It's not a Lie, it's an "incorrect characterization"
This is one of my favorite stories in politics. Ralph Hall was a Democrat representing the 4th Congressional District in Texas. When the Republican leadership refused, late last year, to add spending that would help his district into the Appropriations bill, Tom Delay told Rep. Hall that the reason for the snub was that he is a Democrat.

So did he hold an outraged press conference decrying the partisanship of the majority? No. He switched parties.

Now seeking reelection as a Republican, he's got plenty of support from the same leadership that turned him down before, eager to show how easily re-election comes when you switch to their side. But they're a little over-zealous. So when a young Republican decided to challenge the newly-GOP octagenarian congressman for the nomination, he got calls full of threats from big names in the National Republican Congressional Committee telling him to drop out.

This kid's got no chance anyway, by all accounts. But he does have a tape recorder. So when the RCCC communications director denied elements of his story, the Dallas Observer played him the tape.

"He said he hadn't fibbed; the talks between Murphy and the party honchos had been incorrectly 'characterized,' which led to a 'misunderstanding.'"

Why didn't Martha Stewart use the incorrect characterization defense I wonder?