[longtermmemmory]

Rush would have to show willful and malicious conduct.

This would mean extensive discovery: regarding how the story was sold, who talked to whom, was sidney blumenthal involved, who was the lawyer representing and when, did they call rush to verify, did they contact the state, what is in the email, did they make efforts to confirm.

You are right about the BS trying to bootstrap the allegation. Its a question of the lie. This potential lie is so outragious it must be true.

Perhaps the enquirer is scared...