Hillary-hailing reporter Raymond Hernandez makes the front page of Thursday’s Metro section with a story that isn’t about Hillary but nonetheless helps Sen. Clinton reelection campaign -- an expose of her Republican opponent K.T. McFarland (“Questions Arise About Resume Of Challenger To Clinton”).
“When Kathleen Troia McFarland stepped forward as a Republican challenger to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, she was a relatively obscure figure with two intriguing claims to fame: She had worked on President Ronald Reagan's ‘Star Wars’ speech and had been the highest-ranking woman at the Reagan Pentagon.”
“But interviews with former Reagan administration officials and a review of documents show her claims were not entirely accurate. Though she helped write the ‘Star Wars’ speech, its most famous passage -- the one that announced the anti-ballistic missile program -- was actually written by the president himself and his top national security advisers, according to two senior advisers to Mr. Reagan and a review of the literature and news articles of the period.
“And while Ms. McFarland, who is known as K. T., was a close confidante of Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, serving as his speechwriter and spokeswoman for several years, there were two women with higher ranks in the Pentagon during virtually her entire time there, according to information provided by the Pentagon and the McFarland campaign.”
Times Watch isn’t sure the challenges to McFarland’s resume are as dire as the paper would have us think.
In any case, this next paragraph should sound ironic to Republicans:
“In many ways, Ms. McFarland's assertions are typical of the résumé polishing of many politicians at election time. But her campaign has sought to use her military-related experiences -- in the Pentagon and on the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee -- as cornerstones of her qualifications for the Senate.”
Funny, but when the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth investigated John Kerry’s “military-related experiences” in Vietnam, which at times seemed to be the sole “cornerstone” of his presidential run, the Times didn’t investigate the charges but instead rushed to Kerry’s defense time and again, declaring the Swifties allegations “unsubstantiated” no less than 20 times in campaign coverage.
For more New York Times bias, visit TimesWatch.
