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Former Congressman Allen West on Sunday (R-FL) said that an admission by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that it had improperly scrutinized tea party groups was part of a wider conspiracy that included President Barack Obama's administration forcing Republican-owned car dealerships to be shut down during the auto bailout in 2009.

Fox News host Alisyn Camerota asked West if he had any indications that the recently-revealed IRS practice of examining whether tea party groups were abusing their tax-exempt status was not limited to "rogue, low-level IRS agents in the Cincinnati office who thought that they were going to personally stick it to the tea party."

"Well, of course," the tea party-favorite Republican declared. "The most important thing we need to come to understand is your First Amendment rights is you have the right to petition the government for redress of your grievances. If we start to have a government that is targeting certain groups for their political ideology because they don't believe it is in concert with their beliefs, this is Orwellian, to put it in the least manner."

"We've got to come back and have hearings on this," he continued. "This is something that is criminal."

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After Meet the Press host David Gregory asks House Majority Eric Cantor about Mitt Romney's dishonest ad where he claims that Jeep is planning on sending American jobs over to China, when Romney himself believes it's a good business model "to outsource in order to make companies competitive," Cantor initially tries to hedge and claims Romney would be the one who would care about plants opening here in America. He also cites an endorsement by Lee Iacocca as some sort of proof that he cares about these things and wants to get the economy back on track.

When Gregory tries to pin him down and asks him if the ad is deceptive, Cantor pulls the "I havent' seen the ad" dodge and tells Gregory it's not running in Virginia. He then goes on to attack President Obama as not being willing to work across the aisle, because we all know Mr. 800-Plus Vetoes Romney would be much more willing to reach across the aisle if he's elected.

And naturally we got no follow up or push back from David Gregory on any of that. If it's Sunday, it's meet the Republicans and their unfettered talking points. I'm wondering, if Cantor was telling the truth about not seeing the ad, why is he being sent out there as a surrogate for Mitt Romney? I don't believe for one minute he hasn't either seen it, or read about what's in it though. Yeah, he has no idea what's in it, but he knows it hasn't aired in his state yet.

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Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) on Monday said that GOP hopeful Mitt Romney's ad suggesting that Chrysler was moving Jeep production to China was "100 percent correct and accurate" -- even though fact checkers have determined the claim is false.

"I saw a story today that one of the great manufacturers in this state, Jeep, now owned by the Italians, is thinking of moving all production to China," the Republican presidential candidate told supporters in Defiance, Ohio last week.

In an ad released on Sunday, the campaign repeated the claim, saying that Obama "sold Chrysler to Italians, who are going to build Jeeps in China."

The candidate apparently picked up idea that Chrysler was going to move all production to China from conservative bloggers who twisted an otherwise-accurate story from Bloomberg News.

And even Gualberto Ranieri, Chrysler’s vice president of communications, has said that the claims are just not true.

"Despite clear and accurate reporting, the take has given birth to a number of stories making readers believe that Chrysler plans to shift all Jeep production to China from North America, and therefore idle assembly lines and U.S. workforce," Ranieri wrote on Oct. 25. "It is a leap that would be difficult even for professional circus acrobats."

"A careful and unbiased reading of the Bloomberg take would have saved unnecessary fantasies and extravagant comments," he added.

After reviewing the ad on Sunday, BuzzFeed's McKay Coppins tweeted: "There's really no good explanation or excuse for it. Mitt Romney's Jeep ad is misleading. Full stop."

"Ads that mislead or stretch the truth are nothing new for presidential campaigns," Business Insider's Grace Wyler explained. "But this ad — and Romney's comments last week — has prompted harsh criticism from the media, likely because it strikes reporters as not only disingenuous, but irresponsible. For Romney to suggest that the livelihoods of specific voters — namely workers at the Jeep plant in Toledo — are in danger in order to win an election comes across to many as the type of fear-mongering that no one wants in a president. "

During an interview on Monday, MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell asked Chaffetz if the Romney campaign should stop running the ad.

