At the end of last week we had the sad spectacle of Dr. Ben Carson being found to have told at least one if not a couple of lies about his background. If there’s one guy who doesn’t need to burnish his resume, you’d think it would be Dr. Ben Carson.

Politico first reported that Carson had “fabricated” the quotes – both from his biography and as recently as an appearance on Charlie Rose about a month back – that he had been offered a “full scholarship” to West Point. It turns out that this is not true.

• Carson actually never applied to West Point.
• West Point, which is taxpayer funded, does not offer “full scholarships” in any case.
• Carson was, however, the “top ROTC” student in Detroit, and he apparently did meet General Westmoreland, who may or may not have suggested that he apply to West Point.

Republicans fired back with an attack on the media. For example, the conservative Daily Wire declared that this was a liberal media “hit job” on the defenseless doctor, parsing the fact that Carson never said that he “applied” to West Point, that he only said he was offered a full scholarship.

I guess it depends on what your definition of “is” is. No, our Republican friends?

He can’t have been offered a full scholarship if he didn’t apply, and he can’t have been offered a full scholarship if West Point doesn’t have full scholarships.

Another part of Carson’s inspiring biography seems to be in doubt as well: that his transformation began after he tried to stab a classmate at age 14, that his knife broke in the guy’s belt buckle, and that Carson subsequently realized he could have killed the kid. And then Carson found God.

The only problem with the story is that no one who knew Carson at the time remembers that story. Under what might be called the “excited utterance” and “declaration against interest” exceptions to the hearsay rule, one would have expected 14 year old Carson – having just found God – to tell someone about his miraculous transformation. But apparently, it didn’t happen.

Again, if there’s one guy who doesn’t need to burnish his resume, you’d think it would be Dr. Ben Carson.

Let’s also remember that:

• Hillary Clinton was eviscerated by Republicans when she claimed during the 2008 campaign that she had come under “sniper fire” when exiting a plane while visiting Bosnia as First Lady in 1996.
• Brian Williams lost his job at NBC News for claiming that his helicopter had come under fire while he was on assignment covering the war in Iraq back in 2003.
• Joe Biden had his 1988 presidential race come off the tracks after it was discovered that he had plagiarized a speech from former British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock.

News flash to Dr. Ben Carson: the truth matters. Either you did the things which you claim that you did, or you didn’t. And as the leading Republican Candidate for President – a status which I’m sure he won’t be keeping for long – he shouldn’t be surprised that the media is digging into his past life, trying to verify the claims of his biography.

Again, if there’s one guy who doesn’t need to burnish his resume, you’d think it would be Dr. Ben Carson.

Adios Ben. It looks like your time at the top is about to come to its inevitable conclusion.