If you were waiting for the Republican October Surprise, it appears to have arrived. The first blow comes from Time magazine, which does an absolute hit piece on Rep. Jane Harman accusing her of inappropriately enlisting American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) officials to lobby for the retention of her position on the Intelligence Committee. The problem? Time’s only sources are “knowledgeable sources in and out of the U.S. government.” In addition, Harman has no knowledge of any investigation. She hired Ted Olsen to defend her and Mr. Olsen told Time, “Congresswoman Harman has asked me to follow up on calls you’ve had. She is not aware of any such investigation, does not believe that it is occurring, and wanted to make sure that you and your editors knew that as far as she knows, that’s not true… . No one from the Justice Department has contacted her.”
As I noted yesterday, Harman is also being harassed in other ways. But this allegation calls her loyalty into question and undoubtedly plays into their bigger gambit, the attempted outing of Teddy Kennedy as a traitor to his country.
In his book, which came out this week, [Paul] Kengor, [a political science professor at Grove City College and the author of new book, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism] focuses on a KGB letter written at the height of the Cold War that shows that Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) offered to assist Soviet leaders in formulating a public relations strategy to counter President Reagan’s foreign policy and to complicate his re-election efforts.
The letter, dated May 14, 1983, was sent from the head of the KGB to Yuri Andropov, who was then General Secretary of the Soviet Union’s Communist Party.
In his letter, KGB head Viktor Chebrikov offered Andropov his interpretation of Kennedy’s offer. Former U.S. Sen. John Tunney (D-Calif.) had traveled to Moscow on behalf of Kennedy to seek out a partnership with Andropov and other Soviet officials, Kengor claims in his book.
If either one of these stories is accurate they are disturbing. At this point I have no way to assess their accuracy, so I merely point to the light sourcing and the timing.
Any time the media spends asking about the loyalty of Democrats is time not spent talking about the failed policies and law-breaking of the Republicans.