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Corsi faces immediate, organized push-back on Obama smear

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Following up on yesterday’s item, Jerome Corsi, best known for the discredited “Unfit for Command” hatchet-job against John Kerry four years ago, is back with yet another smear/book against Barack Obama, called “The Obama Nation.”

Unlike four years ago, Corsi’s malicious distortions are being met with immediate resistance. Last night on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” Media Matters’ Paul Waldman did a great job challenging Corsi and made painfully clear why Corsi’s work is not to be taken seriously.

And while Media Matters has clearly taken a leading role in discrediting Corsi’s latest hatchet-job

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, the group isn’t alone. As it happens, Corsi’s last target isn’t willing to sit back and watch the sequel: “Senator John F. Kerry yesterday rejoined the battle with one of his fiercest antagonists from his 2004 presidential bid, launching a website to combat a new book highly critical of Barack Obama, his party’s presumptive nominee this year.”

“The liars are back,” Kerry told supporters yesterday, in an email launching TruthFightsBack.com. “Time to finish them off.”

And as long as Corsi is renewing his disgusting efforts, his own credibility is, unlike four years ago, getting some attention. The Politico’s Kenneth Vogel noted that Corsi has “a trail of wild theories, vitriol and dogma that have called into question his credibility.”

Jerome Corsi, who rose to prominence as the co-author of a book attacking 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, penned another tome asserting oil is a nearly infinite resource that continues to generate naturally, and posted a series of online comments through 2004, including suggestions that Hillary Rodham Clinton is a lesbian and Muslims worship Satan.

In an interview with Politico, Corsi pointed out that he’s apologized for Internet postings ripping Muslims and Catholics, and said they don’t undermine the integrity of his new book.

“I wrote those to be provocative and I said I would not use that kind of politically incorrect language again, and I don’t believe I have,” he said. […]

But his outrageous assertions and fringe theories — which include allegations that President Bush worked to eliminate the borders with Mexico and Canada and the assertion that Kerry is a Communist — have hurt his credibility on the right, as well.

Corsi’s co-author on the Kerry attack book, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth spokesman John O’Neill, downplayed Corsi’s role after the left-leaning press watchdog group Media Matters exposed Corsi’s venomous postings in the conservative blogosphere.

On the blog FreeRepublic.com, Corsi wrote that pedophilia “is OK with the Pope as long as it isn’t reported by the liberal press,” that “RAGHEADS are Boy-Bumpers as clearly as they are Women-Haters” and that Kerry is “Anti-Christian, Anti-American.”

Last year, Corsi released a book charging President Bush was secretly plotting to create a North American Union by merging the U.S. with Canada and Mexico.

The idea that there is a secretive plan for a North American Union is a favorite bogeyman for small-government conservatives but has been derided as baseless by mainstream thinkers and officials.

In blasting Corsi and the theory, a columnist at the influential conservative blog Human Events wrote, “I don’t think Corsi is any more worthy of being taken seriously than those who think Jews rule the world or the ‘Truthers’ who think President Bush is responsible for 9/11.”

Those who read right-wing trash are like those who read tabloids: they want to be lied to, and there are always those ready to meet that demand.

Comments

  • Bill Bryson

    says:

    The book is at the top of the NY Times best seller list because of the huge number of advance copies pre-purchased by the GOP. They do this to instantly put the book at the top of the list in order to lend an air of popular credibility to the author. These books will never be read, but that’s not the point. Its to give NeoCon media outlets a source to quote as talking points. The more talk, the more rumor, the more stupid people begin to believe it. How many of us are still receiving “secret muslim” emails? Obama needs to have his surrogates go on the offensive to completely discredit this slimeball and his lies before he gets swiftboated. Game on…

  • phoebes in santa fe

    says:

    Just to make up for Corsi’s book, I ordered Obama’s new book, out Sep 9th, from Amazon to try to push those numbers up. It’s only $12.00; I consider it a campaign contribution.

  • William

    says:

    Wait a minute, somebody had to have written that statement for Kerry. I find it hard to believe that those are somehow his words… Maybe “The liars are back, time to pull up a chair and listen to them.” Now that would be a Kerry statement.

  • Lance

    says:

    “Corsi has “a trail of wild theories, vitriol and dogma that have called into question his credibility.””

    What credibility? Does he get a reset because he claimed his previous lies were meant to be “provocative”, or is he to be known as a liar forevermore?

    I’m with the forevermore camp. The argument I heard spewed out last night on Hardball that there might be some truth somewhere in his lying book so it’s worth paying attention too is just crap. Once a liar like him is exposed, he should be ignored.

    And buying thousands of his books does not make him popular GOP.

  • John R

    says:

    @ Bill Bryson I concur , but again where are the surrogates? All are M.I.A. Hey Howard Dean.. how about a little rant, Terry Mcauliff a little spittle flecked rage …Bill Clinton who? . If the tables were reversed that dick Rick Davis would be on every MSM news program positively outraged. I would like to see 1/10th of the energy put out by the Clinton campaign complaining about perceived injustice or indignation about some Obama comment.

  • Rabi

    says:

    I honestly don’t understand why Kerry didn’t sue Corsi, O’Neill, and the swifties for libel back in 2004.

    These guys write lies, people buy the books, they make money. Sane people point out that they are garbage, but they still make money. They still write books. They need to be punished in court.

  • SD Progressive

    says:

    What really gets me is Corsi’s attempts at reasoned, non-emotional responses to the allegations that he is lying! As a trial attorney and just observing human behavior, when someone who is accused of lying IS NOT LYING, they are rightfully indignant, an emotion very similar to anger.

    Corsi’s measured responses to accusations the product of his labors is a lie proves that he knows they are lies and he has no soul whatsoever.

    I am boggled by the fact that these people think that torturing people, invading other nations (even though McSame says that is not done in the 21st Century), destroying 9 of the 10 Bill of Rights’ Amendments to the Constitution (still got them guns, don’t we?), and lying us into those invasions that no longer occur, can still think that somehow we are benefitted by this political point of view. America, “How Dumb are We?”

  • NonyNony

    says:

    Corsi wrote that pedophilia “is OK with the Pope as long as it isn’t reported by the liberal press,”

    Ah – he slurred the Catholics. Friendly fire against your own team is verrry stupid Mr. Corsi, very stupid indeed.

    He also screwed with business interests (while there are movements afoot to make laws more “compatible” between the US, Mexico and Canada in the interests of so-called “free trade”, it doesn’t rise nearly to the levels of tinfoilhattery that Corsi gets into – why make so much trouble when you can just buy some legislators to make the laws more amenable to you?) You don’t go messing with two major blocks of Republican support and hope to maintain your credibility.

    He should have stuck to slurring Muslims. Republicans don’t care if you slur Muslims.

  • SickofBushMcCainLiebermann

    says:

    Oh look another fat,white neocon writing half-truths and smear-boating. What a surprise. Surprised he didn’t somehow link Obama to Rielle Hunter’s love child.
    Yet mroe attention will be paid to this than Suskind’s bombshell about manufactured letters by the CIA.

    Face it America, we suck at facing the truth.

  • Fast Eddie

    says:

    Forget about websites or any other surrogates – John Kerry should be front and center on every TV channel on the planet on this one.

    He knows Corsi’s tactics and if he failed to punch back the last time, he has a chance to even the score this time. He’s also proving to be a surprisingly spirited and (dare I say?) aggressive advocate on behalf of the Democrats in 2008.

    Go get ’em, John.

  • entheo

    says:

    according to footnoted sources, corsi’s books may be influenced by the the following alternative possiblities:

    1. his addiction to pedophilia
    2. his covert memberships in neonazi organizations
    3. his secret love affair with rush limbaugh

    now, i’m not endorsing any one of the above, just putting them out there for your consideration…

  • Davis X. Machina

    says:

    I honestly don’t understand why Kerry didn’t sue Corsi, O’Neill, and the swifties for libel back in 2004

    Times v. Sullivan is still good law.

  • Republican 4 Family Values

    says:

    Oh dear,
    I hope the extra publicity doesn’t give rise to any unfortunate, goat-related rumors about this valiant warrior who only seeks to protect America.

    I mean, it’s not his fault the stress of keeping our Homeland safe from ravening hordes of homosexual Muslim drug addicts causes him to snort diet pills by the packet and stalk attractive men from Pakistan when he isn’t making late night visits to the local petting zoo!

  • j-m

    says:

    I find it very remarkable that Corsi says he’s a member of the Constitutional Party. There is nothing Constitutional about him. If he believed in our Constitution, he would not be writing the crap he is writing. Perhaps he is a member of the Federalist Society or Fascist Party of America. Why is it that all these trolls surface and they are so hateful, bigotted, and out-right liars?

  • Franklin

    says:

    PJ: I am so glad to hear Democrats using the word ‘liars’ without fear these days.

    Agreed. One of the weaknesses of liberals is their belief that we shouldn’t judge others. While that may be useful in understanding and being tolerant of other cultures, it’s still okay to call out obvious immoralities such as lying.

