RE: Those Who Dare Not Speak Their Names TO: Various curious and interested friends FROM: Christopher Hitchens
Call me old-fashioned if you will, but as an open-letter veteran I'd say that for a "letter" to be "open" it must be both addressed and signed. There is no "Chris" at my place, which is only a detail. But one is left to guess at the identity of the wannabe "challengers" at the other end. I've no time to waste in investigating: however there's a fetid and furtive Clintonoid reek to their tone; a rotten fruit would not in any case have very far to roll from that grisly tree. Amusing, though, to see that this sad little bunch actually defines itself as whorish.
As all of you know, I am capable of the odd pro-bono event (oddly enough including the ones mentioned) but prefer to be paid for my efforts when possible. Mr Scaife has not so far deigned to notice me, but I hereby confirm that he's welcome to offer me a commission if he likes.
Since one or two of you tell me that you have had inquiries from honest readers, I'll break my rule of not denying slanders or innuendoes and say that you can forward this freely to anyone who is curious. It's only a sentence: Even the lightest insinuations made by the self-described "media whores" are witless and mendacious, and can be found to be so by anyone with access to the open (and accountable) media.
There. I feel slightly tainted even by looking under that rock. It will be faintly interesting to see if they pass this on unedited; at any rate they are on notice that people with real names and real sites can check and find out.
I hope this dispels the ephemeral aroma. Back to the book tour; please keep in touch. As ever, fraternally, Christopher
From: Michael Pugliese
>As for Hitchens, I really hope that this Scaife money rumor is just liberal
>BS but, I'ver heard of his style of journalism before from others and would
>not be surprised.
>Michael
I'm honestly curious who these "others" are. Peter