, they are somewhere close to a 15-second warning, which is the amount of time they have from the time the rocket is launched to get to safety. That's not a way for people to live obviously.

PolitiFact explained that "[o]ther than the use of costumes, there is little similarity between Purim and Halloween. And a rabbi who spoke to PolitiFact said the comment exposed McCain as someone who does not understand the meaning and import of the Jewish holiday." According to the article, Lieberman said at the same press conference, "[I]t's my fault that I said to Senator McCain that this is the Israeli version of Halloween. It is in the sense because the kids dress up and it's a very happy holiday and actually it is in the sense that the sweets are very important of both holidays."

According to its website, PolitiFact.com is a project of the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly intended “to help voters separate fact from falsehood in the 2008 presidential campaign.”

From the March 20 PolitiFact article:

SUMMARY: Sen. John McCain makes two gaffes during a trip overseas, but thankfully, good pal Sen. Joe Lieberman is there to bail him out.

Sen. John McCain's weeklong overseas trip to Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Britain and France in March 2008 was a bumpy one for accuracy. Thankfully, he had Sen. Joe Lieberman for a traveling companion.

Lieberman twice bailed out his friend, correcting misstatements by McCain before they became big stories.

In fact, having been so quickly corrected, they might not even be worth mentioning. But since McCain is often so quick to point out that he's the presidential candidate with the most foreign affairs experience, we felt it fair to give his comments some scrutiny. Plus it sheds some light on McCain's close relationship with fellow maverick Lieberman, who reached across the political aisle to endorse McCain.

McCain's first misstatement came on March 18, 2008, in Amman, Jordan.

“It's common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaida is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran; that's well known. And it's unfortunate,” McCain said during a news conference in Jordan.

Lieberman, who was also at the news conference, spoke softly in McCain's ear, and McCain corrected himself to say “Islamic extremists” were going into Iran.

Most experts do not believe Iran is helping al-Qaida because their respective religious affiliations are at odds with each other. Both sides are Muslim, but the Iranian government is Shiite while al-Qaida is Sunni. And al-Qaida adheres to a fundamentalist form of Sunni Islam that considers Shiites to be apostates. It's not likely the two groups would work together, certainly not “common knowledge.” McCain recovered quickly, but we rate his statement False for saying everyone knows that Iran and al-Qaida are working together.

The second gaffe came a day later in Israel during a news conference with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak when McCain likened the Jewish holiday of Purim to Halloween.

[...]

Lieberman to the rescue. Count these two incidents as reasons McCain might like to have the independent from Connecticut as a running mate.