I interviewed Mike Malloy for the chapter on Air America radio in The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy. I had listened to some of his programs before he moved to Air America — a few years ago, he did a three-part series called “Is It Time for the Bastard’s Impeachment?” (The bastard, of course, was George W. Bush.) He also did programs entitled “What’s Your Life Worth to the Bush Crime Family?” and “The Scum Who Heads the Justice Department.” (The scum was then-Attorney General John Ashcroft.) After listening to his programs, I asked Malloy whether he might be a bit too hard-edged for a mass audience, and his answer revealed some serious anger issues. “I don’t think so,” Malloy said. “Just go back to the ’90s, with the ‘Clinton Chronicles,’ Hillary is a lesbian, Bill and Hillary are drug dealers, Bill and Hillary left a trail of bodies. You have a talk radio that has been breast-fed on ‘Hillary and Bill are murderers’ and radicalized by a thug like Rush Limbaugh, with the crumbs swept up by a junior thug like Sean Hannity. And then somebody wants to ask me if I’m being a little bit strong in saying that John Ashcroft and the Patriot Act are totally, totally destroying constitutional government in this country?” Not long after, Malloy was hired by Air America.