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When Libs Get Desperate

All the criticism of her new book finally seems to be getting to best-selling Bush-basher Kitty Kelley. After a Friday taping of CNBC's "Capital Report" to promote "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty," Kelley exploded at rival George W. Bush biographer Ronald Kessler, who had gone on the show to debunk Kelley's lurid allegations of drug use at Camp David.

"Kitty was watching in the makeup room," host Alan Murray told me, "and afterward she marched down to the door of the studio and raised her voice to Ron: 'Don't tell lies about my book. You haven't even read it!' She so was angry she was shaking."

Kessler - a former Washington Post reporter whose own book, "A Matter of Character: Inside the White House of George W. Bush" is favorable to the President - told me Kelley threatened to sue him after he argued on the air that there were serious problems with Kelley's credibility and reporting methods.

"She was livid and her eyes were blazing as she said, 'You may not say anything slanderous about my book in the future! Do you understand me? I'm putting you on notice!'"

On the show, Kessler said his sources in the Secret Service and the White House servants contended that George Bush the younger didn't even smoke or drink when he visited Camp David, and that the only White House drug use was a couple of Jimmy Carter's children smoking marijuana in the late 1970s.

Kessler also derided Kelley's journalistic standards. "Her standard of proof is: Can she be successfully sued for libel? Which, in the case of a President, means you can say anything."

Kelley's publisher, Doubleday, sent a statement: "We fully support Kitty Kelley's actions in confronting Mr. Kessler in connection with his baseless and irresponsible on-air remarks about The Family. His attack was clearly another attempt to discredit Ms. Kelley and attack the messenger because he did not agree with the message." source