[lbo-talk] Soros riposte

[dano]

Don't know if anybody heard about Speaker Hastert saying in a tv 
interview that he just couldn't be sure if George Soros was a drug 
merchant or not, but Soros has replied and called Hastert out. This 
is as close to fighting words as it gets.

The accusation:
<http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&sub=mtcosmos&url=http://www.boingboing.net/2004/08/31/house_speaker_soros_.html>

The challenge (links to a PDF):
<http://craphound.com/soroshastert.pdf>

You do a discredit to yourself and to the dignity of your office by 
engaging in these dishonest smear tactics. You should be ashamed.

  For the Speaker of the House of Representatives, even in the midst 
of an election season, to descend to a level of political discourse 
where innuendo and slander replace reason, truth and argument is 
unacceptable.

  This past Sunday, on national television, you suggested that I might 
be a criminal simply because I have exercised my First Amendment 
rights to dissent from the policies of the Bush administration...

  I must respectfully insist that you either substantiate these claims 
-- which you cannot do because they are false -- or publicly 
apologize for attempting to defame my character and damage my 
reputation.