Last week, Jimmy Carter, ex-president and humanistic diplomat, visited the leaders of Hamas. The Right swooned: how dare he? This, of course, is because the American Government’s tongue is so far up the anal sphincter of Israel that to give Hamas a reach-around is just in bad taste.

Outrage could also be found directly spouting from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: “The United States is not going to deal with Hamas and we had certainly told President Carter that we did not think meeting with Hamas was going to help.” And similarly: “We counseled President Carter against going to the region and particularly against having contact with Hamas.”

And then the Jimmy Carter center comes back with a left: “President Carter has the greatest respect for … Rice and believes her to be a truthful person. However, perhaps inadvertently, she is continuing to make a statement that is not true. No one in the State Department or any other department of the U.S. government ever asked him (Carter) to refrain from his recent visit to the Middle East or even suggested that he not meet with Syrian President (Bashar) Assad or leaders of Hamas.”

Ooh, snap! So who’s lying?