Jewish World Review March 18, 2005 / 7 Adar II, 5765

The wrath of the moonbats

By Jack Kelly

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | When the Moonbat Hall of Fame opens, Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) deserves a wing all to himself.

Hinchey has brought together — without the assistance of a shred of evidence — the two conspiracy theories currently roiling the fever swamp Left.

Lefties have yet to come to terms with the downfall of Dan Rather over his use of crudely forged documents in a broadcast charging that then Lt. Bush shirked his duties in the Texas Air National Guard.

CBS has been incurious about the source of the forgeries, as have most other journalists. But Hinchey has figured it out. They were planted by Bush political guru Karl Rove.

"It originated with Karl Rove, in my belief, in the White House," Hinchey said at a town meeting in Ithaca last month. "They produced papers that made (Bush's service) look even worse. And they distributed those out to elements of the media. And it was only CBS — whatever which one Rather works for — the people there they finally bought into it, and they aired it."

Asked by someone in the audience if he had any evidence to support this charge, Hinchey acknowledged he didn't. He went on to say that it "is very important to make charges like that," even though there is no evidence for them.

Hinchey has sex with farm animals. It's important to make charges like that, even though there is no evidence for them.

In an interview on the Hannity and Colmes program, Hinchey asserted that Jeff Gannon had broken the fake document story.

The Rathergate story was broken by Atlanta lawyer Harry MacDougald, with a posting on the Free Republic web site, but we can't expect a guy who isn't sure what network Dan Rather works for to be aware of that.

"Jeff Gannon" is the nom de plume of Jim Guckert, formerly the White House correspondent of Talon News. Nobody had ever heard of either until Gannon/Guckert tossed a softball question at President Bush during a news conference in January.

This raised suspicions among the White House press corps and the left side of the blogosphere. Everyone knows real journalists ask softball questions only of Democrats.

When a Republican is in the White House, real journalists ask questions like the one Elisabeth Bumiller of the New York Times asked President Bush Tuesday about his nomination of Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank.

"Paul Wolfowitz, who was the chief architect of one of the most unpopular wars in our history..." Ms. Bumiller began.

Back to Gannon/Guckert. The real beef liberals had with him is that he isn't one. When he or someone like him tosses Bush a softball, the president gets a break from the probing, balanced, fair, thoughtful questions of "real" journalists like Bumiller.

Since that's too revealing a complaint, three other objections were raised to Gannon's presence in the White House press room.

The first is that Talon News is a rinky dink outfit with a partisan connection. It's owned by Bobby Eberle, a prominent Texas Republican.

The second is that Gannon used a pen name. Liberals don't consider this a problem, though, with Ze'ev Blitzer (Wolf Blitzer), Gerald Rivers (Geraldo Rivera) or Larry Ziegler (Larry King).

The third is that Gannon/Guckert is a homosexual, though I don't see how a person's sexual orientation impacts his qualifications to be a journalist, or why liberals should object. Closet homophobes, are they?

I don't think someone whose credentials are as flimsy as Gannon's should be able to get into the White House even on a day pass. But the White House Correspondents Association doesn't want the access rules changed.

That should put the kibosh on the notion that Gannon was a White House plant. As Gannon himself noted, if Rove were looking for an agent in the press corps, he could have found one with greater credibility.

But in liberal mythology, Gannon is the gay James Bond. Lefties are now alleging he also had prior knowledge that Valerie Plame of the uranium in Niger kerfuffle was an undercover CIA officer.

The moonbats can't get over the fact that Bush is popular, and they are not.

Every Bush victory is the result of a conspiracy. As Bush moves from triumph to triumph, they strap their tinfoil helmets on tighter and tighter.