Larry Sinclair is a lowlife jerkoff, with less than zero credibility, who has successfully auditioned to be the star of a Swiftboat-style smear campaign aimed at Barack Obama.
This guy has somehow magically acquired a high-priced lawyer: Montgomery Sibley, the defense attorney of Deborah Jean Palfrey, the DC Madam.
He is scheduled to hold a press conference next Wednesday at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. The event is sponsored by Veritas Media Group, which is run by Joseph R. Giganti. Giganti belongs to the wingnuttia branch of the Republican party. He has longstanding and extensive ties to Alan Keyes, including serving as a spokesman and the national media strategist for his 2000 presidential campaign. His resume is still posted on Keyes’ RenewAmerica website.
So this sleazy lowlife with a colorful criminal record (including an arrest for theft and forgery, among others) now has both a fancy high-priced lawyer and an ultra-conservative handler.
Liberal blogs are understandably unhappy about the smear attempt. But respectable blogs that should really know much better are going off the deep end without doing a little basic homework or thinking.
FDL is targeting the National Press Club with an online petition:
… it is shocking that the National Press Club is offering a him a spot on the national stage on June 18.
Please take a moment to ask the National Press Club to check the facts before giving Larry Sinclair a bully pulpit. Also, if you have a moment please consider calling the National Press Club at 202-662-7500, and politely but firmly petition them verbally.
Kos approvingly endorses the petition:
Well, the National Press Club appears eager to give him a bigger platform.
[...]
You can also sign a petition at FDL urging the National Press Club to reconsider its baffling decision to give this thoroughly discredited guy a platform.
The fact of the matter is that the Press Club is not promoting or endorsing the Sinclair-Sibley-Giganti event. It is not giving them a bully pulpit or a bigger platform.
The Press Club is in the business of renting out rooms for events, exactly like a hotel. Any member can sponsor a rental. Veritas Media Group is evidently a member.
The Press Club is evidently not in the business of censorship. That’s exactly what FDL and Kos are pressuring the Press Club to do, although they’re too busy championing things like democracy, freedom of speech and a free press to realize it.