What's the Big Deal?

Clifford May in the National Review Online says that the al-Qaqaa story is really about "foreign interests that may be improperly influencing the U.S. media to affect the outcome of an American election."

At this point, Times editors ought to be asking who got their story rolling and to what end?

Here's one theory: It was Mohammed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Why would he do that? "The U.S. is trying to deny ElBaradei a second term," a high U.S. government official told me. "We have been on his case for missing the Libyan nuclear weapons program and for weakness on the Iranian nuclear weapons program."

ElBaradei also opposed the liberation of Iraq. And he would like nothing better than to see President Bush be defeated next week.

If all this is true it would amount to a major scandal: It would mean that a senior U.N. official may be changing the outcome of an American election by spreading false information. And major U.S. media outlets are allowing themselves to be manipulated in pursuit of that goal.

The attempt by a UN official to influence the election in favor of John Kerry is a very big deal. And don't forget--there are Democrats in this country who have invited UN officials to come oversee our elections.

(Yes, I question their patriotism.)