A leading American neo-conservative author has been detained by immigration authorities in Kenya as he tried to launch a book smearing Barack Obama.
Jerome Corsi, of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth fame, was this morning being held after failing to reckon with Obamamania.
He had been planning to launch his book, entitled The Obama Nation Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, before travelling to one of Nairobi’s slums to donate money to the Senator’s half-brother George, who was found living in squalid conditions two months ago.
But officers swooped hours after Dr Corsi was described as "author of a smear crusade" by local newspapers.
Immigration officials claim he had been detained because he did not have a work permit, however one of Dr Corsi's assistants said he was "just answering some questions".
"We have been given water and are very comfortable," the assistant said.
I'm sure this will be given as perfect evidence that Obama's jack-booted thugs are detaining serious opponents. You know, maybe getting the work permit would have been an option.
There are similar conspiracies running through the rat wheel brains of wingnuts over NBC pulling an SNL sketch off of Hulu - a sketch which is still on YouTube and aired on national television, so I'm missing the "censorship" part. BTW, considering that the sketch, which blamed wealthy Jewish bankers for the economic crisis in extremely familiar terms, approaches defamation, scrubbing the site is probably a good idea from a financial standpoint. Also, George Soros sought to stop the bailout, but you know, never mind.
Conspiracy theories and persecution complexes really are the last refuge for these scoundrels.
At The Next Right, Jon Henke offers a rare bit of truth about the discredited Jerome Corsi:
The continued tolerance and prominence of Jerome Corsi - his books, columns and appearances - is just embarrassing. It is embarrassing for the Right, embarrassing for Republicans, embarrassing for conservatives and libertarians, embarrassing for all of us.
It's not just that he's frequently, remarkably wrong - something pretty well documented and acknowledged by both the Left and (while less enthusiastically) the Right. (and the Obama campaign (PDF), of course) Both the Obama campaign and Hugh Hewitt acknowledge that Jerome Corsi is "fringe".
Bad as his gross errors are, though, it's not just that. It's also about who Jerome Corsi is.
On the other hand, the standard bearer of the Republican Party, the man that Republicans nominated to be President of the United States, responded thusly:
A reporter tried to ask McCain about a new anti-Obama book, to which McCain responded cryptically "gotta keep your sense of humor."
McCain staffer Brooke Buchanan then stretched her arms in front of her boss, saying “we’re not doing that,” and escorted reporters to the door.
Yeah, lighten up and take it, Obama!
Somehow, after reading that exchange I'd be more comfortable with the blogger running for President.
By the way, Corsi is now teaming up with Floyd Brown, and once they have video, this has the potential to explode. Corsi may be discredited, but that doesn't matter to the media.
The Obama campaign has pretty much figured out that the current media landscape is going to give credence to the same set of prevaricators and liars that they allowed to shape the election in 2004. There's no internal debate over whether or not to give something like Jerome Corsi's book oxygen - it's the media world we live in that he will appear all over cable news (not just the right-wing outlets) and in everyone's newspapers. The reason given by the media is always that "it's a best-seller," but that's a system the conservative movement has been gaming for years, and frequently after the boom cycle of early publicity to get their wingnuts onto the teevee the books get remaindered and available for purchase for a penny.
So instead of hoping that these smears go away, the campaign and its allies are fighting back. Chief among them is Media Matters, and Paul Waldman was brilliant with Corsi on Larry King's show last night.
They've also unearthed Corsi's latest media appearance, on a pro-white radio show. I'm guessing that wasn't a hard booking for him to nail down.
In an appearance on the August 13 edition of CNN's Larry King Live, after Media Matters for America Senior Fellow Paul Waldman noted that Jerome Corsi, author of The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, had "put up on right-wing Web sites a whole series of bigoted and hateful posts," Corsi replied that "you haven't mentioned all my apologies for those statements." But notwithstanding Corsi's apologies for his comments, Corsi is reportedly scheduled to appear with host James Edwards on the August 17 edition of The Political Cesspool Radio Show, which, according to its "Statement of Principles," "represent[s] a philosophy that is pro-White" and which "heartily endorse[s] and accept[s] as our own, the founding tenets of the Council of Conservative Citizens [CCC]." According to a Fall 2007 article in the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report, " 'The Political Cesspool' in the past two years has become the primary radio nexus of hate in America." Corsi previously appeared on the July 20 edition of the show, in which he promoted The Obama Nation and criticized Sen. Barack Obama.
