Jennifer Hunter's Life Long Republican

James R. Ronca writes Jennifer Hunter he really is (was) a life long Republican.

This campaign against you and me is ridiculous and I think evidence of how the Republican Party works. They make an effort to pressure journalists to print what they want and avoid what the Republican Party does not like. No free thinking or free press is allowed. They smear everyone who opposes them from big fish like Joe Wilson to small fries like me.

I am going to have some investigation done into the source and funding for this blog and I will give it to you. Maybe we can get you some information so you can write a Pulitzer Prize-winning article on the Republican conservative party sneak attacks on free press and free speech.

Jack Kelly writes today he's not convinced.

Jennifer Hunter is married to Chicago Sun-Times publisher John Cruickshank, which explains why Ms. Hunter writes a column for the Chicago Sun-Times. Here is why she should not.

On July 16, Ms. Hunter wrote a column which began: "After watching the top five Democratic candidates for president speak before a trial lawyers' group Sunday, attorney Jim Ronca of Philadelphia, a staunch Republican, became certain of one thing: He is not going to vote for a Republican in the 2008 presidential election."

A suspicious reader checked out Mr. Ronca's political contributions. Mr. Ronca had made 14 since 1994 -- 12 to Democrats. The Democratic candidates received $7,000; the GOP candidates $750.

Mr. Ronca's contribution record was posted on several Web sites, whose readers flooded Ms. Hunter with demands for a correction.

If Ms. Hunter had fessed up, I wouldn't be writing about her. But she responded by attacking Web loggers for doing the research she should have done, and blaming her error on her editor.

I had no idea who Mr. Ronca was and could have cared less what he thought, or when or why he changed his mind. I haven't a clue why Mr. Ronca was news to start with in Hunter's column.

But I sure wonder though what's going on over at the Sun Times.

I get stories about Obama cleaning up centuries of corruption and the Mayor's alleged buddies bombing restaurants. We deserve a little better Journalism than this in Chicago.

A Pulitzer prize in all of this Mr. Ronca? I don't think so.

PS: Patterico's Pontification was the blog that broke the story.

Update: Reverse Spin deconstructs why Hunter gave us yesterday's bizarre column.

Why is Hunter digging in and threatening to enlarge this story when she is so obviously wrong? Maybe because she is reaching the point where her mistakes are becoming an issue—even though she has plenty of cover as wife of the Sun-Times publisher.