Banning the Birthers

Jon Henke thinks it's time for the Right to throw out the lunatics: In the 1960's, William F. Buckley denounced the John Birch Society leadership for being "so far removed from common sense" and later said "We cannot allow the emblem of irresponsibility to attach to the conservative banner." The Birthers are the Birchers of our time, and WorldNetDaily is their pamphlet.  ...

Jerome Corsi and the Coarsening of American Politics

Jon Henke argues that the embrace, by both sides, of unsavory characters under the principle of the enemy of my enemy is my friend has "poisoned both the Left and the Right in American politics."  Accordingly, he takes on one of his own: The continued tolerance and prominence of Jerome Corsi - his books, columns and appearances - is just embarrassing.  ...

Who’s Smearing Whom?

James Kirchich, recent nominee for an Yglesias Award for fairness, says that, while the Obama campaign is setting itself up to believe that "The only obstacle between Barack Obama and the presidency is the mountain of smears that will no doubt come his way," the truth of the matter is that most of the smears are coming from his side. Thus ...

Swift Boater on McCain’s Truth Squad

John McCain's Truth Squad, formed a few months ago in order to respond to charges by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth clone Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain, is prominently featuring an actual member of the Swifties as a spokesman, CNN's Rebecca Sinderbrand reports. One of the members of John McCain’s new Truth Squad — which his campaign says was launched ...

Wes Clark on McCain’s Military Experience

General Wesley Clark is trying to argue that John McCain's military experience is irrelevant to future service as commander-in-chief: Clark said that McCain lacked the executive experience necessary to be president, calling him “untested and untried” on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” And in saying so, he took a few swipes at McCain’s military service. After saying, "I certainly honor his service as ...

Swift-Boating Here to Stay

Michael Kinsley hopes that Swift-Boating, a combination of smear and truth that "exploits its own complexity and the reluctance of the media to adjudicate factual disputes" and thus sticks, will not reappear this election season. The raw material for swift-boating this year is already apparent. There is Obama's loony pastor, his friendship with a former radical, his dealings with a convicted ...

Do McCain’s Medals Matter?

Jake Tapper, notes the contrast between DNC chair Howard Dean's statements about John Kerry's military service in 2004 and McCain's in 2008. Commenting on John McCain's new "The American President that Americans Have Been Waiting For" ad yesterday, Dean said, "While we honor McCain’s military service, the fact is Americans want a real leader who offers real solutions, not a blatant ...

Swift Boating Obama?

Andrew Sullivan has declared that the "Swift-Boating" of Barack Obama has begun, noting that both Republican operatives and Clinton supporters are piling on over the Jeremiah Wright scandal. He cites a report by The Politico's Jonathan Martin that, "A YouTube video mash-up that attacks Barack Obama on issues relating to his patriotism that has rocketed around the Internet in recent days ...

Democrats Attack McCain’s Military Experience

Supporters of Hillary Clinton, apparently forgetting that she's probably not going to get the nomination, yesterday moved on to the general election campaign and trotted out a new line of attack: John McCain doesn't have the right experience to be commander-in-chief. The opening salvo came from, of all people, Gloria Steinem. And she did it in Texas. Feminist icon Gloria ...

New Book Reveals Romney . . . A Mormon

Last week, I wrote about some weird emails I received inviting me to attend an event at the National Press Club unveiling a new book that would Swift Boat a major candidate. As promised, I skipped it but kept alert for the details. Mary Ann Akers, who writes "The Sleuth" blog for WaPo, attended, along with "about a dozen reporters ...

Candidate to Be ‘Swift Boated’ Monday

Joe Gandelman reports on an email that he, myself, and presumably several others have gotten, twice, in recent days promising a shocking revelation against some unknown candidate to be revealed Monday, on the eve of the New Hampshire primary. I received the first email with the subject line "Right for your Blog?" on Monday and a second, entitled "Major Presidential ...

Kerry Takes Pickens $1 Million Swift Boat Bet

Famed oilman T. Boone Pickens has offered $1 million to anyone who can disprove claims my by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth against John Kerry -- and John Kerry has taken him up on it. Sen. John Kerry, whose 2004 presidential campaign was torpedoed by critics of his Vietnam War record, said Friday he has personally ...

Authors Sue Regnery

Five authors, including Swift Boater Jerome Corsi, are suing publisher Regnery for defrauding them out of royalties. Five authors have sued the parent company of Regnery Publishing, a Washington imprint of conservative books, charging that the company deprives its writers of royalties by selling their books at a steep discount to book clubs and other organizations owned by the same parent ...

Hating Hillary Not Enough

Reason's Dave Weigel takes to the pages of The American Conservative to warn Republicans that they're not going to win in 2008 simply by bashing Hillary Clinton. Conservatives are fraught, angry at their traditional party, unable to decide on a standard-bearer, unsure even what they stand for. They don’t think this is the year to sort those problems out. They’re ...

Civility, Hypocrisy, and the Rules of Political Debate

Glenn Greenwald argues that many of those now condemning MoveOn.org and/or demanding that Democrats condemn MoveOn.org for suggesting General David Petraeus would "betray us" are hypocrites, since many have used inflammatory rhetoric themselves. He's surely right in many particulars. Those on the Ann Coulter wing of the Right, who routinely throw around words like "traitors" and "treason" to describe mainstream ...