As we reported last week, Democratic Attorney General [CORRECTION: as reader Ken Hupp points out in comments, she is actually State Auditor. Sorry!] Claire McCaskill was caught spreading the lie that "Bush let blacks die" in New Orleans during Katrina. After a few days of stonewalling with the help of local media, pressure has built on her, and she is now trying to say it was taken out of context . . . or something. Christina Bellantoni of The Washington Times reports:

"George Bush let people die on rooftops in New Orleans because they were poor and because they were black," she told a group of Democratic state legislators last week.

The comments, made as she outlined Mr. Talent's efforts to attract minority voters, were first reported by Pub Def Weekly, a St. Louis-based blog.

"In a spirited voice, she told them that she would do everything she could to make clear to every Democratic voter that 'George Bush has no better friend than Jim Talent,'" wrote Pub Def Weekly's Antonio D. French.

Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, immediately called upon Mrs. McCaskill to apologize for the remarks.

"It is totally unconscionable to suggest that the Coast Guard helicopter crews who worked hours long past regulation were intentionally leaving poor, black Americans to die on their rooftops," Mr. Frist said on his blog.

Sen. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, who leads the Senate Republican campaign arm, issued a similar statement: "These outrageous comments have no place in public discourse."

But Mrs. McCaskill told KMOX radio in Missouri the statement's context as reported by Pub Def Weekly is "not exactly correct." She said she was acknowledging the sentiment of many Americans, and national tragedies are the time when people need government the most.

Read the rest at link above.

Sorry, but that dog won't hunt, Sugar. There is NO "context" in which "Bush let people die" is acceptable, or not a lie. Even if you bought the myth that blacks were more likely to die in NOLA - they weren't, white people died at a slightly higher rate - it is still an outrageous and false accusation.

The media has strangely preferred to make Sen. George Allen's "macaca" remark a cause célèbre, while ignoring McCaskill's obvious direct charge and non-apology.

Perhaps we need to start calling her Claire "MacaCaskill" until they cover this story with as much fervor.