I am always reluctant to accuse political opponents of telling lies — that is, of uttering deliberate falsehoods, as opposed to unintentional missatements of fact or simple partisan spin. But in the case of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., I don’t know how to conclude otherwise. RFK Jr. was interviewed on the NBC Today show this morning. Here’s an excerpt:
MORALES: Well, this book stems from an article of the same title that you wrote in–for the Rolling Stone in November of 2003. And a lot of critics, of course, came out on that one. Jonathan Adler from the conservative publication, the National Review, wrote if this–of your essay at the time, “It is riddled with misstatements, gross exaggerations and outright falsehoods combined with repeated ad hominem attacks on administration officials. “Crimes Against Nature” paints a shocking–that is–shockingly inaccurate picture of Bush environmental policy.” How do you respond to that?
Mr. KENNEDY: That not a single inaccuracy has ever been pointed out in that article. This book was scrupulously fact-checked.
Not only is RFK’s statement flat wrong — he knows it’s wrong. As this letter indicates, he read my article pointing out numerous falsehoods in his Rolling Stone piece, and failed to identify any errors in my critique.