Last night on Fox News, Karl Rove and Bill O'Reilly attempted to defend GOP opposition to the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010, which would provide health care for 9/11 Ground Zero workers.
As you probably know, in his final broadcast of the year, Comedy Central's Jon Stewart devoted the entire show to lambasting the Republican opposition. Stewart's attention to the issue seems to have pushed other media outlets to pay attention to this issue. (With any luck, we'll remember this the next time there's a "debate" about people watching a comedy show instead of "real" news.)
Rove and O'Reilly's defense of GOP intransigence is hardly worth recounting. What was notable was their suggestion that Jon Stewart suspiciously developed an interest in this story just last week:
ROVE: But look, where was Mr. Stewart earlier this year...
O'REILLY: He didn't know about it.
ROVE: When they weren't doing voodoo diddly squat to move this through? Where was the president of the United States?
O'REILLY: Look, look, look -- you know the answers to these questions. You know the answer to these questions. They're demagoguing the issue now.
ROVE: Absolutely.
O'REILLY: Because they've squeezed it into a corner where they want to pass it tomorrow.
This is, unsurprisingly, false. Stewart did a report on the health bill in August, when he blasted Congressional Republicans and Democrats for the failure to pass the bill -- leading him to declare about the political process, "I give up." And you might want to send the link to Bill O'Reilly while you're at it (oreilly@foxnews.com).