Not since Sestak-gate (remember that scandal?), has Sean Hannity seemed so upbeat about the chances of turning President Obama into a crook, at least in the public eye. Last night, Hannity welcomed discredited author Ed Klein for a double segment on his show to discuss hush money supposedly offered to Rev. Jeremiah Wright by the Barack Obama campaign in 2008. 

As Media Matters noted, even Fox News guests have pointed out Klein’s lack of credibility. Think Progress has its own impressive list of reasons not to believe a single thing Klein says.

But Hannity - the guy who pals around with a slavery apologist who also thinks most women are little whores – can’t get enough opportunities to race bait against Obama. So it was no surprise that he described Klein has having a “mountain of new evidence” showing “just how unprepared Obama was” for the presidency and “the bombshell interview” with Wright in which he supposedly “was throwing Barack Obama down the stairs” by revealing the news about the hush money.

Hannity didn’t bother to hide the excitement in his voice as he “asked,” about the supposed offer of money to Wright, “Why does this sound to me a lot like why John Edwards is on trial right now?” Klein laughed merrily at the suggestion.

Well, there are plenty of reasons. For one thing, Edwards is accused of using campaign money for personal use. Neither Klein nor Hannity offered up any evidence that money supposedly offered to Wright came from campaign donations. In fact, Hannity offered up no evidence of any laws having been broken whatsoever. But that didn’t stop him from insinuating otherwise – as his face lit up with glee.

“Is it an offer for an in-kind donation to buy the silence of somebody that could hurt his campaign?” Hannity asked. But having raised the question, there was no real effort to get an answer. However, he did go on to say that Obama and Wright met “and they hide it from – in the middle of the campaign… Rev. Wright has already been offered through an intermediary to stop talking. Now the President makes that appeal, himself.” Hannity then played a clip of Wright saying that he had been asked to stop speaking publicly until the campaign was over.

I say, so what? Obama would have been an idiot not to ask Wright to tone it down during the campaign.

Hannity and Klein went on to trumpet a quote from Obama supposedly saying, “The trouble with you, Reverend, is that you have to tell the truth.” The implication was that Obama agrees with Wright’s “God Damn America” pronouncements - and then lied about it - but both Hannity and Klein neglected to offer the complete context of Obama’s supposed quote.

Although Hannity has never had a good word to say about Wright, suddenly Wright – a man with an obvious axe to grind against Obama – was accepted unconditionally as a truthteller. “Basically, Rev. Wright is telling the world right now, knowing that this is an important point in the election, that Barack Obama is a liar!” Hannity said happily.

Meanwhile, Klein made the dubious accusation that Michelle Obama froze Oprah Winfrey out of her anti-obesity initiative because “and this was an Oprah quote,” Klein said, “Michelle doesn’t want me in the White House working with her on this anti-obesity campaign because she says she doesn’t like a fat person waddling around the White House.” 

Predictably, Hannity accepted that without question, too.