The scumbags at Powerline are trying to claim that Jimmy Carter is on The Other Side against America (presumably that’s the side of such well-known allies as Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Ayatollah Khomenei, Michael Moore and Jacques Chirac).

While the main accusasion is sufficiently insane to not even be worth bothering refuting [*], one particular bit stands out like a rent boy at a White House press conference. The Powerloons accuse President Carter of "conspiring with our chief enemy to try to influence an American Presidential election."

This is based on a report on NewsMax that in 1980, President Carter asked the Russians to give Jews extra emigration permits, so that he could claim credit for this deal in the election campaign.

This hardly seems outrageous, given that the Russians were offered nothing in return (other than the prospect of an opponent less mad than Ronald Reagan). But the mind-exploding thing about the whole made-up scandal is that *at the same time*, the Reagan team were cutting a deal with Iran to ensure that 51 American hostages would not be released until Ronnie’s inauguration.

Memo to all concerned: if you’re going to accuse your opponents of treason, then try not to pick occasions when they aren’t guilty of treason, but the people on your side are…

[*] Commendably, The Editors and Matt Yglesias do so anyway.