NewsMax Recycles Clinton Smears
Topic: Newsmax
In an April 4 NewsMax article (posted April 3) promoting the new, fawning book on Laura Bush by Ron Kessler, Jim Myers revives largely debunked charges of White House vandalism by members of the Clinton administration before George W. Bush took office.

Myers recounts the allegations as an example of "the Clintons' real irreverence for the White House," as opposed to the Bushes' purported reverence. He details the allegations made by then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer of the alleged damage in the White House and the adjacent Eisenhower Executive Office Building before noting three paragraphs later that "The final, official report from the Government Accounting Office, released on June 11, 2002, did not confirm all of Fleischer's allegations." In fact, as the GAO report indicates (as indicated by the list of items Myers provided), the most serious of Fleischer's allegations were never confirmed and, in fact, not much different from the condition of the White House when Clinton took over in 1993 from George H.W. Bush. Additionally, as was noted at the time, most of the vandalism allegations were made anonymously and never backed up with solid evidence.

Myers also states: "The Clintons had used the White House to court fund-raisers, putting up political supporters in the Lincoln Bedroom. The Bushes, on the other hand, have given overnight privileges only to dignitaries, family members and longtime friends." In fact, the Bush Lincoln Bedroom guest list between 2000 and 2004 included "at least nine of his biggest campaign fund-raisers," according to the Associated Press.

Myers claims that the "Hillary Clinton supporters" at Vanity Fair are "attacking" Kessler's book as a "valentine" to Mrs. Bush filled with "fluffball quotes" and "dubious factoids." Myers hasn't exactly proved VF wrong here; the fact that NewsMax is selling the book is more evidence of that. And Myers' claim that VF is a seething den of "Hillary Clinton supporters" is undercut by the fact that, as NewsMax itself reported, VF published the first excerpts from Edward Klein's dubious Hillary-bashing book that NewsMax loved so much.