Posted 12:53 AM by Scoobie Davis

What Do You Expect from the WSJ Editorial Page?
Robert Bartley was editor of the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page during the time when the wildest charges of the right-wing smear machine were put into print on its pages. For today’s Opinionjournal.com, Bartley wrote a noxious revisionist history of the 1990’s (e.g., Bartley calls David Brock “the John Walker Lindh of contemporary conservatism.”). While others undoubtedly will address the major charges in Bartley’s pathetic apologia, I'll briefly address a silly claim that caught my eye:

The 14 [Whitewater] convictions vindicate Jean Lewis, the Resolution Trust investigator who made the referral. She was soon suspended from the case, her motives attacked and her computer disks invaded by government investigators.

This is horseshit. Here’s what Bartley didn’t tell you about Free Republic Poster Girl, L. Jean Lewis: Madison Guaranty justifiably had a low investigative priority. However, in a naked partisan move, Lewis moved it to the head of the investigations list--ahead of failed S&L’s with losses much higher than Madison. When Lewis appeared before the Senate Whitewater Committee, minority counsel Richard Ben-Veniste provided evidence that Lewis lied in key testimony before the committee. Senate Democrats then asked Lewis hard but fair questions about her motives and partisan activities. When Senator Paul Sarbannes began rigorously questioning Lewis, she collapsed at the witness table and had to be taken to the hospital. This episode demonstrates how the right loves to dish it out but can't take it.

The full story is in The Hunting of the President by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons; it is a funny read. You may have missed the story because The Washington Post and The New York Times didn't report it.