GIBSON: According to a recent Rasmussen Report poll, 35 percent of Democrats think President Bush knew about the 9/11 attacks beforehand. The so-called 9/11 Truth Movement has already infected people like Rosie O’Donnell and one in three Democrats, and many other people, Americans evidently, including Congressman Ron Paul. With me now is FOX News contributor and syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin.

So, Michelle, this stuns me. It wouldn’t have stunned me had it come up in the Democratic debate, but it’s a jaw-dropper to see it in the Republican debate.

MICHELLE MALKIN: It is and it doesn’t belong here. And I’m glad that this moment provided great TV for FOX News — it was a very instructive exchange — but Ron Paul really has no business being on stage as a legitimate representative of Republicans, because the 9/11 truth virus is something that infects only a very small proportion of people that would identify themselves as conservative or Republican. And as you say, John, this is far more prevalent, this strain of 9/11 truth virus, on the left, and in much of the mainstream of the Democratic Party as that Rasmussen poll showed.

You know, I try not to spend too much time in these cesspools, but it is worth taking a visit to places like, you know, these WTC7 sites and Students and Scholars for Truth, and I note that Ron Paul has basically allied himself with these people. He appears with Students for Truth on campus and he’s appeared on radio shows like 9/11 conspiracy nut Alex Jones.

Andrew Sullivan also has written about how Malkin and Gibson distorted Ron Paul’s position. He writes, “This dialogue between John Gibson and Michelle Malkin actually takes it as a premise that Ron Paul stated that Bush knew about 9/11 in advance.” Then after providing a transcript of the conservation between Malkin and Gibson, he concludes, “Gibson and Malkin owe Paul an apology. They are knowingly smearing under the guise of journalism.”

The pro-war attacks dogs, having had their fun slandering the positions of anti-war liberals, have now set their sights on Republican Congressman Ron Paul, who has been be the most consistently outspoken critic of the Iraq War since its inception.

I’ve been calling for country-of-origin labelling down to the ingredient level nearly the entire time.

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