Scholarly Gentleman

by digby

Via County Fair, I found my way over to ConWebblog and their post about this latest smear job at Newsmax:

We detailed how James Humes, in his March 12 Newsmax column, purported to quote President Obama saying of a bust of Winston Churchill, "Get that goddamn thing out of here." Humes has now amended his column -- not by deleting a quote for which he has yet to provide a credible source for, but by adding another paragraph:

While the story was never fully substantiated, despite frequent repetition on radio talk shows, the sentiment seems to have been confirmed by Obama's subsequent actions.

Translation: I can't prove Obama said this -- in fact, I can't even name anyone who said he did, despite "frequent repetition on radio talk shows" -- but I'll pretend he did anyway because it meshes so well with my smear of Obama. Humes also alters another falsehood, substituting the false claim that Obama "grew up in Kenya" with the statement that Obama is "the son of a Kenyan." Humes' ugly smear of Obama plotting tribal revenge, however, remains intact.

Be sure to click through the links to see the priginal smear job. It's quite unbelievable.

But I was curious about this fellow James C. Humes who wrote the smear job in the first place. Apparently, I am an ignorant lout for not recognizing the name because he is quite the distinguished fellow:

Professor James C. Humes (Colorado University at Colorado Springs) was awarded an O.B.E. by Queen Elizabeth for the award-winning, Pulitzer Prize finalist, "Churchill: Speaker of the Century." Humes is a former presidential speechwriter.


He's also a major speaking coach, wildly popular among the political class.

And he is a lying sack of fetid compost.

As a side note, he teaches at the same university (different campus) that the other Churchill taught --- you know, Ward Churchill, who the wingnuts ran out of town? This guy, however, is a fine example of academic integrity.

The book for which he nearly won the Pulitzer was co-written by none other than Richard Nixon, so I guess we shouldn't be surprised about the rank dishonesty.


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