http://www.villagevoice.com/print/issues/0413/smith.phpOnce I dared criticize Richard Clarke. Now I live in infamy.
I, Vermin From Under Rock
by George Smith
March 30th, 2004 11:20 AM
The phone rang promptly at 8 a.m. A colleague in Alexandria was on the line. "The RNC is sending one of your columns to everyone," he said. There was some concern for me in his voice.
The date was Monday, March 22. Thanks to the Web and drudgereport.com, I was about to begin my week-long career as an unwitting hit man for the right.
-snip-
No one had been particularly interested in what I'd written back then. Just mentioning anything having to do with Richard Clarke was generally enough, I found, to make the head of the average person nod with boredom.
However, the first sentence of this particular column proved to be a time bomb: "The retirement of Richard Clarke is appropriate to the reality of the war on terror." That was what got me in trouble. Honeyed dung it was, or became, to clouds of flies on the right, buzzing mad to find a couple quarts of offal to throw on the man after the calumny of his 60 Minutes spotlight.
Late Sunday evening Bush supporters had found it through Google and started uploading to Usenet political chat groups. Soundly sleeping in Southern California, I'd been sent out as a Republican political assassin.
..more..
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0413/smith.php