From a close friend of mine:

Jonah:
You can’t simply be resigned to everyone saying it’s Joe being Joe and alas. If he’s going to be the master of the details, and the details are ridiculously wrong, he has to be called on it. Forget every one of the Goldfarb lies you link to as many of them can all debated . But first on substance, the spending on Afghanistan point is so off and so embarrassing, you can’t spin it as you could the difference between differing senate resolutions on troop funding. It’s a dreadful mistake for someone who’s said “come with me to Afghanistan”, and all that stuff, and it’s their CENTRAL riposte for the Iraq war so it’s not like some bizarre point about Burma foreign aid. And if [the Western Standard] is right, he’s been saying it and not been called on it repeatedly so it’s not a verbal glitch. Second, on style, for him to go into a deliberate spiel about how’s he’s the man of the people, kicking it at Home Depot, and come on down to Katie’s restaurant on Union Street, and be talking about A RESTAURANT THAT CLOSED 20 YEARS AGO AT A DIFFERENT ADDRESS, is proof that his populism is phony and that’s he’s totally out of touch . It’s not like he garbled the name of some bar in Maumee Ohio, it’s HIS HOMETOWN OF 40 YEARS. It’s like the Wilmington stop on Amtrak is friggin’ Brigadoon or something.
He just makes up crap. Sorry about the all caps. The tinfoil hat made me do it.

Yes, he makes up crap. But in the Senate that apparently makes him a chef.