An Anti-Anti-Holocaust Denier Lauds An Intellectual Fraud (The State of Leftist "Scholars")

NewsRealBlog.com ^ | September 29, 2009 | Ben Johnson

[FrontPageMag.com]

What, me worry about Ahmadinejad?

Last night's MSNBC lineup provided a trifecta of reasons people dismiss that network's "news analysis": the intellect of the show's host, the insight of his guest, and the reputation of a “scholar” the guest referenced. In this case, Ed Schultz interviewed a man who encouraged us to think the best of a Holocaust Denier and cited a "scholar" who turned in an intellectually bankrupt review of a book I co-wrote with David Horowitz, Party of Defeat.

On "The Ed Show" last night, Schultz discussed the Iranian nuclear program with Matthew Duss, a senior policy researcher for the George Soros-funded Center for American Progress. Duss opened with the illuminating opinion that the Iranians launched their recent missile tests because they "were put on their back foot by President Obama's roll-out of the intelligence about their secret nuclear facility near Qom, and they clearly felt that they needed some demonstration of strength to put them in a better position going into negotiations." This is the same Iranian leader who, earlier this month, told the international press for the millionth time, "the nuclear question is finished. We will not negotiate over Iran's undeniable rights." Can any mature person believe Ahmadinejad or the ruling mullahs care about negotiations, beyond extending them long enough to acquire a doomsday device? To the extent they have any impact on "negotiations," it would be to make Russian opposition to increased sanctions untenable (although Russia is holding to its position).

Schultz then rolled footage of Sen. Lindsay Graham's assessment of the Iranian leadership: