Michelle got it wrong, yet again, this week by publishing (approvingly and without the appropriate fact check) an email, which claims that Ted Rall was not the first commentator to lambast some of the more opportunistic widows and widowers of 9/11.

“The widows’” act (all four of them) was getting tired long ago and Ann Coulter or that creep Ted Rall weren’t the first to point it out. Dorothy Rabinowitz of the WSJ may have that distinction and said as much in 2004.

Rall was the first, but it doesn’t stop Malkin from reprinting a large portion of a two-year-old column that wasn’t even interesting when it was new. Furthermore, she doesn’t have the temerity to reprint the comic in question. (By the way, the comic is over four years old, and can be viewed below the fold.)

Here’s the comic:

Here’s what Rall had to say about the recent dustup instigated by Coulter:

First, Coulter isn’t always wrong about everything. No one is. Second, she’s a lot meaner to the widows as people than my cartoon was, which explored the way specific media figures–Mariane Pearl, Theodore Olsen and Lisa Beamer–exploited their spouses’ deaths to make money or political hay. The vast majority of widows and widowers of 9/11, I have repeatedly said and written, deserve our sympathy and whatever help they need to rebuild their lives. My commentary was about the media phenomenon, such as the parade of 9/11 widows who went on stage during the 2004 GOP Necropublican Convention in New York to endorse Bush, then the specific individuals.

As for the right’s inability to demonstrate ideological consistency, well, I can’t say I’m surprised.

Recommended reading: Ted Rall’s reaction to 9/11. Highly recommended.