Hannity claimed “few people accuse President Bush of flip-flopping,” but it's more than he thinks

Written by Carol Reichert

Published

On the August 17 edition of FOX News Channel's Hannity & Colmes, co-host Sean Hannity declared that “few people accuse President [George W.] Bush of flip-flopping. If anything, his detractors accuse him of sticking to his guns, something which many people believe is a good thing when it comes to fighting a war on terror.”

While it may be true that Bush's flip-flopping has not received much attention, it is also true that several columnists, as well as the Center for American Progress (CAP) and the Democratic National Committee (DNC), have documented numerous examples of Bush changing positions on a wide range of issues.

Contrary to Hannity's claim that Bush has held steady in his position on the war on terror, Bush has reversed course on key security issues like the creation and subsequent extension of the 9-11 Commission, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, and the importance of pursuing Osama bin Laden. These examples come from a list of 25 that CAP has compiled of Bush's “serial flip-flopping,” while the DNC has put together "The Bush Record: Top 10 Bush Flip Flops."

In the past six months, the following newspapers have run columns or op-eds with headlines pointing out Bush's flip-flop-filled history:

  • The Washington Post ("Who's the Flip-Flopper?," by Post columnist Richard Cohen, 8/5);

  • The Boston Globe ("'Steadfast' Bush's Amazing Flip-Flops," by Dan Payne, a Globe columnist and media consultant who worked on Kerry's past campaigns, 6/5);

  • The Kansas City Star (“Can't bait and switch? Then flip, flop, and fly with the Bush administration,” by author and syndicated columnist Molly Ivins, 3/13); and

  • Chicago Tribune (“The flip-flopper running for president,” by conservative syndicated columnist Steve Chapman, 3/18).

In addition, a recent guest column on Buzzflash.com by Ayesha Nariman, a 2002 Democrat candidate for Congress in New York, denounced the Bush-Cheney flip-flop hypocrisy, and Media Matters for America has previously documented several examples of Bush's flip-flops that were either ignored or distorted by the media.