An August 3 article in the South Carolina newspaper The State began by declaring that “U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., has been sharply criticized this week by Republicans for saying that a positive progress report from the war in Iraq could divide congressional Democrats on a timetable for withdrawal.” In fact, Clyburn was responding to a question from Washington Post reporter Dan Balz about how congressional Democrats would react if Gen. David Petraeus recommends against withdrawing U.S. forces in his September report -- not simply to a “positive progress report from the war in Iraq.” The article, by Aaron Gould Sheinin, also omitted a key part of Clyburn's original comments in which he said that "[n]one of us want to see a bad result in Iraq." The article suggested that Clyburn said that only in response to Republicans' criticisms. In fact, Clyburn said that Democrats want to see progress in Iraq both in his original comments and reportedly when asked to respond to the Republican criticism.

A box accompanying the article said Clyburn “was asked what he thought would happen if a report due to Congress indicated the military campaign in Iraq is a success.” It continued: “Here's what he said. 'I think there would be enough support in that group (Democrats undecided about a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq) to want to stay the course and if the Republicans were to stay united as they have been, then it would be a problem for us (Democrats who favor pulling out of Iraq soon). We, by and large, would be wise to wait on the report.' ”

But the actual question was specifically about how Democrats would react if Petraeus were to recommend against withdrawing troops. From the July 30 “PostTalk” interview of Clyburn on washingtonpost.com (video available at the website):

BALZ: What do Democrats do if General Petraeus comes in in September and says, “This is working very, very well at this point; we would be foolish to back away from it”?

CLYBURN: Well, that would be a real big problem for us, no question about that, simply because of those 47 Blue Dogs. I think there would be enough support in that group to want to stay the course, and if the Republicans were to remain united, as they have been, then it would be a problem for us.

So I think we, by and large, would do wise -- be wise to wait on the report. None of us want to see a bad result in Iraq. If we are going to get in position to yield a good result, I think Democrats want to see that. We love this country. We're as patriotic as anybody else about this. And we have loved ones involved in this issue just like everybody else. I've got family and friends involved in Iraq and Afghanistan, and so I certainly want to see a good result. But I'm certainly not going to just roll over because the president said. It is only because we get good intelligence from those people like General Petraeus who can be trusted to give us good information.

In other words, Clyburn said that a recommendation from Petraeus against withdrawal would impede Democrats' efforts to garner support in Congress for legislation to begin withdrawal, as Media Matters for America has noted.

Moreover, the State article quoted Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's false claim that Clyburn said, "[I]f Iraq starts going well, that's bad news for Democrats." The article also reported that Clyburn's statement that "[a]ll of us want a good result in Iraq" came "[in] response to the Republican criticism." In fact -- contrary to what Romney said that Clyburn said, and contrary to The State's suggestion that it was only after he was criticized by Republicans that Clyburn said that Democrats want a good result in Iraq -- Clyburn had asserted in his original response to Balz: “None of us want to see a bad result in Iraq.”

The State also left out this part of Clyburn's original comments -- that "[n]one of want to see a bad result in Iraq" -- in the box accompanying the article:

WHAT HE SAID

U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., was speaking to reporters from The Washington Post on Monday about Democrats' support for the war in Iraq. He was asked what he thought would happen if a report due to Congress indicated the military campaign in Iraq is a success. Here's what he said.

“I think there would be enough support in that group (Democrats undecided about a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq) to want to stay the course and if the Republicans were to stay united as they have been, then it would be a problem for us (Democrats who favor pulling out of Iraq soon). We, by and large, would be wise to wait on the report.”

As indicated above, immediately following his statement that Democrats “would be wise to wait on the report,” Clyburn added, “None of us want to see a bad result in Iraq,” which The State omitted.

As Media Matters noted, several conservative commentators have misrepresented Clyburn's comments in an effort to suggest that Democrats want “their country [to] lose a war because otherwise they might lose an election,” as host John Gibson put it on the July 31 edition of Fox News' The Big Story.