Piquing PolitiFact: Leahy right about Kyl's amendment?

Maybe it's just me, but the so-called fact checking operation over at PolitiFact has seemed increasingly slanted--as though the reporting there follows the lead of liberal blogs, or perhaps JournoList.

In an effort to sustain some pressure toward fairness, I'll be sending the occasional missive to PolitiFact suggesting stories they might be interested in investigating. And I will share each of those publicly so the public can, in turn, judge the news judgment of Bill Adair and company.

On with it:

Dear Truth-O-Meter,

I recently read a press report that included an unusual statement from Sen. Patrick Leahy concerning an amendment offered by Sen. John Kyl. Kyl's amendment would have prevented certain funds from being used to bring Palestinian refugees to the United States, or at least so it appeared. But Leahy's interpretation seemed to view the amendment as far more expansive:

Frankly, it is unnecessary and for the United States, a Nation of immigrants, it goes against everything we stand for. We don’t resettle anybody from Gaza, nor do we resettle anybody from Gaza who is living in the U.N. refugee camps in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, or Jordan. The amendment is a solution looking for a problem. If a Palestinian from Gaza gets to a place like Italy, or somewhere in Europe, the amendment would prevent the State Department from even considering that person for resettlement to the United States. We would have to tell them 'Sorry, you can’t come in, because you are from a place that has terrorists.'

True or false? Or somewhere in between?

Cheers,
Bryan

The statement from Leahy, of course, was reproduced in a recent PolitiFact item that ended up using a claim already debunked by Snopes.com and FactCheck.org to bludgeon Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona. Looked fine to them at the time, I guess. Go figure.