Tuesday, 29 September 2009

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I'm going to spend the rest of my life apologizing to Jack Cashill, aren't I? Because today he interviewed journalist Christopher Andersen (who, like him, writes celebrity biographies) on The Mancow Show and Andersen announced that "he had two separate sources 'within Hyde Park' [who claim William Ayers wrote Dreams From My Father] but, understandably, would not elaborate." Two anonymous sources from, as they say, the neighborhood is the tipping point for me: when combined with the credibility Andersen has earned by dint of a "highly successful career as a celebrity journalist" and the evidence gathered during Cashill's "textual sleuthing," no intellectually honest person could doubt that there's a there in there. How could there not be? Andersen "interviewed some 200 people for the book," which is a whole lot. Here is a list of them drawn from the back matter and organized by chapters: Chapters 1 and 2 Janet Allison Maxine Box Clive Gray Joyce Feuer Leslie Hairston Lowell Jacobs Keith Kakugawa Eric Kusunoki Julie Lauster Alan Lum Chris McLachlin Abner Mikva Newton Minow Toni Preckwinkle Vinai Thummalapally Carolyn Trani Pake Zane Chapters 3 and 4 Loretta Augustin-Herron Bradford Berenson Cheryl Johnson Hazel Johnson Jerry Kellman Mike Kruglik Yvonne Lloyd Alvin Love Abner Mikva* Judson Miner Newton Minow* Linda Randle Vinai Thummalapally* Laurence Tribe Chapters 5 to 8 Janet Allison* Letitia Baldrige Mary Ann Campbell Joyce Feuer* Leslie Hairston* Tom Harkin Coralee Jacobs Denny Jacobs Lowell Jacobs Mike Jacobs John Kerry Edward Koch Rick Lazio Alan Love* Abner Mikva* Judson Miner* Newton Minow* Jeremiah Posedel Toni Preckwinkle* Betsy Vandercook Larry Walsh Wellington Wilson Zarif If you subtract the sources I asterisked because they were counted in previous chapters, the final tally of Andersen's 200 some interviews is an impressive 43. That means that only 157 or so of them were unwilling to speak truth to the powerful lies of the President on the record. That so few of them were willing to follow the example of the young Obama's "roommate and closest friend . . . Siddiqi" and speak on the—hold on a minute. Does anyone see Siddiqi's name among those listed as interviewees? No? Must be Andersen toeing the ethical line again and passing off information from someone else's published work as original research. No big deal: Siddiqi told someone that he had no memory of Obama having had a "year-long relationship with a rich, green-eyed lovely" who, as Cashill corroborated via independent textual sleuthing, was actually Ayers's former flame, Diana Oughton. The credibility of Siddiqi's memories is further enhanced by the fact that when he lived with Obama, he spent the majority of his time snorting cocaine, smoking marijuana, and perfecting his Cheech impersonation. Who wouldn't believe his memory of that period is infallible? Cashill anticipates that the critics who balk at the "lack of attribution by Andersen" or believe that "the citation of [Cashill] as a source and/or a reliance upon [him] as a source" constitutes a demonstration of intellectual unseriousness. Neither of those positions (both of which I have taken) "imply," as Cashill claims, "that Andersen is a fraud and...

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