"No!" Chaffetz replied. "It's 100 percent correct and accurate. The Romney campaign stands behind it."

For its part, President Barack Obama's campaign released an ad on Monday calling Romney's assertion an outright "lie."

"When the auto industry faced collapse, Mitt Romney turned his back," the Obama ad says. "Even the conservative Detroit News criticized Romney for his ‘wrong-headedness’ on the bailout."

"And now, after Romney’s false claim of Jeep outsourcing to China, Chrysler itself has refuted Romney’s lie."

Speaking to supporters in Youngstown, Ohio on Monday, Vice President Joe Biden said Romney's ad was "absolutely, patently false" and he had "never seen anything like that."

"Have they no shame?" the vice president wondered. "Romney will say anything, absolutely anything to win it seems."

(h/t: Political Carnival)

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Apparently President Obama is now capable of time travel, since wingnut Rep. Marsha Blackburn accused him of harming American Motors, while defending Willard's big lie he keeps telling about Jeep moving all of its production to China.

Congresswoman Accuses Obama Of ‘Harming’ Auto Company That Went Defunct In 1988:

A Republican congresswoman accused the Obama administration of promulgating regulations that are undermining job creation at an auto manufacturer that has been defunct since 1988. She was responding to a question on Monday about Mitt Romney’s dishonest claims regarding Jeep moving its production overseas.

During an appearance on MSNBC, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) dodged a question about Romney’s debunked Jeep claims and instead attacked the Obama administration for issuing regulations that are harming workers at American Motors Corporation, a company once headed by George Romney. AMC was sold to Chrysler during the Ronald Reagan administration and its brands were then discontinued:

CHIRS JENSING (HOST): Let me ask you about some of the things going on on the campaign trail, and there’s a controversy about Mitt Romney telling voters that jeep is going to move production to China. According to the company that’s entirely false. Is he lying about that?

BLACKBURN: Oh, well, I don’t know. I haven’t talked with with the campaign staff about that. I will say this. For workers in the auto industry, across the board, whether it is GM, whether it’s Nissan, whether it’s American Motors, individuals are very concerned about the impact of regulation that the EPA and OSHA and other federal agencies are heaping on our manufacturers.

It seems Romney and his surrogates don't care how low they have to go or whose intelligence they have to insult if they think it will help them win this election. Let's hope this headline from Business Insider is correct on the consequences for that -- Mitt Romney Has Been Telling A Huge Whopper About The Auto Industry, And His Campaign Is Finally Paying For It.

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It's hard to say what the worst part of this Sunday's Meet the Press was, whether it be David Gregory allowing Republican governors to take credit for recoveries that started before they came in office, allowing David Brooks to drone on constantly about how "both sides" are equally horrible, or this segment with former HP CEO and job destroyer, Carly Fiorina, doing her best to try to pretend Mitt Romney would not have allowed the American auto industry to go belly up.

As Media Matters has documented here, she's just touting the same lines as the rest of them who have been carrying water for Romney on this issue -- Right-Wing Media Help Romney Hide His Opposition To The Successful Auto Rescue . At least we had Rachel Maddow and E.J. Dionne there for some push back to David Brooks and Carly Fiorina's hackery, because lord knows David Gregory wasn't going to do it. Useless. The man is completely useless as a host. Sadly, he fits in perfectly with the lot of them that host these Sunday bobble head shows.

DIONNE: See, I disagree with David. I think this election is a fundamental choice and I think the trust issue links closely with the economic issue. Romney is almost one as a product. It’s like if you’re selling a car--you want air-conditioning, I’ll give you air-conditioning. You want rich, Corinthian leather, remember those old ads, I’ll give you a leather. Romney is saying you want right wing in the primary, I’ll give you that. You want centrist in the election, I’ll give you that. And the auto rescue is a good example where he was clearly against it. And in the debate, trying to suggest that he was for it. And I think it’s entirely appropriate that the auto rescue has been so important to Obama running so well in Ohio, because it’s really a choice. Either government should just sit by and let the market do its thing or government can come in and correct certain market outcomes and prevent catastrophe. That is the kind of choice we face in this election.

