Ben Smith, right and wrong

Shortly after I posted my reply to the SPLC's Dr. Heidi Beirich, there was a miraculous intervention (cough, cough) by which I was inspired to e-mail Dr. Beirich again, urging her to read an item by Ben Smith of the Politico:

The pastor of the San Diego megachurch Vincent attends (with Carrie Prejean, natch) is black. She's also spent most of the last few years on a pair of inspirational books about, basically, racial reconciliation in the friendship between a rich white art dealer and a homeless black drifter, the first of them a Times bestseller. More broadly, she hails from a (large) stream of Evangelicalism that puts racial reconciliation very high on the agenda.
Vincent is -- like Palin -- well to the right, as Blumenthal notes, on abortion; but the race card (in both cases) seems out of place.

So much for the "Lynn Vincent, Secret Racist" meme, then. But in the same item, Ben Smith also writes:

Max Blumenthal goes after Sarah Palin's co-author, Lynn Vincent, in a broadside that focuses largely on her 2006 collaboration with a conservative blogger, Robert Stacy McCain, whose views on race . . . have since made him a pariah even on the right.

This is simply false, and I dare Ben Smith to put forth evidence that my "views on race" have made me "a pariah even on the right."

To begin with, let Ben Smith ask himself, "What are Stacy McCain's views on race?" He'll have a very difficult time discovering the answer, as the sources for this old "white supremacist" smear are a Gordian knot of confusion and error, and in some cases I have been condemned for doing things I never did. (For example, contrary to Michelangelo Signorile's assertion, I never contributed to the white separatist site "Reclaiming the South.")

So if anyone tries to tell you that they know my "views on race" -- and especially if they claim my views are so hateful or extreme as to make me a "pariah" -- you may rest assured that you are dealing with either a Liar or a Fool. Given that so many have demanded some sort of Definitive Statement from me, however, I will now provide one:

I believe that liberals are wrong about black people. Liberals are also wrong about white people, brown people, yellow people and red people. If NASA announced tomorrow that it had discovered a distant planet inhabited by purple people, anything that liberals believed about purple people would be wrong, too. Liberals are not only wrong about race, but they are also wrong about economics, crime, poverty, religion, science, war, marriage and foreign policy. In fact, as evidenced by their global-warming hysteria, liberals are wrong about the weather. Insofar as there is a "liberal consensus" on any particular subject -- including movies and sports -- then the truth is likely to be the exact opposite of whatever liberals say.

One of the things I have sought to avoid over the years is the "some of my best friends" defense. If my friends are aware of these attacks, they will defend me. If they are unaware of the attacks, it would be wrong to involve them in a dispute that is not of their concern. My enemies are my enemies, and I would do my friends no favors by siccing my enemies on them, so as to expose my friends to these guilt-by-association attacks.

However, if Lynn Vincent is both (a) undeniably my friend, and (b) an advocate of "racial reconciliation," then it would behoove Ben Smith to notice that there is a very large non sequitur -- the size of an elephant -- in the room.

BTW, Ben Smith: I'm not merely a "conservative blogger." I've been cranking it out on deadline since 1986, winning national awards before I ever came to Washington, and came to Washington nearly a decade before there was such a thing as the Politico. I've got T-shirts older than you, punk, and next time you call somebody a "pariah," I'd advise you to make a couple of phone calls first.

As my Old School editors always told me, "If your mother says she loves you, check it out." To which I would add this corollary: If a liberal says your mother loves you, your mother hates you.

UPDATE: Wow, suddenly everything comes tumbling down. Lynn Vincent "outs" her left-wing lesbian sister Lori and also the lesbian friend who was maid of honor at Lynn's own (hetero) wedding. (Hat-tip: Conservatives for Palin.) I wonder how long before Lynn outs me as a neo-Confederate lesbian?

