Thursday, February 24, 2011

THE RIGHT IS STILL NOT CRAZY ENOUGH FOR JACK CASHILL

Jack Cashill has just published the book Deconstructing Obama, in which he yet again advances his theory that Bill Ayers actually wrote Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father. Cashill has a big-name publisher (Simon & Schuster), but, according to Simon Maloy of Media Matters, he's bitter:

In painstaking detail, he explains how the pillars of the conservative media -- the Weekly Standard, the National Review, the Washington Times -- all declined to give his Ayers ghostwriting conspiracy even a cursory examination. He writes of gaining admission to Grover Norquist's weekly Wednesday meeting of conservative muckety-mucks and being booed while making his case.

Oh, my heart bleeds -- especially because, as Adam Serwer points out, he actually did get some love from National Review:

Andrew McCarthy, whose nuttery about a grand conspiracy between the Muslim Brotherhood and the American left seemingly escaped National Review Editor Rich Lowry's notice, called Cashill's Ayers theory " thorough, thoughtful, and alarming." Not all of his colleagues shared that view, much to his dismay.

And it wasn't just McCarthy. I don't know how you define "pillars of the conservative media," but does Rush Limbaugh count? Or Sean Hannity? How about Andrew Breitbart's Breitbart.tv site? What about Jonah Goldberg (also at NR)? Accuracy in Media? The David Horowitz empire? (Note the Cashill articles cited in the sidebar as "major introductory resources.") Fox's John Gibson? The American Spectator? Ron Radosh and Thomas Lipscomb at Pajamas Media?

All have seriously entertained Cashill's crackpot theory. But the poor dear -- he remains cranky because lunacy is still just short of all-pervasive on the right.

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Did I mention another Cashill theory, this one about Obama's parentage?

Obama's poetry serves as the launching point for an outlandish theory about Obama's grandfather bribing Barack Obama Sr. to pose as the future president's father. (Cashill's candidates for Obama's "real" father include Malcolm X and Jimi Hendrix.)

Think any of the folks listed above will declare this nonsense a bridge too far?

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