Stuart Smalley and Other Hypocrites

[This is reprinted from NewsMax.com]

The new book that exposes Al Franken, Hillary Clinton, Michael Moore and other liberals for political hypocrisy skyrocketed Thursday [Nov.3] to the very top of the Amazon bestseller list, hitting the #2 spot for all non-fiction books.

The book's success apparently has liberal radio yakker Al Franken [aka Stuart Smalley] threatening to sue the author because it alleges he doesn't practice what he preaches when it comes to affirmative action.

Peter Schweizer, author of "Do As I Say, Not as I Do: Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy," told Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly Wednesday night:
"Before the book came out, his agent, Jonathan Lazear, called my editor at Doubleday and said they consider the material in the book to be 'legally actionable.' They then followed up with a letter demanding to know where I got all this, 'private information' on Al Franken."

In "Do As I Say," Schweizer reports that Franken has hired 112 employees over the years and only one was black - news that Franken was not pleased to see in print.

But according to Schweizer, Franken isn't denying the charge, telling O'Reilly, "They haven't questioned the validity of the information. They want to know how I got access to private information. And the interesting thing, Bill, is they've said nothing publicly. This is all done behind the scenes. He's not challenged one thing."

O'Reilly, who himself encouraged Fox News to sue over one of Franken's books that used Fox's slogan "Fair and Balanced" in his title, gave Schweizer's book a hearty thumbs up.

"I found your book to be very entertaining and the information to be very compelling," he told his audience. "I recommend it."

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We have no doubt that Al Franken is furious with news today that Peter Schweizer's blockbuster new book "Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy" has soared to the top of Amazon's bestseller lists.

The news will have Franken reaching for some Advil, as he is one of the main targets of "Do As I Say."

In "Do As I Say," Hoover Fellow Peter Schweizer reveals the glaring contradictions between the public stances and real-life behavior of prominent liberals. In addition to Franken, many others come under scrutiny including Michael Moore, Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Ralph Nader.

After two years of research into liberal hypocrisy, Schweizer described his revelations as "stunning."

That may be understatement.

For example, Air America radio host Al Franken says conservatives are racist because they lack diversity and oppose affirmative action. But fewer than 1 percent of the people he has hired over the past 15 years have been African-American.

It gets worse.

Ted Kennedy has fought for the estate tax and spoken out against tax shelters. But he has repeatedly benefited from an intricate web of trusts and private foundations that have shielded most of his family's fortune from the IRS.

One Kennedy family trust wasn't even set up in the U.S., but in Fiji.
Similarly, Bill and Hillary Clinton have spoken in favor of the estate tax, and in 2000 Bill vetoed a bill seeking to end it. But the Clintons have set up a contract trust that allows them to substantially reduce the amount of inheritance tax their estate will pay when they die.

Hillary, for her part, has written and spoken extensively about the right of children to make major decisions regarding their own lives, such as having an abortion without parental consent.

But she barred 13-year-old daughter Chelsea from getting her ears pierced and forbade her to watch MTV or HBO.

And then there's Hollywood hypocrisy.

Barbra Streisand has talked about the necessity of unions to protect a "living wage." But she prefers to do her filming and postproduction work in Canada, where she can pay less than American union wages.
As for other liberals who like to offshore things, there's billionaire Bush-basher George Soros.

Soros says the wealthy should pay higher, more progressive tax rates. But he holds the bulk of his money in tax-free overseas accounts in Curacao, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.

Schweizer sums up his book this way: "The reality is that liberals like to preach in moral platitudes. They like to condemn ordinary Americans and Republicans for a whole host of things - racism, lack of concern for the poor, polluting the environment, and greed. But when it comes to applying those same standards to themselves, liberals are found to be shockingly guilty of hypocrisy.

"The media and the American people need to hold them accountable."