BROOKS: I mean, if-- if you want to talk about trust, what Obama is talking about on the trail, first of all, there’s no second term agenda. Second, when he goes off the record with the Des Moines register last week, he gives out a second term agenda which is nothing like what he’s been talking about on the trail.

(Cross talk)

DIONNE: That’s not true. It’s not true at all.

BROOKS: Okay. Wait. So let’s talk about cutting corporate tax rates, talking about weeding out immigration.

DIONNE: He said that all along.

BROOKS: He’s talked about immigration reform which he’s not talked about much in public.

DIONNE: Yes, he has.

BROOKS: And he’s talked about a grand bargain with cutting spending two dollars and fifty cents for every dollar of tax revenue. That’s a much…

DIONNE: Which is his proposal he’s put on the table.

BROOKS: …that-- that is not what he’s been running on.

(Cross talk)

FIORINA: But-- but I think if-- if you-- if you want to talk about being factually accurate, it is factually inaccurate to say that Governor Romney was against the rescue of the auto industry. If you read his entire op-ed, you guys are journalists I assume you believe that words are important.

DIONNE: I did read his entire op-ed just this week.

FIORINA: And what he says in that op-ed is that he believed that the government should have provided financial guarantees. The difference between Governor Romney’s approach and President Obama’s approach is who gets to stand first in line to get paid off.

(Cross talk)

DIONNE: There was no money in the market that was going to go into the auto industry and that was a recipe...

FIORINA: That’s what he said in the op-ed the government should provide guarantee.

MADDOW: What-- what government-- what government-- what government…

(Cross talk)

GREGORY: Okay. Hold-- hold on. Rachel, quick comment here, then I want to get back to Chuck on Ohio. Go ahead.

MADDOW: What Governor Romney said was you can kiss the automotive industry good-bye if President Obama goes ahead with the auto rescue plan that he went ahead with. That saved the auto rescue, auto industry.

DIONNE: Exactly.

MADDOW: And that-- and-- and it-- it was a success. And Mister Romney is trying to deny the fact that he was against it and he’s trying to take some of the credit for it.

GREGORY: All right. We’re going to get…

FIORINA: The company that is doing best, Ford Motor Company was not rescued…

DIONNE: They were for the auto rescue because they were afraid the whole supply chain would go out if the others went down.

(Cross talk)

GREGORY: All right. Let me get back in here. We’re going to have more on the economy as we move along, because the roundtable stays with us for the hour. I’m about to talk to John Kasich in Ohio where these themes are-- are perfectly in his wheelhouse because it’s really what’s going to decide Ohio.

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Here we go again with Willard telling about his thousandth or so lie out on the campaign trail, but this time we find out that apparently badly sourced right wing blogs are his fact checking department. Explains a lot, doesn't it?

Romney repeats false claim of Jeep outsourcing to China; Chrysler refutes story:

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney repeated a false claim Thursday night that Chrysler Group may move all Jeep vehicle production to China, drawing criticism from the Obama campaign, which said the Michigan native had blatantly skewed a news wire story.

Romney’s comments came the same day that the Free Press reported that 1,100 new Chrysler workers will begin making the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango SUVs at a plant in Detroit next week.

“I saw a story today that one of the great manufacturers in this state, Jeep, now owned by the Italians, is thinking of moving all production to China,” Romney said during a rally in Defiance, Ohio, before 12,000 cheering supporters, according to several reports. “I will fight for every good job in America, I’m going to fight to make sure trade is fair, and if it’s fair, America will win.

Romney apparently was referencing conservative bloggers who misrepresented a Bloomberg story from Monday that discussed Chrysler’s decision to consider starting Jeep production in China, the world’s largest new-vehicle market.

That story, while accurate, sparked a raft of other stories and blogs that incorrectly concluded that Chrysler might close plants or move Jeep production from the U.S. to China.

