Yes! That is exactly the same! Well done!  Clearly, setting someone up to look like they would participate in importing child prostitutes, destroying their reputation and getting them fired in the process is exactly the same as my writing some hypothetical that begins “IF the GOP Senate Minority Leader….” Now, we all get that you think you are very smart but using “If” is typically a pretty good indicator that a hypothetical is in progress. So I suspect it is a pretty tough sell to suggest that I was smearing the Senate Minority Leader.  And my drawing a comparison to the GOP cutting off unemployment to people out of work—well done! Absolutely the same as O’Keefe getting Mr. Vega fired from his job after he broadcasted his video showing him to be in the flesh trade!  Here’s a clue- I think when we are talking about smears, it has to actually involve a person- not an entire party!  I’m curious about something. When Senators Paul and Cruz posed their hypothetical to AG Holder, were they then actually saying that the President was the kind of man who would drop a missile on Americans here on American soil-which would be pretty disparaging don’t you think?  I didn’t think they did that. I don’t think they smeared the President. But, if using a hypothetical constitutes a smear, one wonders why you aren’t writing them letters of complaint?  Now…apparently you thought that I -along with every other member of the media including the most conservative writers among us- was actually being literal when I suggested Republicans were taking hostages. (Again that pesky lack of a person or name problem required in a smear.) You must have been curled up in bed thinking that the GOP was actually coming for you and were going to hold you for ransom. I am so sorry I put you through what must have been a horrible ordeal!  You see, when people use the word “hostage” in this situation, they aren’t really saying that a political party represented in Congress will be fanning out to kidnap anyone. And, since the nice people in Congress know that this is not what is being said, I’m afraid nobody feels that they are being smeared. It is an expression, you know, like the way you call your pacifier.. “paci”.  Finally…nah…I can’t even come up with anything to better the stupidity of your calling my suggesting that someone had a “Sophie’s Choice” as being a veiled inference that someone is a Nazi. Apparently, literary reference constantly used to make a point (not that someone is a Nazi) goes right over your head.  I have to say that I genuinely appreciate your comment. You’ve obviously dug hard into my work and if this is the closest you can come to trying to show I have smeared anyone, I’m doing my job well.  Of course, you should have dug a bit harder. I once did write a story that turned out to be wrong and, in my own opinion, a smear on a public figure. While I didn’t set out to smear that individual, because I got the story wrong, I felt it had the same effect. I apologized to that individual-and not because he sued me (he couldn’t have so that was not the issue). I didn’t apologize as did Mr. O’Keefe to Mr. Vega because a settlement agreement said I had to only to have O’Keefe’s lawyer turn around and say he doesn’t really mean it. I apologized because I was wrong-and I have been far more careful in what I say ever since.  Obviously, I’m doing a pretty good job because you couldn’t come up with squat.  But now…here is the wonderful irony. By your trying to pull various quotes from various places, taking a common place phrase like “Sophie’s Choice” and saying that I was using it to suggest that the GOP are nazi-like, guess what you are doing? Attempting to smear me!!! Wonderful irony, no?  Not for nothing, you should probably know that I have used the Sophie’s Choice analogy in many articles where I applied it to Democrats and President Obama. So, I guess I must believer our entire government is populated with ‘Nazi like” individuals.  It might also interest you that I don’t-and never have-go in for the nazi crap. I have beaten up on anyone who seeks to call another a nazi, whether they were Dems, Repubs or Tea Partiers. Why? Because there is not a politician in America whom I believe to be a Nazi. My background teaches me what Nazis do. I may disagree with certain politicians or parties-but just because I disagree with them does not suggest that I deem them evil or capable of anything as horrible as what the Nazis did. What’s more, considering I go to work each day with Conservatives and Republican -those whom you suggest I would refer to as Nazi’s- one wonders why they would continue to have me there or why I would want to be around such people.  I wonder if you can say the same? I wonder if it has occurred to you that just because you politically disagree with people that it doesn’t make them evil or awful? I also wonder if you even understand that the only act of smearing contained in your comment is your’s as you suggest that I would call anyone “Nazi-like”.  I doubt you will understand this. I find that those who hide behind an identity such as “economart” but then go out of their way to sign their comments with their initials (as if the mystery of your true identity is just scintillating as hell to the rest of us) – and then address me in an overly familiar manner…well, all of that in and of itself reveals a great deal. If you are going to suggest that I called Republicans ‘nazi like’, you should put your name on it. Taking false shots and engaging in smears behind the wall of anonymity simply makes you a troll.
James O'Keefe - Caricature (Photo credit: DonkeyHotey) Remember James O’Keefe? That would be the same James O’Keefe who brought down community organizing and voter registration organization ACORN in his march to becoming a conservative icon for his alleged ‘good works’. Matthew Phelan and Liz Farkas over at Wonkette have broken the story about [...]