Meanwhile, it has been noted that I elided the part of Ben Smith's post where he described me as being opposed to interracial marriage. To explain: Both my time and the reader's attention are limited quantities. A full-length explanation of the minute details of the accusations against me is ineffective and wasteful. The larger point is false -- I'm not a "white supremacist" or an "avowed segregationist," etc. -- and a discussion of the details only lends credibility to the accuser. "Stay out of the tall grass."

However, a commenter at the Hot Air Green Room -- "Diane" whose Twitter ID is "infobee" --raised this question quite directly, and I responded at length, citing the research of Dr. Zhenchao Qian at Ohio State University. Further explanation is possible but not, I hope, necessary.

Also see Cassandra at Villainous Company on "second-degree guilt-by-association."

How to Reply to the Southern Poverty Law Center (If You Must)

In response to a Palin-bashing expedition by Max Blumenthal -- attempting a guilt-by-association smear involving my Donkey Cons co-author --today I got an e-mail from my old friend, Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center:

So you know Palin according to Max Blumenthal.
Is his reporting true?

Always happy to help a damsel in distress, I sent Heidi this e-mail reply:

In general, no. Max Blumenthal's career is a massive ziggurat of errors stacked one atop another. But that clever fool occasionally gets one or two things right, just to keep us on our toes The facts:

• I have never spoken directly to Sarah Palin.

When I covered her during the 2008 campaign, I had a very brief encounter with her. She was on stage at Shippensburg (Pa.) University for an "overflow" event -- that's where she held a smaller, short event for people who were still standing in line for the main rally when Secret Service closed the door. (Secret Service security is an extreme hassle from a reporter's standpoint, FYI.) When she did the "rope line" at the end of the overflow event, shaking hands and signing autographs, I approached the stage. My kids had asked me to get Sarah's autograph, so I handed her my notebook to sign.
Palin had appeared at the overflow event wearing a T-shirt -- probably a gift from a local supporter -- with the motto "Ship Happens," a joke-slogan among Shippensburg students, and I had made a note of that. When I handed Palin my notebook, she saw this note and, realizing that I was a reporter, gestured at her T-shirt and shouted, "Ship! Ship!" -- laughing in mock-panic that I might misreport the slogan. She then signed my notebook and handed it back with a wink and a smile.
That small gesture -- the joking recognition of the negative-P.R. potential of a "Ship Happens" T-shirt -- convinced me of Palin's keen political instinct. She is no dummy. And the fact that she has been portrayed as a dummy is one reason I have been so relentlessly critical of the (John) McCain campaign's media strategy.

• I co-authored Donkey Cons with Palin's collaborator, Lynn Vincent.

This has attracted much attention from various liberal media types, including Rachel Maddow and now Max Blumenthal. As is customary in such matters, Lynn signed a confidentiality agreement with Harper Collins, and thus is unable to discuss her interactions with Palin. Of course, as any good reporter knows, you never burn your sources, and the last thing in the world that Lynn would do is to betray Sarah Palin's trust. However, there was one occasion -- after some Alaska bloggers had falsely claimed that the Palins were on the verge of divorce -- when I asked Lynn, as a favor, if she could get me a quote from the governor on the matter, which she did.
Lynn Vincent is a wonderful person, and was wonderful long before she and I co-wrote Donkey Cons. It was Lynn who, as news editor of the Jacksonville (Ala.) State University studentpaper circa 1981-3, recruited me to join the staff of the newspaper, after seeing some of the rock music record reviews I'd submitted. Perhaps you should ask Morris Dees to send you up to JSU to root through the archives of the student newspaper (The Chanticleer) and see if you can find anything in my reviews of old Elvis Costello records that might be useful to the SPLC's mission.

It is regrettable that the Left's "By Any Means Necessary" effort to destroy Palin should have led you, Dr. Beirich, to waste time following up on Max Blumenthal's misguided work. As I've told you before, it is a shame that someone of your abilities finds herself toiling in that ridiculous Nonsense Factory down in Montgomery, rather than hiring on at a university and doing useful work. My sympathy for your plight -- I don't think you're evil, just because you can find no better employment than the SPLC -- is the main reason I've offered to sing karaoke with you, next time I'm visiting kinfolk in Montgomery.