There's also a concerted pushback inside the campaign as well, consisting of mau-mauing the media in the same way that conservatives ensure their message is heard.
Obama advisers say that whenever they hear that Corsi has been booked for an appearance on a network program, they are quickly contacting the program's producers to rebut the book's charges in phone conversations and giving them a whole run-down of past Corsi quotes that are controversial.
Obama aides also vow to insist that the producers allow them to have on a campaign surrogate to attack the charges, and are expecting to recruit more campaign surrogates, well plied with talking points, to push back against the book.
They've put out a 40-page document outlining all the falsehoods in the book. And they're using a viral email strategy to push the facts along.
There's no question that Obama's team is better prepared for this than John Kerry's was, but of course that's a low bar. What's notable is how a few of the media fish aren't totally biting at this one. They're giving Corsi publicity, sure, but they are feeling the pressure to present the other side. And Joe Klein, who has been eating his Wheaties lately, is making his disgust known and connecting it directly to the McCain campaign.
I know that people like me are supposed to try to be fair...and balanced. (The Fox mockery of our sappy professional standards seems more brutally appropriate with each passing year.) In the past, I would achieve a semblance--or an illusion--of balance by criticizing Democrats for not responding effectively when right-wing sludge merchants poisoned our national elections with their filth and lies. And it is true, as John Kerry knows, that a more effective response--and a bolder campaign--might have neutralized the Swiftboat assault four years ago. It is also true that Corsi's book this time is far less effective than his Swiftboat venture, since it doesn't come equipped with veterans willing to defile their service by telling lies to camera.
But there is no excuse for what the McCain campaign is doing on the "putting America first" front. There is no way to balance it, or explain it other than as evidence of a severe character defect on the part of the candidate who allows it to be used. There is a straight up argument to be had in this election: Mcain has a vastly different view from Obama about foreign policy, taxation, health care, government action...you name it. He has lots of experience; it is always shocking to remember that this time four years ago, Barack Obama was still in the Illinois State Legislature. Apparently, though, McCain isn't confident that conservative policies and personal experience can win, given the ruinous state of the nation after eight years of Bush. So he has made a fateful decision: he has personally impugned Obama's patriotism and allows his surrogates to continue to do that. By doing so, he has allied himself with those who smeared him, his wife, his daughter Bridget, in 2000. Those tactics won George Bush a primary--and a nomination. But they proved a form of slow-acting spiritual poison, rotting the core of the Bush presidency. We'll see if the public decides to acquiesce in sleaze in 2008, and what sort of presidency--what sort of country--that will produce.
It still has a hint of that Village aroma, but the words "character defect" are pretty strong.
We'll see how this progresses, and if the coverage changes when the inevitable TV campaign gets matched to the book, but for now, it's actually important that we all keep on top of this. The right is extremely good at character assassination, and the only way to counteract it is to punch right back and expose them.
Apparently, Jerome Corsi's latest set of smear email forwards put into book form The Obama Nation is going to debut at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. But we all know how the right games the system, giving away millions of copies through conservative book clubs and buying up copies from bookstores before reducing them to pulp, just to give the books (and the lies inside them) the stature and the credibility. What matters is how the media reacts to it. Well, so far, they appear to be giving the book the treatment it deserves.
This NYT article is appropriately skeptical, calling many of the book's claims "unsubstantiated, misleading or inaccurate." Media Matters, which has led the charge against the book, has gotten a good amount of success as a counterpoint to Corsi's lies. Last night, Paul Waldman appeared on Larry King Live to debate Corsi, and he did a spectacular job.
It wasn't too long ago that there wouldn't be anyone offering pushback on one of these conservative smear artists. Media Matters' emergence is extremely important to the progressive movement. They've forced themselves into the conversation. These pieces of infrastructure are invaluable. Unlike 2004, this year the smears are not going unchallenged in the traditional media.
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