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It’s often said that some politicians will literally do or say anything to get elected, but only rarely do those lies and exaggerations receive the recognition that they deserve. This time, seven-term Congresswoman Shelley Berkley and the state and national Democrat party strategists running her campaign for Senate were honored by the non-partisan PolitiFact for trumpeting the “Lie Of The Year” for their repeated distortions of the House Republican plan to preserve Medicare for future generations.

“PolitiFact debunked the Medicare charge in nine separate fact-checks rated False or Pants on Fire, most often in attacks leveled against Republican House members,” according to the announcement.

Shelley Berkley needs every possible vote if she hopes to unseat Senator Dean Heller. It appears she is willing push the "truth envelope" to get them.

Berkley’s long history of say-or-do-anything-to-win style of governing also earned her a spot among the nation’s Most Corrupt Members of Congress in a report issued every year by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s (CREW). She won a “dishonorable mention” in the 2011 report. The Congresswoman’s decision to intertwine her personal financial interests with her work in Congress was also the subject of a front page New York Times story—A Congresswoman’s Cause Is Often Her Husband’s Gain.

Today’s PolitiFact column tracks the history of the numerous misstatements by Congresswoman Berkley and her fellow Democrats regarding Republican proposals for entitlement reform. The Democrats received the “Lie of the Year” award thanks to their cumulative “Mediscare” tactics:

• Nine separate claims rated False or Pants on Fire by Politifact;
• Washington Post columns giving Four Pinocchios to the Democrats’ campaign committee, Three Pinocchios to DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Four Pinocchios to the liberal group AARP, and Three Pinocchios to Secretary Sebelius for claims dubbed “not true,” “bogus,” “myths,” and “highly inflammatory,” respectively; and
• Factcheck.org analyses calling Democrat claims on Medicare “misleading,” “misrepresenting,” “misrepresentations,” and “wrong.”