Conservative Refocus

Barry Secrest

Fast and Furious? Pish-Posh!

National debt? Balderdash! Obama's birth certificate? Silly ramblings.

Now we have something truly important, if not wondrous, that mayeven be operative within our national security, and it involves the GOP's VP candidate. Yes, indeed, contact Mossad and the CIA, and quickly, this could get out of hand.

The stunning word is that Paul Ryan may have exaggerated on the time he took to finish a marathon, and the Press is hot on the trail. Below is what could be a Pultzer-Prize winning article that will stun the nation's collective, and I do mean "Collective," from none other than the Huffington Post:

Paul Ryan's campaign walked back comments the VP nominee made about running a marathon.

"I had a two hour and fifty-something" marathon, Ryan said last week an interview. "I hurt a disc in my back, so I don’t run marathons anymore."

But the Ryan campaign confirmed to Runner's World that he has only run one marathon, the 1990 Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, which he finished in just over 4 hours.

"The race was more than 20 years ago, but my brother Tobin—who ran Boston last year—reminds me that he is the owner of the fastest marathon in the family and has never himself ran a sub-three," Ryan said in a prepared statement. "If I were to do any rounding, it would certainly be to four hours, not three. He gave me a good ribbing over this at dinner tonight."

The admission comes after wide speculation that Ryan had exaggerated his marathon time. Running a sub-3 hour marathon means averaging under 7 minutes per mile for the entire race, a possible but extremely impressive feat. As the New Yorker's Nicholas Thompson put it, "It’s the difference between racing and running."

This isn't the first time Ryan has come under fire this week for stretching the truth. His RNC speech was chastised for misleading claims about Medicare and the 2008 closing of a Wisconsin plant.

The running fib "sounds trivial," wrote the New York Times' Paul Krugman. "But I remember the 2000 campaign, when Al Gore was constantly hounded by claims of fibbing on trivial issues — claims that, by the way, were all, as far as I could tell, fabricated. These alleged fibs supposedly showed some deep defect in his character. So if Ryan is making false claims about his physical prowess, this is absolutely fair game."

Indeed, and I hear he exaggerated even on the size of a fish he once caught while ice-fishing. Word is, from the Democrats, that Ryan even cheated by sawing a hole in the ice to catch it. National implications, to be sure.

More on this as it non-develops.

Conservative Refocus

About all we can say is that it's a good thing ole "Frank-n-Furtive" is leaving in very short order.

He has, in fact, already become an embarrassment to himself; however, if he schticks around much longer, he may even begin to besmirch the reputation of the US Congress, if that's even possible.

Yeah, that's mean, like he isn't.....

What many may not consider, is the fact that Congress' abysmal approval rating probably hinges on just a relative few Congressional curmudgeons, and ole' Frank-n-Slime is the signatory poster child for sleazy Congressional flotsam.

Good riddance, and don't let the door, or the page, hit your butt on the way out, Count Flatula.