ANTHONY LEWIS IS A BIG FAT IDIOT: To be perfectly candid, I know nothing about Anthony Lewis's weight or height. To me, he's just a byline on a New York Times column. But now that I've said he's big and fat, anyone else can say, with perfect accuracy, that "It has been said that Anthony Lewis is a big fat idiot," and no one could argue the point.

Today, Anthony Lewis says in his New York Times column:

...On Nov. 23, Mr. Sharon sent Israeli aircraft to kill Mahmoud Abu Hanoud, a senior leader of Hamas. He was a principal planner of terrorist attacks, it was said, and removing him would safeguard Israel. To the contrary, as every knowledgeable person understood, Hamas retaliation was certain. It came last weekend.

I'm sure someone, somewhere -- either without regard to the complex reality of the situation, or in a sarcastic voice that doesn't come across in print journalism -- must surely have muttered aloud that the Israeli action of November 23 would safeguard Israel. Possibly, they added "And monkeys might fly out of my butt." Anthony Lewis doesn't say.

But in his latest paen to terrorist appeasement, Lewis attributes this statement to ... nobody. All that matters is that It Was Said, and Lewis can say it was said. End of argument. Lewis 1, Nobody 0. Anthony Lewis must be right, and Sharon must be a big, fat idiot.

Likewise, it has been said that we should seek to understand Osama bin Laden's grievances -- perhaps, we should even negotiate with him -- and that merely wiping him off the face of the planet will not prevent future binLadenites from carrying out more terror attacks in the future. I leave the reader to draw their own conclusions about which side Anthony Lewis would apparently take on that argument. Certainly, there's no point in actually inviting him to explain the complexity of the situation -- or even to research his past writings, to see if he's taken a position at all. It's enough that it has been said that he's a terrorist appeaser.

Good enough for the New York Times, anyway. Or so it has been said.