The Left's "Harmful Parasites"

Gosh, we're having a good day today. Try out this lede, et al, from Howard Kurtz:

Robert Luskin, Karl Rove's lawyer, says he spent most of the day on May 12 taking his cat to the veterinarian and having a technician fix his computer at home.

He was stunned, therefore, when journalists started calling to ask about an online report that he had spent half the day at his law office, negotiating with Patrick Fitzgerald -- and that the special prosecutor had secretly obtained an indictment of Rove.

The cat's medical tests, Luskin says, found that "the stools were free of harmful parasites, which is more than I can say for this case."

Of course. (And gotta love that characterization of the journalistic left.) Yep, yet another opportunity for lefty journos to continue the negative onslaught that's brought Bush's poll numbers near flatline. But now, for the rest of the story, or at least the significant part:

The claim that President Bush's top political strategist had been indicted in the CIA leak investigation was written by a journalist who has battled drug addiction and mental illness and been convicted of grand larceny. That didn't stop more than 35 reporters -- from all the major newspapers, networks and newsmagazines -- from calling Luskin or Rove's spokesman, Mark Corallo, to check it out.

The reports appeared on the liberal Web site Truthout.org, run by Marc Ash, a former advertising man and fashion photographer in California. Jason Leopold, the author of the stories, directed inquiries to Ash, who says that "we stand by the story. We have multiple points of independent confirmation of what we originally reported. Our problem is, the prosecutor's office is under no obligation to go public."

Leopold acknowledges in a new book, "News Junkie," that he is a past liar, convicted felon and former alcoholic and cocaine addict. An earlier version of the book was canceled by publisher Rowman & Littlefield last year.

Reminds us of Dan Rather's "fake but accurate" sourcing. So why did this story get legs at all? Simple. It's anti-Bush. Say no more.

And the MSM wonders why its practitioners are increasingly being regarded as clowns and hacks. This is why. Any questions?