Last week I called the Mike Fleming show (yeah, I know) to add some substance to his criticism of a Commercial Appeal editorial. I was on hold a few minutes before the producer picked up my call and asked if I could call back the next hour because they were about to do a scheduled interview but might take up the subject again later. I decided to send an e-mail instead so I could be done with it and move on to other things.

Four days pass…

This morning I’m on my way back home after taking Alison to work, and Mike’s promo comes on. Every weekday morning at about 6:59, Mike has a little 60 second spot where he does a little rant followed by “…all that and more, typical of what you get afternoons 4-7 on the Mike Fleming radio program.” Today his rant was actually just the meat of my email, almost verbatim. He didn’t mention the source, but he used all of my information without changing any words, and simply adding a few little asides here and there. It was pretty entertaining, and not only because he was speaking in complete sentences for once (just ribbing you, Mike — in case you see this — you’re great, really).

So here’s my email, with linky goodness added for your pleasure:

Mike,

I called earlier and would call again but figured you might get as much use out of an email.

Concerning the “morning publication”s editorial today… a coworker of mine was at the Rotary club meeting and said he was simply outraged by what ABA president Michael Greco said (or what he didn’t say).

The morning publication says Greco’s “voice should not be dismissed as just another from the far-left fringe of public discourse.”

Well, I decided to do some research on Greco this afternoon, and the results are not surprising.

First off, the man is a lawyer from Massachusetts, home of Ted Kennedy and John Kerry — so that’s already two strikes against him.

But I also found out that Greco has contribued thousands of dollars to political candidates over the past decade… all of them Democrats.

Greco also supported Cheryl Jacques, who calls herself “the first openly gay State Senator in Massachusetts history.” She also claims credit for “the defeat of the Federal Marriage Amendment.”

Greco and the ABA have a chip on their shoulder ever since President Bush decided to end the ABA’s role in screening judicial nominees in 2001. This is a man who certainly has a bone to pick with President Bush; it isn’t a legal argument that Greco is making — if it were, he would make his arguments in court rather than at Rotary club meetings.

The Commercial Appeal would like to pass off Greco as a distinguished leader of a civic group, but the truth is that he’s just a partisan hack, heading up a group that has become more and more partisan over the past two decades, and it’s membership has actually declined during that time because of the ABA’s liberal bias.

Fleming quoted paragraphs six, seven and eight verbatim. It’s a very weird feeling. I imagine this is how Karl Rove feels every morning after he sends the talking points to Fox News and us inhabitants of the conservative blogosphere. Or, this could be how Michael Greco would feel if he knew The Commercial Appeal sucked up all his arguments and spewed them right back out for the general audience, uncritically.