Debbie Schlussel: a Study in Strange Behavior

Once upon a time, Debbie Schlussel was a very big deal in the conservative movement.  She wrote articles for World Net Daily.  She appeared on CNN and Fox News to discuss the news of the day.  She posed for a picture with mega-star Sean Hannity, wearing a skin-tight dress that really showed off her ta-tas.  She wrote articles that were published in the New York Post, the Washington Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Jerusalem Post.  She even had (and still does) her own page on Wikipedia.

But that was back in 2001 - 2006.  Since then, Schlussel's outrageous smears against other conservatives have lessened her credibility considerably.

One of the biggest targets of her invective is Sean Hannity, who has both a television show and a radio talk show.  Schlussel has accused both Sean Hannity and Oliver North of "scamming troops with Freedom Alliance."

  World Net Daily reports Debbie's smear:

Yesterday, she charged, "For the last several years, Sean Hannity and the Freedom Alliance 'charity' have conducted 'Freedom Concerts' across America. They've told you that they are raising money to pay for the college tuition of the children of fallen soldiers and to pay severely wounded war vets. … But it's all a huge scam.

Freedom Alliance described Schlussel's comments as "false and malicious."  World Net Daily thoroughly rebuts Debbie Schlussel's smears.  Read it here.

Schlussel seems obsessed with "scams" and sees fraud and abuse everywhere.  Her long list of accusations include the following:

• When she lost a Michigan congressional race to Barbara Dodd, she accused Dodd (and the judge who ruled on the issue) of "voter fraud."
• This week she referred to popular conservative blogger Pamela Geller as "Scamela Geller"  
• Accused Sean Hannity of plagiarizing material from her website and misusing funds from a charity
• Accused John Corsi (author of "Unfit for Command") of plagiarizing material from her World Net Daily column
• Accused the Los Angeles Times of plagiarizing her work
• Accused Lawrence Auster of "View From the Right" of "approving intellectual property theft" when he ran a blog entry about a World Net Daily article (see Lawrence Auster's telling description of Schlussel's strange and hostile behavior:  "Debbie Schlussel's Demented Attack on Me")
• Accused Alan Dershowitz, noted lawyer and Harvard professor of law, of "shamelessly plagiarizing" another author in his book, The Case for Israel (Former Harvard president Derek Bok reviewed the charge and found that no plagiarism had occurred).

I'm sure I could find more material on the internet about Schlussel's long and paranoid campaign against nearly everyone.  But you get the idea.

I like Lawrence Auster's conclusions about Debbie, as they mirror my own.  In response to her angry accusations of plagiarism of Little Green Footballs by World Net Daily, Auster corrected her, which only angered her more.  Puzzled by her anger, Auster wrote:

Also, I have linked and approvingly quoted you on several occasions. Why are you attacking me like this and needlessly generating hostility between us?

No doubt many a conservative author and pundit could ask that question.  Why is she hostile and attacking of so many who used to be her allies and friends?  Only her shrink knows for sure (and Debbie, if you don't have one, get the yellow pages out and find one.  Fast.)

Auster concludes his article on Schlussel:

I didn't hear back from Schlussel. All I can say is, based on her intemperate and insulting attacks on me, and her apparent total inability to grasp the simple fact that WND had not inappropriately copied or lifted anything from LGF, I would not credit Schlussel's judgment and objectivity on any matter. I had approvingly quoted her articles in the past. I will not do so again.

The same goes for me.  I have approvingly quoted her articles in the past, but I will not do so again.  I still have her link in my "A List," but will now include a warning to readers.

Debbie Schlussel's strange behavior continues to puzzle.  She acts, not like a person who wants to succeed, but someone who wants to fail.  She is burning bridges faster than a retreating army, destroying all prior goodwill towards her and turning former allies into enemies.

In other words, Debbie has become Charles Johnson in drag.

Update:  The link to "Debbie Schlussel's Demented Attack on Me," by Lawrence Auster, has been fixed.  Do read his article, it is an excellent example of Schlussel's behavior.

Lawrence Auster of "View From the Right" writes Saber Point and says:

Hi, I see Schlussel goes on. I was not aware that she had been on TV, and had published at WSJ, etc. Thanks for linking that old piece of mine. I've been attacked for a lot of things, but to be attacked as a dishonest person, a person without intellectual conscience, because of something that some other website did, was a unique experience, like being beaten up in an alley way. Also, it never occurred to her to write to me and apologize. I didn't post my exchange with her until a year after it occurred. I certainly gave her ample chance to return to her senses.