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Thursday's tissue-thin Washington Post story about Solicitor
General nominee Ted Olson's alleged involvement in
The American Spectator's anti-Clinton investigative efforts,
dubbed the "Arkansas Project," prominently featured allegations
by reformed Clinton scourge David Brock, but as the charges evaporated,
so too has Brock's acknowledged involvement in the phony story.
By the following Tuesday, the Washington Post's story on
the "Brock Project," designed as both payback to his former allies
and as book promotion ("new title from the man who brought down
a top Bush nominee"), made no mention of its instigator. The Post
has wisely stepped away from its biased source, and later this week
we'll learn whether Judiciary Committee Democrats are sensible enough
to do the same.
Since David Brock leveled his charge that Olson misled the committee
by failing to acknowledge his work on the "Arkansas Project," everyone
who was involved in it has confirmed Olson's non-involvement. James
Ring Adams, the lead writer for the project over a four-year period,
explains that on the single occasion he spoke briefly with Ted Olson,
after the project ended, and he had the impression that Olson had
no idea who he was. In his own thorough review of the "Arkansas
Project," which led to its cancellation, the American Spectator's
former publisher, Terry Eastland, says that he had found no evidence
that Olson was involved in its creation or conduct. Bob Tyrrell
and Wlady Pleszczynski, the Spectator's top editors, confirm
that Olson had nothing to do with their "Arkansas Project," and
explain that Olson's law firm could not have known that a payment
to them for legal analysis was drawn from project funds.
Democratic staff on the Judiciary Committee advanced the "Brock
Project" by failing to inform their colleagues in the majority about
his furtive contact with the committee, an "apparent violation of
this Committee's tradition and practice," Sen. Orrin Hatch protests.
Had those staffers valued credibility over crass politics, they
might have learned what a wobbly witness they were building their
case on. Interestingly, Ted Olson and David Brock have a common
experience with respect to the "Arkansas Project." According to
those who did conceive and execute the project, neither one of them
had anything to do with it.
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