CNN’s Political Ticker reported a mistake made by Barack Obama while answering a question from an Israeli reporter covering his mideast adventure.

Obama incorrectly claims membership of Senate committee
Alexander Marquardt  |  July 23, 2008

Responding to an Israeli reporter’s question Wednesday on his commitment to protect the Jewish state, Barack Obama pointed to a bill “we passed” in the U.S. Senate Banking Committee that tightens sanctions and authorizes divestment from Iran. “My committee,” he called it.

Except that he isn’t a member of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.

“Just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee – which is my committee – a bill to call for divestment from Iran as way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don’t obtain a nuclear weapon,” Obama said at a press conference in Sderot, Israel….

Bloggers jumped on the gaffe. No Quarter observed:

Yet Another Worrisome “Obamaism”: The Banking Committee Is “My Committee”

At today’s press conference, Barack Obama said that the U.S. Senate’s banking committee is his committee, which will surely come as a surprise to the chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs committee, Christopher Dodd, an Obama sycophant….

Not only is the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs not HIS committee, Barack Obama is not even a member of the committee….

Hot Air noted:

Maybe now we know why Barack Obama never called a meeting of his subcommittee on European relations to discuss the NATO effort in Afghanistan. Apparently, Obama is confused about his own committee assignments. In Israel, Obama tried to claim a little credit for work on a bill done by the Senate Banking Committee — on which he does not serve.

And Powerline piled on:

The Fine Line Between Pandering and Lying

Barack Obama held a press conference in Sderot, Israel today. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he had stuck to a reasonable degree of pandering, but check out this….

…Obama is not a member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Obama just made that up so he could count the committee’s action as one of “my deeds.”

If committed by a Republican, this would be a gaffe of historic proportions. Even a Senator as inattentive to his duties as Obama certainly knows what committees he serves on. For him to fabricate the claim, out of whole cloth, that the Senate Banking Committee is “[his] committee,” strikes me as another sign of Obama’s megalomania. That, plus more evidence that he is totally at sea without a teleprompter.

In general, the bloggers are correct that Obama made a mistake for which a Republican would have been pilloried, and that he is an empty suit propped up by a teleprompter. But to say that he fabricated the whole thing so he could take credit is NOT CORRECT. In fact, he can take partial credit for the bill that was just passed out of committee, because he wrote and introduced a significant part of it.

However, what he said in his “clarification” of his mistaken first pass — it was his bill, not his committee — is claiming too much. Another entire bill was included, plus extensive “mark up” work by the committee.

The Iran sanctions legislation passed by the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee is an amalgam of S. 1430 introduced May 17, 2007 by Barack Obama with 35 co-sponsors and S. 970, the Iran Counter-Proliferation Act of 2007 introduced March 22, 2007 by Sen. Gordon Smith [R-OR] with 72 co-sponsors. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has been tracking the legislation closely:

Senate Committee Passes Iran Sanctions Legislation

In a hearing on July 17th, the Senate Banking Committee passed key legislation to strengthen and expand sanctions on Iran aimed at pressuring the regime to abandon its pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability. Under the leadership of Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Ranking Member Richard Shelby (R-AL), senators sent a strong, unified message, voting 19-2 in favor of the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act of 2008. The bill incorporates two important pieces of legislation — S.970, the Iran Counter-Proliferation Act, which currently has 72 cosponsors, and S.1430, The Iran Sanctions Enabling Act. The bill also adds additional provisions designed to prevent the illegal diversion of sensitive technologies being passed to Iran through third countries. A similar bill has already passed the House.

So there you have it, dear readers. These are the facts behind yesterday’s big flap. Obama took way too much credit for the combined efforts of many senators. And the bloggers were remiss in failing to acknowledge that he wrote one of the two bills that were eventually merged into the final package.

For those who want to see for themselves, here is video of the moment, Obama’s Banking Committee

Update: More coverage at Stop The ACLU Blog — The Obamamessiah has another uh-oh! moment.