The Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy

The far left in America is overjoyed that former White House press secretary Scott McClellan has written a book castigating President Bush. Now I've not seen the book, but from reports about it, we can't find any headline.

McClellan says Mr. Bush did not handle Katrina very well. Gee, I'm stunned. He says the president used propaganda to justify Iraq. Again, is that a bulletin? And again, did Tony Blair and Bill Clinton also use propaganda? They saw the same intelligence reports Mr. Bush saw. McClellan also believes that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby conspired in the Valerie Plame case. Forgive me if I'm bored.

What is interesting is McClellan's behavior. Months ago, "The Factor" contacted his people and were assured we'd see him on this program. But now all that has changed. Old Scott can't get to the far-left venues fast enough. No "Factor" for him.

Also, just a year ago on Bill Maher's program, McClellan was standing behind the Iraq war, saying, "We went in in a bipartisan way. I think we ought to finish the job in a bipartisan way." Wow. What a difference a year and some cash makes.

"Talking Points" believes Mr. McClellan is in it for the bucks. Keeping in mind his publisher also distributes books by George Soros and other far-left people, former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said this on "The Radio Factor."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARI FLEISCHER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: There's something about this I just don't get. Scott told me, and we've kept in touch, when he started to write the book how good it was going to be for the president. Something dramatically has changed.

And I talked to Scott yesterday. And Scott did tell me that his editor — and this is Scott's words — tweaked some things closely in the last few months. And I think what did happen, Bill, was the book was pretty well done and Scott went back in, and I think his editor wrote a lot of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

All right. Be that as it may, the really interesting part of this story is the vast left-wing conspiracy in the media. Scott McClellan knows he's going to find plenty of sympathetic ears in the press. There's no doubt about it.

Since Iraq went south, a number of media vehicles have turned sharply left. We know about NBC News. And now we're seeing Newsweek magazine go crazy. Since John Meacham took over as editor, Newsweek has trashed Mother Teresa, hired the hateful founder of the Daily Kos, provided a cadre of far-left commentators to NBC, and generally lost all journalistic credibility. The result is that Newsweek's circulation is collapsing, down 11 percent in less than a year.

But — and this is important — there's no media counter for NBC News, Newsweek, The New York Times and dozens of other committed-left media. There's no right-wing media conspiracy. Conservatives generally aren't crazy about John McCain.

So this coming election cycle, the press will be solidly behind Barack Obama. The question: Will that make a difference in the vote? Will the American press be able to put Senator Obama over the top?

I don't know. But I think it's safe to say Senator Obama is happy with the media landscape.

And that's "The Memo."

Pinheads & Patriots

Actress Eva Longoria of "Desperate Housewives" seems to be a nice woman. Yesterday, she worked a drive-through window at Wendy's to publicize a charity drive to help the adoption of foster children, which is desperately needed in this country. Pardon the pun. The charity is the Dave Thomas Foundation, and Ms. Longoria is a patriot.

On the pinhead front, listen to this. A gay organization in San Francisco has awarded me, your humble correspondent, the Pink Brick Award for doing great harm to their community.

My offense? Well, they don't really know. They say it's my attitude in general. But I know what's going on here. These people didn't like my analysis of some transvestite kooks invading a Catholic church in San Francisco. In fact, not one gay leader in that city spoke out against the sacrilege.

For the record, we are fair to all Americans, including gays. So that group can take their pink brick and build a small structure with it. Pinheads.