Prominent Americans no longer spread the notion that a secret cabal of Jews once hatched a plot for domination of the globe. Instead, America's contemporary conspiracy-mongers peddle tales of plots like this:
The wife of former Vice President Dick Cheney says she thinks the Clintons might have pushed the Monica Lewinsky Vanity Fair story to "get that story out of the way."Would Vanity Fair publish anything of Monica Lewinsky that Hillary Clinton wouldn't want in Vanity Fair? What, you mean like this?
"I really wonder if this isn't an effort on the Clintons' part to get that story out of the way," Lynne Cheney said during an interview on "The O'Reilly Factor" Tuesday night. Would Vanity Fair publish anything of Monica Lewinsky that Hillary Clinton wouldn't want in Vanity Fair?"
(Vanity Fair's editor in 1998 was its current editor, Graydon Carter. He's had the job since 1992.)
Seriously? We're supposed to believe that Lewinsky would make these statements as a favor to the Clintons, who, it's safe to assume, are not exactly her favorite people? Or ... what? Vanity Fair just published this without Lewinsky's consent, out of blind Clinton loyalty?
Well, of course you and I aren't supposed to believe any of this -- but the rubes will believe anything the Fox snake-oil peddlers put in their sales pitch. It should be disturbing that the wife of a former vice president of the United States would engage in this sort of willful deceit, but engaging in willful deceit for ideological ends was what Dick Cheney specialized in as vice president, wasn't it?
This is what Republicans do now. This is what they are -- spreaders of disinformation, purveyors of the notion that everyone but their allies is engaged in a massive conspiracy that only they are brave enough to talk about. It's the Cold War, but we're the implacable, all-powerful enemy now.
