As the politically astute among us know, conservatives ran a whisper campaign for years and years following the suicide of Vince Foster, a Clinton Administration confidante, in the mid-1990's. Foster's suicide took place in the heat of the Whitewater investigation, and for years conservatives quietly claimed that Foster's suicide was anything but. He was "iced" because he knew too much. That's the story the neocons spun, and it's stuck in the neocon community for many years.
Progressives have had their own "Vince Foster" since 2001 (and even before, if you count the smear campaign again J.H. Hatfield since 1999). In the late 1990's, Hatfield wrote a book titled "Fortunate Son", a scathing indictment of George W. Bush - the book apparently made "Bushwhacked", by Molly Ivins, look tame by comparison. Hatfield's publisher, St. Martins Press, believed it had a major bestseller on its hands in the leadup to the 2000 election. But then something happened.
Out of nowhere came the story of ex-con Hatfield, and a neocon smear campaign was aggressively launched against Hatfield. St. Martins recalled the book immediately after release, and ate a big loss on the book. "Fortunate Son" sank into quick oblivion. But then, and independent publisher picked up the book - and started to make some headway in publicizing the book back into the mainstream - when all of a sudden, J.H. Hatfield turned up dead.
"Horns and Halos" is a movie that's just hitting DVD this week - and it's not a movie based on "Fortunate Son" - it's a movie based on the very strange saga of the book. Regardless of the veracity of the allegations in the book, it's the story of the book (and J.H. Hatfield) that has become the award winning "Horns and Halos". The two DVD set is well worth a view.
Here's a link to an interview with Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky, directors of "Horns and Halos".
You can purchase "Horns and Halos", which starts shipping today, here. (Again, thanks to the good folks @ TLA Video, I already have my copy in hand, and look forward to watching it tonight. I'll give you a review later this evening. The official release of the Bush's Brain DVD starts shipping today also.)
