Get PolitiFact in your inbox.

Ridiculous claims light up the Truth-O-Meter

Pants on Fire ratings account for 9 percent of our 6,003 Truth-O-Meter fact-checks. Pants on Fire ratings account for 9 percent of our 6,003 Truth-O-Meter fact-checks.

Pants on Fire ratings account for 9 percent of our 6,003 Truth-O-Meter fact-checks.

Bill Adair
By Bill Adair September 8, 2010

As the election nears, it's getting to be silly season in American politics.

We reserve our Pants on Fire ratings for claims that are not just false, but ridiculously so. And we've given three Pants on Fire ratings in the past few days. So here's a summary of the silliness:

* Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer earned one for her claim that law enforcement officers in the state "have found bodies in the desert, either buried or just lying out there, that have been beheaded."

* We gave one to bloggers who have been spreading the false rumor that U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, has endorsed the Senate campaign of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who is running as an independent.

* And Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., earned one for her claim that she asked then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice how many people had died in the Iraq War "and she did not know the answer to that question."

Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter

Our Sources

See Truth-O-Meter items.

Browse the Truth-O-Meter

More by Bill Adair

Ridiculous claims light up the Truth-O-Meter