Live from Phnom Penh with Hugh and Glenn

Well, maybe not Phnom Penh. Maybe Orange County. But the Instapundit and I were just on Hugh Hewitt’s Show discussing the escalating Cambodiagate Scandal. How deep a hole is Kerry in here? Well, it may depend on what your definition of “near” is. The Kerry Campaign, in apparent disarray when confronted by Carl Cameron of Fox News, insisted that Kerry only said he was “near” Cambodia, despite numerous instances to the contrary, including this record of a Senate speech, in which the geographicaly-challenged Senator stated he was in Cambodia on Christmas of 1968. The Kerry Campaign, unable to deal with their candidates own “statements,” told Cameron they would be back later with an update.

It’s hard to believe the Kerry Campaign was so clueless not to have a response to an accusation made in a book that has been hovering around number one on Amazon for the last week. [Maybe no one’s figured out a good lie yet.–ed. May-bee.]

Hugh wanted to know if Glenn and I thought the mainstream media (other than Fox) were going to deal with this story thoroughly. We both thought it would take a few days for them to get their fingers out of their ears, but that they had little choice. As Glenn pointed out, the mainstream media ignore stories like this at their peril. They may benefit (or think they benefit) in the short run, but in the long run, it is another chink in their “armor of trustworthiness” if they don’t cover it.

UPDATE: Another point Glenn mentioned was that Kerry spoke in the Senate about being fired on by the Cambodian Khmer Rouge that Christmas of ’68. Reynolds wondered aloud if the Khmer were even in existence then. I wondered quietly, not wanting to get trapped on a history question. Well, according to this article at least, the Khmer Rouge n’existait pas until 1970. Maybe they were firing on Kerry through a time machine.

MORE: Some of Glenn’s readers have interesting info on the Khmer Rouge as well. One says they existed in 1968 but weren’t active as a fighting force until 1970. A ver, as we say in Spanish.

AND DON’T FORGET: What M. Simon (no relation) said. Ths is up to us. We have the power to make sure this doesn’t go away.

MORE: On valuable material on the Swift Boats Vets at The Mudville Gazette.