Tuesday, April 13, 2004

It's always a bit of a surprise to be reminded that the right-wing bias of the New York Post extends even to Page Six, its gossip column. Today, Page Six features Mark W. Smith, author of The Official Handbook of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy ("A primer to provide Republicans with the arguments they need 'to defeat the Loony Left,' it claims to overturn 'the 100 biggest myths spread by the ACLU, NOW, Greenpeace, Handgun Control and a host of other Birkenstock-wearing, Brie-eating weenies'"). Here's a nugget from the book:

"Hillary Clinton once said she would 'trust big government over big business any time.' With all due respect to the Woman Who Would Rather Be President Than Right, that's nuts."

Did Hillary ever say that? Apparently not.

Here's a quote from a review, by Raymond L. Fischer, of Peggy Noonan's The Case Against Hillary Clinton that appeared in USA Today (the weekly magazine, not the newspaper):

The most chilling revelation in the book details Mrs. Clinton's ideas espoused during her years as first lady of Arkansas. Her "special baby" was the governor's school for gifted students, special summer semesters seemingly designed to make religious students feel that their beliefs were backward and unsophisticated, free market economies were bad and government control good, and, while "ministers might be suspect and strange, left-wing radicals, feminists, and witches were not." Hillary Clinton told the students that she would trust big government over big business anytime. Never once in succeeding years has she moderated or negated these radical ideas.

Note that Fischer uses quotation marks for a direct quote (of Noonan's words, presumably), but there are no quote marks around trust big government over big business anytime.

What we have here is Fischer saying that known Hillary-hater Noonan says that Clinton said this -- though not in so many words.

Ever play telephone as a kid? Ever play telephone with a really mean kid who hated the person who started the game?

In any case, now this is in quotes, and I guarantee you'll see it again, described as straight from Hillary's lips, with the Post cited as a "reliable source."

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