Gualberto Ranieri, Chrysler’s vice president of communications, criticized those stories Thursday even before Romney made his comments.

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George Will admitted something on ABC's This Week that is as obvious as the nose on everyone's face and has been for some time -- that the economy doing well is not in the best interest of the Romney campaign and that they've got every reason to be rooting for it to fail.

TAPPER: I want to switch topics right now to a hardening we've seen in conventional wisdom about the state of -- of the -- of the election. We've seen in -- in Friday, these three swing state polls came back indicating, in Ohio, Obama's up 7 points, Virginia, Obama is up 5 points, Florida, Obama is up 5 points.

And, George, one of the amazing things is, Mitt Romney is no longer in polling beating Obama on trust to handle the economy.

WILL: Which is his campaign in one sentence. Those three states have one thing in common: They all have Republican governors. And all three Republican governors are bragging -- perhaps rightfully so -- that they have got their economies up and running. If you add Wisconsin, with Scott Walker, and -- to that list, you have a tension, a kind of disconnect between the interests of the Republican governors in the swing states and the interests of the Romney campaign.

What you'll never hear Will admit is the fact that a lot of the reason those states are doing better is because of federal intervention and President Obama's policies like that auto bailout and stimulus they want to pretend didn't work.

If we could get Will to admit the extent to which Republicans in the Congress have done their best to sabotage the economy purely for political gain, now we'd be getting somewhere.

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From this Thursday evening's Democratic National Convention, this is what you call a barn-burner folks. Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm brought down the house with her passionate speech thanking President Obama for saving the auto industry when no one else was willing to come in and rescue them, including Bain Capital, and took it to Mitt Romney for famously saying to "let Detroit go bankrupt."

Full text of former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm's speech at Democratic National Convention:

Good evening, I'm Jennifer Granholm, from the great state of Michigan, where the trees are just the right height! Let me tell you a story about the dark days in my home state. Towards the end of my time as governor, Ford closed one of its biggest factories, a factory in Wixom, Michigan. The Wixom plant had employed thousands of middle-class men and women in neighborhoods near—yet worlds away from—the place Mitt Romney was raised.

When Ford's decision hit, I went down to the local union hall. It was almost empty; a few workers milled about in shock and grief. I talked to a 45-year-old guy who told me, "This is the only place I've ever worked.

I've been loyal. I've done everything they've ever asked. And just like that, it's gone." He looked around the hall and said, "So, governor, is it over for us? Is the American auto industry dead?" Honestly, at that moment, I just didn't know. And that was just the beginning. When the financial crisis hit, things got a lot worse – and fast.

The entire auto industry, and the lives of over one million hard-working Americans, teetered on the edge of collapse; and with it, the whole manufacturing sector. We looked everywhere for help. Almost nobody had the guts to help us – not the banks, not the private investors and not Bain capital. Then, in 2009, the cavalry arrived: our new president, Barack Obama!

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Leave it to Stephen Colbert to take some of the talking heads on cable news to task in a way that only he can. After pointing out that even Fox's web site featured an article which called Paul Ryan's speech "an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech" and the Romney campaign stating that "We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers," Colbert made a mockery of some of CNN's coverage which we featured here at C&L.

Thank you Stephen for putting into perspective why allowing these lies to go unchecked or to excuse them is so dangerous. It's really pathetic that we continually have to turn to a fake news show on a comedy channel to debunk the propaganda on the "news" channels.

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From this Tuesday evening's coverage on Current TV of the Republican National Convention, The War Room host and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm reacts to Ohio Gov. John Kasich taking credit for his state's improving economy.

As Granholm and others pointed out, if Kasich were willing to be honest, he'd be thanking President Obama for saving the auto industry and his state's economy, rather than praising and supporting the guy for president, who famously said to let Detroit go bankrupt. If it were up to Willard, Kasich wouldn't have anything to be bragging about right now.

Par for the course for a convention whose entire theme is based on a lie and distortion and taking President Obama's "you didn't build that" remarks out of context.