May 20, 1999 -- St. Paul, Minnesota -- There must be something to this synchronicity business.

While scanning Salon yesterday, what do I see but the wonderful Joe Conason, taking a break from getting his collaboration with Gene Lyons ready for publication. "Wow", I thought, "This must be something really big if Big Joe thought it rated interrupting his book-birthing process!"

And it was.

Specifically, it was the first time anyone had ever, in a major publication, taken MSNBC's Chris Matthews out behind the woodshed and given him the licking he so richly deserves.

Conason's piece dealt in particular with, in an unbelievably lickspittle interview last week with polygraph-test-flunker Kathleen Willey (this is a woman who has lied over so much and so often that Ken Starr had to give her two separate grants of immunity), how Matthews smeared a Clinton friend and associate, Cody Shearer, as being the "jogger" that Willey claims stalked her, threatened her, poisoned her kitty cat, spit on her Mama's grave, sicced the Men in Black on her, et cetera, et cetera.

What Chris Matthews mouthed, Rush and Drudge (each, of course, claiming it as an "exclusive") regurgitated. Soon, the whole right-wing wacko network was abuzz; some misguided souls even took time out from deciphering the mysterious writings on their Kix boxes to send a few death threats to the poor fellow who Matthews had named.

Unfortunately for Chrissy-poo, Mr. Shearer was 3,000 miles away, on the other side of the continent from Chatty Kathy, at the time of her alleged encounter with the mysterious "jogger".

On a subsequent show, Matthews burped out a rushed blink-and-you'll miss-it apology, but the damage was done, both to Cody Shearer's peace of mind and to Chris Matthew's reputation as a journalist.

I had barely finished forwarding the URL of Conason's piece to everyone I knew when another Hero of the Republic, Bob Somerby of The Daily Howler, took time out from his evisceration of Maureen Dowd (itself an instance of synchronicity, being that the June 1999 Brill's Content did a lengthy, yet fairly gentle, probe of the lady) to give us, in his 05/17/99 edition, a brilliant examination of yet another asinine maneuver by Willey's favorite interviewer.

Remember what I said a couple paras back about Willey failing a polygraph test? She took two tests; she flunked the first, but apparently did well on the second - although complete details of the tests have yet to appear in the press.

Chris Matthews wants you to think she passed both tests with flying colors

Bob Somerby is here to prove Matthews wrong - and will spend the rest of this week showing everyone exactly why Matthews is wrong.

Here's a brief glimpse from the Howler's piece:

"...our aggressive analysts had read the article from which the pent-up host was reading. They quickly brought it to our chambers--and showed us a talker's latest ruse.

"The article, written by the Post's Leef Smith, described two polygraphs Willey was given, only one of which Willey had passed. Indeed, here is the passage in Smith's short piece from which the talker had been sampling:

" 'In that test, Willey was asked whether she was "making up" any of the information she provided about Clinton allegedly touching her and whether she was "lying" about the president placing her hand on his groin. Clinton has adamantly denied Willey's charges.

" ' Willey answered "no" to both questions, but in their final report, test administrators said that "no determination as to Mrs. Willey's truthfulness can be made." ' "

" That's right. Smith had written a three-paragraph passage about a polygraph Willey did not pass. Matthews read the middle paragraph only--then told viewers his lady had passed."

Somerby ends his piece with yet another bit of info Mr. Matthews neglected to give us:

"Visits from the unread: Completely unmentioned by the tabloid talker was this, from Smith's short article:

" 'SMITH: In both polygraph exams, according to court documents, Willey said she told Steele about her alleged encounter with the president shortly after it occurred. However, in the first exam, the documents said, Willey showed "deception" in her answer about subsequent conversations she says she had with Steele about the White House incident. '

"Smith doesn't say whether Willey was asked the same questions about Steele in each exam. In Exam Two, did she 'pass' the same question on which she had 'failed?' There's no way to tell from Smith's article. Smith also doesn't state what was clarified elsewhere--that, in her second exam, Willey was not asked the question about 'making up information' that she failed to pass in Exam One. More to come, in our Wednesday report, about the questions Kathleen Willey was asked. "

You know, things are getting really bad for the right wing "con" when they start believing their own swill. Chris Matthews makes a silly accusation, Rush and Drudge pick up on it, and the next thing you know, ol' Hammerin' Hank is out slashing tires and packing heat.

I feel sorry for Mr. Shearer and his family. I hope they sue Chris Matthews, Matt Drudge and Rush Limbaugh for everything they've got. If Jenny Jones can be held liable for the actions of her crazy guests, surely these "gentlemen" can be held accountable for a) lying about Cory Shearer and b) nearly causing Cory Shearer's death.

Smearing people with phony rape and spousal-abuse accusations, disgusting as it is, is one thing. Inciting people to murder is another. These clowns must be stopped.