It is hard to decide whether Ronald Radosh is more incompetent than liar; or more liar than incompetent. What marries the two, however, is a malicious intent to deceive so maybe it hardly matters.

Take the latest Radosh mess, or, to use the term a la mode, his latest installment of "fake news" aimed at Trump senior strategist Stephen K. Bannon. I refer to Radosh's increasingly non-credible story that Bannon came up to him at a "book party" at the Breitbart Embassy, which doubles as Steve Bannon's home, and, unsolicited, revealed himself to Radosh to be a "Leninist."

Radosh has now pegged this alleged incident to three different dates -- surely evidence of incompetence ... but then there are all the lies.

All of it is increasingly hard to overlook out there, as when Salon executive editor Andrew O'Hehir's incredulity shows through on writing of the Bannon-"Leninist" story -- "according to the somewhat reliable testimony of writer Ronald Radosh." Ouch. "Somewhat reliable" also means "somewhat unreliable." Either way, not a historian's chosen testimonial -- although perfectly AOK for a fake historian/party-line propagandist.

Back to the three different dates.

It's probably worth mentioning that three different dates are par for the Radosh-fake-history course. In my own case, it was three different page numbers (and  rather more) for anecdotes Radosh falsely claimed to find in my book, American Betrayal -- but which are not in my book, on those pages or on any others.

The above page, by the way, comes from The Rebuttal: Defending American Betrayal from the Book-Burners (the original "book-burners" being deception-artists Radosh and David Horowitz.) Not in the slightest bit incidentally,The Rebuttal was originally published in three parts by Stephen K. Bannon at Breitbart News.

In other words, Radosh is no disinterested observer regarding Bannon or Breitbart News, where he was unmasked as a prevaricator and fraud -- and even, most trouncingly and embarassingly, by co-founder of the Soviet dissident movement Vladimir Bukovsky, also at Breitbart News (after Horowitz's Frontpage turned the great man's essay down).

Water under the bridge, true -- but still flowing.

In Radosh's original Daily Beast story of August 22, 2016, he wrote that this supposed "I am a Leninist" conversation took place at a "book party" in "early 2014." 

The date was key because the ensuing conversation Radosh reported on in detail turned on two columns by Thomas Sowell, one at National Review, the other elsewhere (the American Spectator). It was the National Review column, however, that triggered the next Bannon outburst, supposedly.

Here is what Radosh wrote in the original "early 2014" version:

I met Steve Bannon ... at a book party held at his Capitol Hill townhouse in early 2014. ... 

The same week as the party, Thomas Sowell had a column in the National Review Online, in which the conservative economist opposed the tactics employed by Ted Cruz in shutting down the government.

He goes on to quote from Sowell's NRO column plus a column Sowell published "later in the week."

Then:

During our conversation, I asked Bannon if he had read the pieces, since Sowell was criticizing a tactic which Bannon and the Tea Party had favored.

“National Review and The Weekly Standard,” he said, “are both left-wing magazines, and I want to destroy them also.” He added that “no one reads them or cares what they say.”

Really?

I knew it was highly unlikely that this incident went this way for reasons I will get to later. After I nailed the book party date as having been, in fact, November 12, 2013, the date of a book party at the Breitbart Embassy for Radosh's lifelong comrade David Horowitz, Radosh corrected the Daily Beast story to backdate Bannon's alleged "I am a Leninist" statement to November 12, 2013.

The February 2014 Sowell columns were out, however.

Mirabile dictu, Thomas Sowell writes columns every week. For the "corrected" version, Radosh found not two different columns as originally cited, but one column that ran at Townhall and, essentially for his "corrected" version, also at National Review. This 2013 column was not about about Ted Cruz (oh well); it was about the Tea Party, but it would do just as well.

Only not quite.

Here is the "corrected" version Radosh published to keep his "Leninist" story together: 

I met Steve Bannon ... at a book party held at his Capitol Hill townhouse on November 12, 2013. ...

Riding on the Metro to the party, I read an article that had just been posted on National Review Online [no link] and in TownHall.com by Thomas Sowell, the conservative economist, in which he opposed the tactics used by the Tea Party in shutting down the government.

The Metro again (private American Betrayal joke).

Ted Cruz not shutting down the government aside: The Tea Party did not shut down the government, nor did Thomas Sowell write such a ridiculous thing.

Oh well. Radosh just keeps on keeping on:

I then asked Bannon whether or not he had read Sowell's piece, since Bannon was in favor of the very Tea Party tactic that Sowell had criticized.

He's just hoping no one will notice his bait (Cruz) and switch (Tea Party).

“National Review and The Weekly Standard,” he said, “are both left-wing magazines, and I want to destroy them also.” He added that “no one reads them or cares what they say.”

Now, it is possible Radosh read the Sowell Tea Party column at Townhall before attending the Horowitz book party on November 12, 2013. But he really needed that National Review trigger to fire up Bannon's purported follow-up comment about his wanting to "destroy" National Review.

Unfortunately for Radosh, the Sowell National Review column -- the one he is now invoking for discussion on November 12, 2013 (and not linking to!) in his "corrected" version -- is, in fact, dated November 13, 2013, 12:00 AM.

Thwack.

Fake historians of the world unite.

OK, National Review aside: What are the chances a Sowell column at Townhall about the Tea-Party- failure to force the Democrat-controlled Senate to defund Obamacare inspired then-Breitbart-News-chairman Steve Bannon to begin ranting and raving about destroying National Review and the Weekly Standard?

I wasn't there (thank goodness) but I think those chances are slim & none.

As for that third date, Radosh has now writen a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal, drilling down on his increasingly fractured story, in which he super-fakely dates the alleged incident to September 12, 2013. 

I may have a bit more to say about this whole load a little later; for now, I will close with what Steve Bannon told me personally about his David Horowitz book party meeting with Ron Radosh on November 12, 2013 -- a date that followed literally months of Breitbart coverage of the American Betrayal wars waged by that deceptive duo, Radosh and Horowitz.

Bannon noticed this old guy standing around. He went over to speak to him and found himself getting an earful about how awful American Betrayal was, how awful I was. Radosh -- who else?

Here is the line, Bannon to Radosh, I will never forget: "What are you complaining about? She's the only reason you're relevant!"