GOP Criticizing Obama for Terrorism Stat That Came From Bush

Mark Hosenball checks facts. After the Obama administration averred that the Justice Department successfully secured the convictions or guilty pleas of about 300 people in terrorism cases during the Bush era, GOP apparatchiks like ex-White House spokeswoman Dana Perino and even Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) called Obama a liar. Oops:

It turns out, according to official Justice Department records (which were made available to Declassified by a nonpolitical government official), there is at least a credible, if not rock-solid foundation for the administration’s claim. According to this official summary of a 2009 Justice Department budget proposal that the Bush administration sent to Congress in 2008: “Since 2001, the Department has increased its capacity to investigate terrorism and has identified, disrupted, and dismantled terrorist cells operating in the United States. These efforts have resulted in the securing of 319 convictions or guilty pleas in terrorism or terrorism-related cases arising from investigations conducted primarily after September 11, 2001, and zero terrorist attacks on American soil by foreign nationals from 2003 through 2007.”

And the reason why the case isn’t rock-solid is because the Bush administration played fast and loose with how successful its conviction record was. Needless to say, neither Sessions nor Perino had any problem with that.