Bush Bounce And Politics of Hate

The Bush bounce and the politics of hate.

The polls are in and President Bush (search) is up pretty big in many of them. Dick Morris was correct in predicting some double-digit bounces. He will be with us in a moment.

And I was correct predicting the response from the far-left press.

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O'REILLY: This week the left-wing media's been kind of muted. Next week, watch it. Starting with Sunday's New York Times, bang! The assassins will be out and you wait and see, you mark my words, next week, next Tuesday after Labor Day. Whoa! Gonna be quite a week.

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Well, lo and behold, the chief character assassin at the New York Times, entertainment columnist, Frank Rich, appeared Sunday with an article entitled "How Kerry Became a Girlie Man." Rich chastises John Kerry for not being mean enough.

Then Rich steps into the breach himself, calling the president a, "sissy" for not serving in Vietnam and follows up with this passage, "Nearly anyone is more manly than a president who didn't have the guts to visit with the 9/11 Commission unaccompanied by a chaperone."

Well, this is rich, pardon the pun, because Frank-baby has dodged any and all interviews that would challenge his hateful point-of-view.

Remember, Rich is the guy who assassinated Mel Gibson's character, and Gibson isn't the only one.

So, here's a personal note from me to you, Frank: At least your far-left colleague, Paul Krugman, had the guts to face me. You are a cowardly smear merchant who uses a newspaper column to promote defamation under the guise of opinion. You are intelligently dishonest and absurdly vicious. And here's an example of the dishonesty:

In the same girlie man column, Rich writes: "Fox has given priceless nonstop hype to (Swift Boat) commercials that otherwise would not have been seen only in seven small to medium markets."

Well, the truth is that all the cable news outlets aggressively covered the story, as did most of the print press, and talk radio. However, "The Factor" has been very skeptical of these Swift Boat claims and I have the transcripts and angry letters from some far-right viewers to approve
it.

Also, Fox News correspondent Chris Wallace debunked many of the Swift Boat charges on "FOX News Sunday." But, Rich never mentions that. As usual, he implies that Fox News is behind the whole exposition along with President Bush, himself.

The fact that the New York Times employs a backdoor knife artist, like Rich, is disturbing because that paper still commands the attention and respect of the journalism industry. The Times still sets the tone for many in the so-called elite media and that's also why FOX News Channel is rising so quickly. There's got to be a counter to the unmitigated garbage
being dumped on us by Frank Rich and others like him.

John Kerry and George W. Bush are both patriots, they don't deserve to be smeared or called despicable names by anyone. Let them slug it out over the issues and let the real cowards, like Frank Rich, be shunned.

—You can watch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Most Ridiculous Item" weeknights at 8 & 11p.m. ET on the Fox News Channel. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com