FLASHREPORT

Pete McCloskey, the former anti-Nixon Republican who is now an anti-Bush Republican, will receive a larger ratio of favorable media coverage vs. actual votes received than any American politician since Ralph Nader. Since announcing his intention to run in the GOP primary in California's 11th congressional district against incumbent Richard Pombo, McCloskey has been the subject of rapturous profiles in most California newspapers, all of which frame his previous time in Congress by fawning over his role in the creation of Earth Day, his opposition to the Vietnam War, and his calls for the impeachment of Richard Nixon.

The fact that McCloskey is running against Pombo, who has been the subject of a continuing series of articles about his fundraising practices, his association with former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and his well-known hatred for the environment, makes this even an easier story to write. The implication underneath this McCloskey media bandwagon in clear: if only Republicans were smart enough to embrace the ethical, environmental, anti-corruption principles of their past! If only Republicans were to learn from the high-minded example of Pete McCloskey, then what a better, cleaner, and more wonderful world it could be....

So kudos to John Broder of the New York Times, whose profile yesterday of McCloskey while still a little rheumy-eyed for my taste, at least had the good graces to point out some of the less attractive aspects of the former Congressman's biography. While alluding to McCloskey's general anti-Israel tendencies, Broder mentions that McCloskey had given a speech "to a group of Holocaust deniers", which is the type of statement that bears further attention. A little Googling, and here's what appeared:

It turns out that McCloskey's speech was to an organization called the Institute for Historical Review, whose website includes a story on its front page today titled: "The Hoax of the Twentieth Century: The Case Against the Presumed Extermination of European Jewry". McCloskey's speech itself is an ideal fit for the IHR and its audience, including his use of the phrase: "the commonly accepted concept of what occurred during the Second World War in the so-called Holocaust." (Read the speech here.)

McCloskey also took the occasion to call Ariel Sharon a "butcher", to refer to former Israeli leader Menachem Begin "a Jewish Hitler", to make the sort of paranoid accusations about the Jewish Anti-Defamation League that would make Lyndon LaRouche proud, and most frighteningly to utter the following statement:

"The Jewish community has the power to suppress, either by advertising or control of the media, news reports that are hostile to Israel, and they have the ability to discredit anyone who speaks out. And that's their purpose."

McCloskey goes on to relate a "humorous incident" about the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. But you get the idea. And none of this has been reported in the numerous profiles of McCloskey that have appeared since he announced his intention to run.

If the transcript of this speech is inaccurate, McCloskey should make that clear publicly, denounce the IHR and outline his true feelings about Israel, the ADL, and the Jewish community's control of the American news media. Otherwise, here's hoping the California political press corps discovers another aspect of the McCloskey story to cover between now and election day.

There's nothing wrong with offering some news coverage to an aging maverick seeking to return to office. But it's worth considering that the anti-Semetic ravings of that aging maverick should be at least as newsworthy as his role in creating Earth Day

(Thanks to Cinammon Stillwell's "Newsbusters" blog  for linking to McCloskey's speech and the IHR website.)