Prior to your inquiry, I had not seen Blumenthal's Daily Beast column which is, in at least one point, accurate: It was I who, in a blog response to Clark Stooksbury of The American Conservative, planted the suggestion that Lynn seek the Palin contract. That Lynn saw that suggestion and followed up on it is a tribute to her entrepreneurial persistence. But in reading through Blumenthal's article, I note among his various mendacities this blatant falsehood:

"Marlene Johnson, the Times’ former arts section editor and an African-American, told me McCain was 'an avowed segregationist.'

This is just about 180 degrees opposite from the truth. If Ms. Johnson believed me to be an "avowed segregationist" -- which I most certainly am not -- this was not a case of *her* telling Blumenthal that, but of Blumenthal (or others) telling this *to her.* There were disgruntled employees and ex-employees of The Washington Times who, bearing personal malice toward the newspaper's management, chose to use the SPLC's attacks on me as a weapon for their own spiteful vengeance. Whatever harm was done to me was really collateral damage in terms of their main object of wounding Wes Pruden and others.

Live and learn, I suppose, but I am not the sort to harbor grudges. Max was assigned to do a hit-job on The Washington Times and did it rather ineptly, as he tends to do everything ineptly. When Max called me seeking comment for his Nation magazine article, I gave him the best quote in the story: "I'm too lazy to be evil." Once the article was in print, reaching out in a spirit of friendship, I invited him to have beers with me and my friends, a gesture of hospitality that he now falsely portrays as harassment. Max also claims that his Nation article had something to do with my being placed on probation at work in 2007; that is a flat-out lie -- both as to the timing and to the reasons for my probation -- and I would be happy to supply the names of witnesses who could testify that Blumenthal's report is false.

Of Blumenthal's other errors (i.e, repeating the delusional claims of George Archibald) I simply don't have time to deal with them now, except to say that anyone tempted to cite Max Blumenthal as a definitive source should be warned about Max's habitual sloppiness and inaccuracy. He is wrong in matters both large (I am not a white supremacist) and small (my work habits are not "anemic"), and his writing is so generally untrustworthy that we may say of his work what Mary McCarthy said of Lillian Hellman: Every word is a lie, including "and" and "the."

What is most absurd in all this is the transparent desperation of liberals to find something -- anything -- that they can use as the smoking-gun gotcha, the silver bullet that finally slays the Sarah Palin werewolf. Grateful that this quixotic quest is of some benefit to me, by adding to the gleaming lustre of my mysterious notoriety, I only hope that you'll encourage others to keep barking up this same tree. Because it's the wrong one, sweetheart. Please feel free to call me, Dr. Beirich. This e-mail is blind CC'd to others and will appear as a post at my blog.
--
Robert Stacy McCain

Let me know if I can be of further assistance, ma'am. It would be unchivalrous to refuse.

UPDATE: Old Reb is impressed, crediting me with having excelled Joe Guzzardi of VDare.

The key in these matters, I think, is to distinguish who is who in the Evil Coalition of Liars and Fools. At SPLC, Dees and Mark Potok are clearly the Liars. Their lesser minions are therefore Fools, and the fundamental task is to make the Fools realize they are being duped and exploited by the Liars.

If Beirich ever wises up, she has the potential to be Morris Dees' Worst Nightmare: A liberal Ph.D. thoroughly familiar with the evil machinations of the SPLC, ready and willing to expose the ugly truth.

By enlightening her, at the very least I put her in line for a handsome raise. "Pay me or trade me," as they say in the major leagues, and Dees can't afford to let Dr. Beirich go free, or he'll risk disastrous revelations.

Matthew 5:44 is a fearsome weapon against evil.