FRANKEN & CONASON TAKE ON ED KLEIN

MediaMatters has the complete transcript and I encourage you to read it.

Here's a sample, from the beginning:

LANPHER: You're listening to the Al Franken Show. I'm Katherine Lanpher.
FRANKEN: And I'm Al Franken. In the studio with us is Joe Conason, and in Washington is Ed Klein. Ed Klein's new book is The Truth About Hillary. It's published by Sentinel from Penguin, which is my publisher, at Dutton. I'm just thrilled about that. He joins us from the Center for American Progress in Washington D.C. Thank you, Ed, for joining us.
KLEIN: Thank you for having me, Al.
FRANKEN: Okay, and now would you call this book your best work?
KLEIN: I think this is the best book I've written, yes.
FRANKEN: Oh, good. Okay, good. Now I think I found a mistake.
KLEIN: Congratulations.
FRANKEN: Yeah, now do you have the book?
KLEIN: In front of me, no.
FRANKEN: Okay, but you wrote it, so you know the book.
KLEIN: I think so.
FRANKEN: Yeah. Okay, and on page 172 --
KLEIN: Yes.
FRANKEN: This is a thing about [Sen. Daniel Patrick] Pat Moynihan [D-NY] and not being able to say her [Clinton's] name [during a press conference to announce her candidacy for the New York seat in the U.S. Senate from which Moynihan was retiring], and now let me quote the book and then I'll quote what...anyway, I'll just quote what you wrote:
"God, I almost forgot," he said, with a mischievous grin."
Or mischievous grin. That's talking about Pat Moynihan, the late senator from New York whose seat Hillary took.
"God, I almost forgot," he said, with a mischievous grin. "I'm here to say that I hope she will go all the way, I mean to go all the way with her. I think she's going to win. I think it's going to be wonderful for New York. For Moynihan, apparently, it was easier to say "she" than 'Hillary.'"
Now did you leave anything out there, in between the two sentences you quoted?
KLEIN: Are you reading from my book?
FRANKEN: Yes.
KLEIN: What's the title of my book? I don't think you mentioned it.
FRANKEN: The Truth about Hillary. Now did you -- well, I did, and I actually did mention it in the lead-in, and I think I just did.
KLEIN: Well, in any case, let me answer your question. Pat addressed -- as Joe Conason who's sitting there with you can, I'm sure, attest -- Pat addressed the assembled press and mentioned Hillary's name three times.
FRANKEN: Now did you leave anything out in between the two sentences that you quoted?
KLEIN: Not that I'm aware of.
FRANKEN: Well, you did, you know. And what you said after you quote the two sentences from Moynihan was --
KLEIN: Were there ellipses between the two sentences?
FRANKEN: No.
KLEIN: No. No. So in other words, there's something that is missing.
FRANKEN: Yeah.
CONASON: Al, this is Joe. Why don't you read the actual, what Senator Moynihan really said --
FRANKEN: This was --
CONASON: -- as opposed to what's in Mr. Klein's book.
FRANKEN: Well, this is what Moynihan said, and this is how he got into it. He said, "Now I have the great pleasure to welcome Mrs. Clinton to the farm and turn over the microphone to our candidate. Before you do, before I do... Oh, my God, I almost forgot. Yesterday Hillary Clinton established an exploratory committee as regards to her candidacy for the Senate, United States Senate from New York, a seat which I will vacate in a year and a half." And then you pick up with, "I'm here to say, I hope she will go all the way. I mean to go all the way with her. I think she's going to win. I think she's going to be wonderful for New York." So you leave out --
KLEIN: I left out an ellipsis.
CONASON: You did not.
FRANKEN: You didn't leave out an ellipsis. You deliberately left out the --
KLEIN: There's no --
CONASON: I know you don't have the book in front of you. How much would you like to bet there's no ellipsis on that page?
FRANKEN: No, he's saying that's what he left out.
KLEIN: That's what I'm saying, Joe.
CONASON: No, there's no ellipsis.
FRANKEN: No, he's saying he left it out.
KLEIN: I should have put in an ellipsis.
CONASON: Oh. And why would you have cut out the two references to her name and put in an ellipsis? That would have been equally dishonest.
FRANKEN: You know why? Because I -- here -- this is what I think, Ed, and you may take issue with this. I think you deliberately left it out because it would have hurt the sentence where you say, "For Moynihan it was easier to say 'she' than 'Hillary.' " I think that's why you left out the sentence that says, "Hillary."
KLEIN: Well I --
FRANKEN: Really, honestly now, could you address that?
KLEIN: I'd be happy to.
FRANKEN: Yeah.
KLEIN: First of all, I didn't know that you were a mind-reader, so that you're reading why I did something.
CONASON: Oh, you're not in a good position to say that --
KLEIN: No? Why not?
CONASON: After writing this. Because you've read her mind over and over again, and I doubt you've ever met her.
KLEIN: Oh, really?
CONASON: Oh, there's quite a bit about what's in her mind in this book that you could have no possible way of knowing.
KLEIN: Well, let's start with the Moynihan --
CONASON: But answer this. Where, if you had put in an ellipsis, wouldn't the purpose of that have been to deceive?
KLEIN: No, absolutely not. Joe, this is ridiculous. You know, we know you know very well that the Moynihans had no use for Hillary.
FRANKEN: No, no, no. I'm just asking you about this specific --
CONASON: I happen not to agree with that, but --
KLEIN: You don't agree with that?
CONASON: But why -- if that were true -- why would you need to deceive the readers into thinking he hadn't mentioned her name?
FRANKEN: That's true, you know, usually when you have a good case, you don't have to deceive people.
CONASON: I mean, I'm not able to read Sen. Moynihan's mind. He's gone. I didn't know then, and I know he had disagreements --
KLEIN: You didn't have to read his mind.
CONASON: I know he had disagreements. You've also ... You got a lot of things wrong about Moynihan in here, but certainly you didn't need to, if he really disliked her so much, why would you need to deceive the readers about what he actually said that day? Did you not look it up?
KLEIN: My intention in this book was not to deceive anybody.
CONASON: Why did you do that, then?
KLEIN: Well, I didn't do it intentionally, and if I left out some words, I'm sorry.
FRANKEN: And how was it vetted?
KLEIN: That certainly was not my intention, and we know that when Pat finally came to do the endorsement, he didn't use her name.
CONASON: What?
FRANKEN: What? This is the endorsement!
CONASON: This is the endorsement. There's video, there's audio, it's on a transcript.
FRANKEN: Oh, come on, Ed! You can do better than that.
CONASON: He used her name. He used her name twice and you left it out.
FRANKEN: Just, just admit it that you did this, you left it out so you could make your point which is "for Moynihan apparently it was easier to say 'she' than 'Hillary.' "
CONASON: I don't understand how you could write the sentence "It was easier to say 'she' than 'Hillary' " if you read the transcript where he mentioned her name twice.
FRANKEN: Three times. Anyway, Ed, we're going to have to come back. This is gonna be fun. This'll really be fun. Honest.
CONASON: You think about the answer while we're taking a break.