Franken-Lies-And-the-Lying-Liars-Who-Tell

of the Republi can talking heads who were "distraught" about the smattering of boos at Williams
Arena were absolutely delighted by the deafening roar of jeers and taunts that silenced
Hillary as she tried to introduce a film. "I think she got in large part what she deserved," said
Sean Hannity. Rush Limbaugh was so distraught at the booing that he had the man who led it
on his program as Dittohead Hero of the Day. Bill O'Reilly blamed Hillary for having the
nerve to show up considering that "Mrs. Clinton has not visited one family that has been affected
by the terror. Not one. She did not go to one funeral." Of course, this wasn't true. 1
I made some more phone calls. First to former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan,
whose op-ed piece in the October 30 Wall Street Journal took the form of a memo from Paul
Wellstone up in heaven criticizing his own supporters for being filled with "envy," "poison,"
"resentment," "revenge," and "hate." I wanted to know where Noonan had gotten the impression
that "20,000 people" had booed Trent Lott.
She seemed very surprised to hear from me, but stayed on the phone long enough to
make it clear to me that she had not actually seen Trent Lott get booed. When I told her that
the boos were barely audible on the broadcast, she scoffed. I said, "Peggy, I've studied the
tape. I've seen it fifty times."
"Oh, Al, we all have," she said in that condescending, unctuous, Peggy Noonan way.
"No, you haven't," I said. "And you want to know why? Because no one replayed it.
Because you can't hear the booing."
"Oh, Al, Al."
"Tell you what. The whole memorial is on the Internet. It's at
http://shows.implex.ty/Wellstone/. Lott gets booed at 01:18:22. Do yourself a favor. Start
about two minutes before that, so you can hear what twenty thousand people sound like when
they cheer for President Clinton."
Peggy promised to look at the website and call me back if she had anything to add.
Now if you yourself go to the website and watch the infamous, almost inaudible booing, you
1
Senator Clinton met with victims' family members on eleven separate occasions between September 11
and when O'Reilly made this claim on November 15. On September 15, Senator Clinton attended and spoke at
the funeral service for Fire Chaplain Mychal judge, whom she had known. On October 6, she spoke at the funeral
of a friend in Boston who had been on one of the planes that had struck the WTC. Senator Clinton said she didn't
attend other funerals because she didn't want to inject herself into someone else's private grief or to cause a distraction.
Which is what she was accused of doing at the Madison Square Garden event.