  • inthewoods

    says:

    They missed a major point in the critique on the drug issue – what about Bush’s drug use? Since we can’t trust self-reported drug use, should we therefore conclude that Bush is still using drugs? He certainly seems like he is.

  • 2Manchu

    says:

    “Last year, Corsi released a book charging President Bush was secretly plotting to create a North American Union by merging the U.S. with Canada and Mexico.”

    Didn’t he also claim that part of this plot was the building of a massive super-highway that would stretch from northern Canada all the way to Chile, cutting right through the American heartland?

    How does he have even a shred of credibility?

  • rickles

    says:

    I think inthewoods @ 18 is right. Unfortunately, whatever drugs Bush is using they’re causing me to have the bad trip!

  • joey

    says:

    He says he did this so the American people can make up their minds inthis electiion….But notice he only does this about dems and not about McCain etc.

    McCain’s life is filled with deceit and manipulation and manslaughter (USS Forrestal) but Corsi clearly goes after Obama by twisting and falsifying his narrative, nit-picking the most insignificant of facts (Registered Muslim at 6-10 yrs/old?? Like saying “he’s circumcised so he must be Jewish).

    Amazing how quickly wealthy conservatives can through mass buying, get a book to #1 on the NYT bestseller list. Few people are bothering to read that piece of crap…publishers were quaranteed profits before publishing. Corsi is a maggot not a journalist…pure propaganda.

  • Spero Melior

    says:

    #1: Are you the Bill Bryson, of Walk in the Woods, etc. fame? If so, very cool. If not, that’s ok, too. I”m sure you’re an interesting person in your own right.

  • KRK

    says:

    “I don’t think Corsi is any more worthy of being taken seriously than … the ‘Truthers’ who think President Bush is responsible for 9/11.”

    I think I read on somebody’s blog yesterday that Corsi actually is a 9/11 Truther. Or plays one on the Internet.

    Does it make me a bad person and/or incredibly naive to feel that Cliff Schechter and his publisher made a mistake to release The Real McCain early in the year rather than waiting until now (or even September)?

  • Don

    says:

    It has been widely reported that Corsi is a pedophile who had flings with underage boys, like many staunch conservative Repubs (who knew?) and that he is a coeward who faked eczema to avoid service in Viet Nam (again..who would have guessed?)

  • Geno

    says:

    I love the way Corsi says he’s not for McCain, he’s just an objective party.

    It’s really hard to believe, at this stage of the game, after what happened to Kerry and of course what we’ve seen from the Bush administration, that we’re going through this again. (The massive misdirection and flat out lies got us into Iraq and the recent revelations regarding our Justice Department…)

    The hard right will say or listen to literally anything that supports their specific views of the world and it scares the hell out of me that a pretty good percentage of Americans continue to buy into it.

    An example: How can 12% of the population still believe Obama is a preacticing Muslim…after hundreds of articles have been published refuting this as an out and out lie?

    Can Americans really be this uneducated?

  • inthewoods

    says:

    Answer A: They need sensational stories to power their networks and advertisers. And they know that Americans are silly enough to be drawn in. Why else would they have spent so much time on Edwards?

    Answer B: They are afraid of looking like they are liberal-biased (because the truth has a well-known liberal bias) – so they make sure to give every right-wing nutjob with a typewriter a piece of major network time. Note that Fox is not out doing interviews with the equivalent on the McCain side.

    Your pick.

  • BenVarkentine

    says:

    Because the media have 24 hours a flippin’ day to kill. If they just reported the truth, and just talked to people who had some education as to what they were talking about, it wouldn’t take up more than 20 minutes.

    This is why when I think of the people who lit the match that destroyed America, I think of one name: Ted Turner. He invented CNN and the 24-hour news cycle, and thus we lost context and perspective.

    It’ll never happen, Pandora’s box being impossible to close, but I often wish I could somehow take us back to one news report at the end of the day. And the media forced to make their limited time on-camera actually *count* for something.

    But, why waste time fantasizing…

  • Jodi

    says:

    My question is-If we know this is a smear book, why is it getting so much publicity? Our American media has given it more publicity then it should have ever received. Way to go, CNN and the rest of our “media”, which are really nothing more than gossip columnists.

  • The discussion

    says:

    My discussion of the Politico article – specifically, why you can’t trust it – is at my name’s link. It seems people are willing to buy a lot of things, just as long as it cuts BHO’s way.

  • sparrow

    says:

    Looks like Joe Klein over at Time is finally falling out of love with McCain too. Maybe Obama can catch him on the rebound.

  • Phil

    says:

    It appears to be well know that Corsi is a pedophile, but the Repubs will tolerate anyone as long as they push the right wing lie.