Michelle Malkin was indeed asked whether her husband does any writing in her place at times.  How do I know?  Because I was listening to the interview, on the Brad and Britt Show, on Friday morning while in the car.

I wouldn't call Brad Krantz a "liberal".  First, I'd rather call them "leftists" because the word "liberal" implies they believe in liberty, and they are an offshoot ideologically with the men and women who participated in the American Revolution, which they are neither of these.  Second, Brad is more center that outright left.  But he has his times where he sounds really off kilter, and the Malkin interview was one of those times.  Half of the time he sounded really dumb, and Malkin shot most of his questions out of the water.

I'm surprised she singled that question out tonight, as she tends to ignore most of the personal attacks that come her way, other than to mention them as an example of the vitrol that her critics hurl at her.  I've seen those rumors, but have never paid any attention to them.  However, she did admit that her husband does help her as a research assistant for her books and has helped her with a "handful" of blog posts, among other things.

That's not good.  I'm not saying she should have kept her mouth shut about it, but she should have been more open about this before she was actually questioned about it.  I'm not sure if she mentioned this in any of her books, but did she state her husband helped her with research in the acknowledgements section?  If not, she should have.  I, for one, know that Thomas Sowell does this in every book, as he has a long-time assistant that gets acknowleged on almost every book he's done as of late.  And if her husband even wrote one blog post, it should have been attributed to him personally...not to her. 

By not doing this, she's opened herself up to criticism, regardless of if he was "converted" to conservatism by her or not.  She's right; it's not a right-wing conspiracy, as his political leanings of the past or present are irrelevant.  Her readers - whether it's her columns, books, or blog posts - expect her writings to come from her and her only, unless otherwise noted.  It's just as if her guest bloggers had blogged under her name.  If it's not her work, it shouldn't go under her name.  It's not hard for her to add another pen name; after all, she did it for her guest bloggers this week.

Penning it on marriage has nothing to do with it either.  Is her book authored by Michelle & Jesse Malkin?  No; it says Michelle Malkin.  Did Michelle receive a degree on the basis of that dissertation?  No; Jesse did.  Creators' Syndicate doesn't pay Jesse to write her articles, nor do trade papers expect Michelle to write his op-eds.  I'm not accusing them of doing this, or at least not entirely writing whole pieces of each others' work; I'm simply showing that people are expecting either one or the other, not a tag-team.

Does that take away from Malkin's work?  Only if you subscribe to the idea that she's only getting these ideas from her old man, which is demeaning and offensive (which is what most leftists intend to do anyway. *shrugs*).  But facts are facts, and at the most, this new revelation only means that you were proved wrong by both rather than just one.

I'm sure Brad will talk about this Monday Morning.