See Boehner’s false statement at about 2:30

On Fox News Sunday, GOP House Leader John Boehner of Ohio made an assertion about the status of stimulus spending in Ohio that he had to have known was false:

BOEHNER: “In Ohio, the infrastructure dollars that were sent there months ago, there hasn‘t been a contract let, to my knowledge. And the fact is I don‘t believe it will create jobs.”

This erroneous statement won him the bronze in the daily “Worst Person in the World” competition on MSNBC’s “Countdown,” with Keith Olbermann:

OLBERMANN: “You need to upgrade your knowledge, brother. The last update was from June 15th, by which time the Ohio Department of Transportation had already awarded $83.9 million in stimulus money in contracts for work on Ohio‘s highways, local roads and bridges. Work on a ramp-widening project in Cleveland began on June 9th.”

Olbermann also pointed out that Boehner had to have been aware of this, since the minority leader commented on it on June 15, on his official House website:

BOEHNER: “With Ohio’s unemployment rate the highest it’s been in 25 years, I’m pleased that federal officials stepped in to order Ohio to use all of its construction dollars for shovel-ready projects that will create much-needed jobs.”

In an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer yesterday titled, “Boehner Backpedals on Stimulus Comments,” Boehner was forced to admit — albeit with a garnish of sour grapes — that stimulus-generated projects were underway in Ohio:

When U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner told a newscaster Sunday that not a single stimulus-funded road contract in his home state of Ohio had been let, he was wrong. The Ohio Department of Transportation has OK’d 52 stimulus-funded road and bridge projects at a cost of nearly $84 million… Boehner issued a clarification Monday. “The entire process has been absurdly slow moving just as Republicans warned it would be when we called for an economic recovery bill based on fast-acting tax relief for small businesses and working families,” Boehner said in a statement. Boehner also claimed that Ohio is one of the last states to let stimulus construction projects, “which is ridiculous.” …ODOT spokesman Scott Varner called Boehner’s statement “disappointing.” Varner noted that ODOT had just OK’d six more stimulus road projects, which will cost about $43 million.

The newspaper apparently did not ask Boehner whether he was aware he’d issued a statement in June acknowledging the stimulus spending and suggesting it would “create much-needed jobs,” and if so, why he made a statement contradicting himself on Fox News Sunday.