Thanks to Karl Rove's interview with Gentlema's Quarterly, some notice has been taken of John Hinderaker's utter demolition of the 60 Minutes hit job on Rove. Here is the relevant exchange from the interview:

Let's talk about the last couple of scandals you've been involved in. Don Siegelman in Alabama [the Democratic governor whom Rove was recently accused of trying to sabotage by forcing U.S. attorneys to bring corruption charges against him prior to an election]. What happened?

[rolls his eyes] Will you do me a favor and go on Power Line and Google "Dana Jill Simpson" [the Republican lawyer who told 60 Minutes that Rove asked her to take a picture of Governor Siegelman cheating on his wife]? She's a complete lunatic. I've never met this woman. This woman was not involved in any campaign in which I was involved. I have yet to find anybody who knows her. And what the media has done on this… No one has read the 143-page deposition that she gave congressional investigators—143 pages. When she shows up to give her explanation of all this, do you know how many times my name appears? Zero times. Nobody checked!

Then how did this happen?

Because CBS is a shoddy operation. They said, "Hey, if we can say 'Karl Rove,' 'Siegelman,' that'll be good for ratings. Let's hype it. We'll put out a news release on Thursday and then promo the hell out of it on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday." And Scott Pelley—the question is, Did [60 Minutes correspondent] Scott Pelley say to this woman, "You say you met with him. Where? And you say that he gave you other assignments earlier. When did he begin giving you assignments, and what campaigns did you work with him in? What evidence? I mean, this woman, she said she met with him: Okay, you met with him—where? Did you fly to Washington?" Now she says that she talked to me on the phone and she's got phone records. Of calls to Washington and Virginia. But what's Virginia? I don't live in Virginia. And it's 2001. What is in Virginia? It's not the Bush headquarters; that was in Austin, Texas. What is in Virginia? So—but look, she's a loon.

No word has been heard from CBS since John's post. Now, however, according to the AP, CBS is coming back for more:

Kevin Tedesco, a CBS spokesman, said "60 Minutes" stands by the story and will report on it further Sunday with an interview with Siegelman, who was recently released from prison while his corruption conviction is on appeal. Tedesco said Siegelman would challenge Rove to testify under oath.

Two can play at this game. We challenge Scott Pelley to testify under oath in a deposition to be taken by John Hinderaker.

The AP adds: "Simpson's attorney, meanwhile, said she would ask GQ to retract Rove's remarks and apologize to Simpson." We challenge Simpson's attorney to produce Ms. Simpson's MMPI.

Has anyone beside Karl Rove and John Hinderaker read the 143-page transcript of Simpson's interview with staff of the House Judiciary Committee? As John observes in his post, the whole point of the interview was to try to show that in 2002 Republicans including Karl Rove conspired to destroy Don Siegelman with a trumped-up prosecution. Nevertheless, Simpson never suggested that she knew Rove; that she had ever spoken to Rove; or that Rove had asked her to spy on Siegelman -- all facts that would have been highly relevant to the committee's inquiry.

In his post, John diagnosed Simpson as a nut. Simpson's attorney hasn't asked us for a retraction or an apology, but we're standing by our diagnosis. And we've got a confirmatory second opinion from an expert whom we highly respect.

To comment on this post, go here.