THE BIG LIE
Democrats are going to great lengths to link the Independent Women's Forum to Ken Starr in a dishonest effort to tie him directly to the Paula Jones lawsuit.

Three times during Starr's testimony last week, Democrats asked Starr questions that they should have known were false. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D., Tex.) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) both asked whether IWF ever has retained Starr's services in the preparation of an amicus brief for the Paula Jones lawsuit against President Clinton (weren't they listening to each other?). Both times Starr was able to answer in the negative. Democratic counsel Abbe Lowell asked a similar question about whether Starr had ever provided "free legal advice" the group. The truth is that Starr met with IWF to discuss the question of presidential immunity in a civil suit. IWF never filed a brief in the matter, (the ACLU did,) and certainly never hired Starr to do it for them.

The IWF-Starr conspiracy theory was born last year when the New York Times editorial page reported, incorrectly, on a link between Starr and the IWF. The IWF wrote a letter correcting the record, which was printed. The Times editorial page later repeated its error, but soon ran a correction. Then the Times ran front-page article leveling the charges, which it corrected incorrectly. IWF's Barbara Ledeen tried repeatedly to have the Times correct its correction before Starr's testimony, but the paper failed to do so. To add to the big lie, other outlets such as Roll Call, the New York Observer, and James Carville's latest book also have misreported the story.

That's incredibly useful for White House propagandists, who work hard at spinning the Liar-in-Chief's message right down to the point of influencing the guest lists for MSNBC chat shows that nobody watches. Perhaps one of these programs, looking for a new angle on the White House scandal, should explore why the Democrats keep getting their facts wrong about the IWF and Ken Starr.

VIEWS IN FOCUS
Raul Yzaguirre, president of the National Council of La Raza, claims to speak for Hispanics on a whole range of issues. On a Family News in Focus radio program airing November 16, Yzaguirre said, "Most of our community is Catholic and has some reservations about abortion. But we are also, I think, increasingly aware of the importance of taking a secular point of view on this issue and respecting a woman's right to choose."

This is one kind of assimilation we definitely could do without.