This Buchanan thing won’t die

Capital J

By Ron Kampeas · September 23, 2008

Over at Politico, Ben Smith runs down a list of McCain campaign plaints about press coverage. One has to do with inadequate attention paid to the fabrication, promulgated by the Obama campaign almost as soon as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) named Sarah Palin as his running mate, that the Alaska governor had once endorsed Pat Buchanan, the Holocaust diminisher, for president.

According to Smith, McCain campaign honcho Steve Schmidt said Obama surrogate U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) "went out and accused her of being a Nazi sympathizer."

Berated Schmidt: "Where is the outrage to that aspersion on the part of some of the biggest newspapers in the country?"

Ben does a good job of gutting this one: Wexler accused Buchanan - never Palin - of Nazi sympathies. So it was sympathies once removed, as it were.

Something else kinda bugs me: We (as in JTA/Jewish media) pretty much nipped this one in the bud. What do you need major papers for, Steve? Ya got the folks who count (at least as far as this issue goes.)