In the late summer of 2004, Jerome Corsi, along with a co-author, managed to get a book published that called in to question the military service of Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry. Since the media was not doing the job of debunking the nonsense of the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth, and the Kerry campaign was far too slow in reacting to it, it went on to a great deal of "success". Along with the TV spots the Swiftboaters did, it was a major factor in Kerry's loss to President Bush (although, to be honest, the fact that Kerry and his campaign were so slow out of the gate in reacting to the nonsense certainly didn't help).
Corsi is back, with a book on Barack Obama. Unlike four years ago, the hounds are not silent, particularly Media Matters for America. Here's Paul Waldman on C-SPAN, doing the leg work.
The pushback against Corsi's crap has put him off balance. In a recent appearance on C-SPAN, he did two things at once. First, he claimed that Obama might jail someone who wrote a book similar to the one he has published. Second, he said, and I quote a transcript provided by Media Matters, "Where is the sense of humor here?" In other words, he hints at the dark possibility of a suppression of political opposition, and yet claims his book is nothing but a big joke. Now, of course it is, but not in the way he seems to be presenting it here. It's a joke in the sense that is 10 pounds of shit in a two pound bag. It's not a joke when it is presented as a serious examination of the biography and credentials of a major party candidate for the Office of the President of the United States that is so full of simple factual errors as to call in to question the any attempt at analysis.
The fallback to the whole "I'm just funnin'" shows just how off-balance Corsi is. If it's a joke, why should we take it seriously? If it's serious, and numerous factual errors abound, why not respond to them seriously?
In reality, Corsi is a racist hack, a conspiracy-monger, who has finally been called out. He doesn't like it very much, especially as this was supposed to be his moment to shine in the national spotlight. It's no fun having hackwork exposed as hackwork, especially racist, lying hackwork.
It may be too late for John Kerry. But, I think it is also too late for Jerome Corsi.
Virtual Tin Cup
