I'd say that you're smart to not claim too much vindication in that Insight article (Insight, by the way, calls itself a "sister publication" to the Washington Times).

The "Clinton camp" is "asking questions"...and an "investigation of Mr. Obama by political opponents within the Democratic Party"..."the source said"..."the sources said"..."the Clinton camp concluded"..."His father was black and came from Kenya" [well that clinches it]...

"The sources said the background check concerned Mr. Obama's years in Jakarta. In Indonesia"...yes, about four decades ago; but nevertheless..."the U.S. intelligence community has determined that today most of these schools are financed by the Saudi Arabian government and they teach a Wahhabi doctrine that denies the rights of non-Muslims". Wickedly clever, that nasty implication.

All the classic evasions and obfuscations that you've forthrightly denounced in the past, Tom. What's different about this one?

I Googled the three words "Clinton Obama Muslim" (not quoted to make a phrase), and discovered that I am way behind the curve on the Republican smear campaign against Barack Obama, and I had no idea that it's being set up to smear Hillary Clinton as well. They've been busily at work on this one since he came to prominence in 2004. There's a telling uniformity to the hit pieces, most of them, like that one, the classic pattern of dark insinuations without offering any proof at all. Basically the thesis is that Obama is a "Muslim mole", an Islamic fifth-columnist planted in America decades ago, who is plotting to hand America over to bin Laden as soon as he's elected President. I didn't realize the sheer genius of bin Laden, to have set this plot in motion four decades ago, when he himself was but a boy.

Not all of the smears are subtle. There's a Debbie Schlussel, posting on her blog "Thoughts of a Conservative Christian" the delightful screed Debbie Schlussel: Barack Hussein Obama: Once a Muslim, Always A Muslim — Is Obama a Muslim manchurian candidate?.

Yes, I'd say that there's little vindication for you there, Tom. More like the revelation that the rot is both deeper and broader than I'd thought. It's not just a smear against Barack Obama, it's a wickedly triangulated smear against Hillary Clinton too.

You must be so proud of your Party.