Smear For Profit

When Drudge broke the story about the release of Edward Klein's book on Hillary, some on the left rightfully slammed it:

Just imagine for once second that this was about a republican/conservative. Just imagine for one f'ing second the outrage. This is sick. F'ing hypocrites.

And in the comments, Katinula said this:

I guess the hyprocrites are all the people who decry the lack of civility in Washington. The majority of right wing bloggers blame this on liberals. I personally blame it on both parties. The people who say Howard Dean is 'over the top'. The people that demand an apology for every slightly nasty comment made about Republicans. The people who made such a stink about John Kerry bringing up Mary Cheney (in a good way). All those people who say this story 'isn't good politics'.Those people are all hypocrites.

Today, a leading conservative essayist, John Podhoretz, slams the book as a smear job:

These are curious words to be publishing in 2005, when Klein and the world know that her book "Living History" was a phenomenal success and has earned its author more than the $8 million in royalty payments advanced to her.

Curious and revealing. Because if any book in recent memory reads as though it has been written out of greed — a greedy hunger to separate millions of conservative book buyers from their hard-earned 25 bucks — it is Ed Klein's "The Truth About Hillary."

This is one of the most sordid volumes I've ever waded through. Thirty pages into it, I wanted to take a shower. Sixty pages into it, I wanted to be decontaminated. And 200 pages into it, I wanted someone to drive stakes through my eyes so I wouldn't have to suffer through another word.

This book--without having read it--seems to me to be on the par of Richard Clarke's election year greed book or any of the myriad others that came out last year trying to sway the election. Although Clarke's book and the others were quickly discredited, I can't recall any esteemed writer on the left writing a review as truthful as the one Podhoretz has in the Post today.
If we are such "hypocrites"--a charge that doesn't seem apt here--than why are we slamming this book and the Democrats didn't stand up and be truthful about the lies put forth last year?

I mentioned a while ago, I tend to not put much stock in a book written by someone who was associated witha politician than dumped. That's why I tend to never link to Dick Morris. They have an axe to grind and an agenda that is not fueled by ideology, but fueled by revenge.

So, will Katinula post that Podhoretz has panned this book in a major daily newspaper or just insist on calling all of us hypocrites?

Update: Even the man who Katinula hates the most, Bill O'Reilly, won't have this guy on his show:

Some conservatives touted the book in e-mails and blogs, but others have denounced some of the more sensational claims. The controversy apparently frightened off producers for the television morning shows, although Sentinel's Weisser said Klein would make the rounds of some TV talk shows, including Fox's "Hannity & Colmes." Bill O'Reilly, who hosts the No. 1-rated cable news program, said he would not invite Klein to appear, because he also had refused to interview author Kitty Kelley for what he called her "personal attacks" in her book about the Bushes.

I believe what O' Reilly has done is the complete opposite of hypocrisy.

Update: Katinula responds.

I disagree that Kerry bringing up Mary Cheney was not directed at the daughter. Kerry shamelessly highlighted that Cheney is a lesbian simply to score political points at the cost of bringing her sexual preference into the the open.

Was it known that Mary Cheney is gay prior to Kerry bringing it up? To people who follow politics, yes it was. Did the majority of Americans know it? No way.

Katinula seems to disregard that the seedy Hillary book was written by a reporter who has distinguished credentials while the author of the Mary Cheney remarks was a Democratic presidential nominee in a high profile forum who also is a long-time Senator.

There's a dramatic difference between the two.