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Okay, let's set aside the hypocrisy of the New York Times giving Paul Krugman a pass on hundreds of uncorrected errors and downright lies (such as his claim last week that a recent E. Coli outbreak can be blamed on libertarian economist Milton Friedman). Instead, let's savor the moment as Times economics commentator David Leonhardt viciously attacks the lies of Lou Dobbs. Nothing about his ridiculous lies about global trade, of which we pointed out many in a column earlier this month. But there's plenty to choose from in Dobbs' ongoing campaign against immigration. Here's Leonhardt:

...one of Mr. Dobbs?s correspondents said there had been 7,000 cases of leprosy in this country over the previous three years, far more than in the past.

When Lesley Stahl of ?60 Minutes? sat down to interview Mr. Dobbs on camera, she mentioned the report and told him that there didn?t seem to be much evidence for it.

?Well, I can tell you this,? he replied. ?If we reported it, it?s a fact.?

...The next night, back on his own program, the same CNN correspondent who had done the earlier report, Christine Romans, repeated the 7,000 number, and Mr. Dobbs added that, if anything, it was probably an underestimate. A week later, the Southern Poverty Law Center ? the civil rights group that has long been critical of Mr. Dobbs ? took out advertisements in The New York Times and USA Today demanding that CNN run a correction...

?The invasion of illegal aliens is threatening the health of many Americans,? Mr. Dobbs said on his April 14, 2005, program. From there, he introduced his original report that mentioned leprosy, the flesh-destroying disease ? technically known as Hansen?s disease ? that has inspired fear for centuries.

According to a woman CNN identified as a medical lawyer named Dr. Madeleine Cosman, leprosy was on the march. As Ms. Romans, the CNN correspondent, relayed: ?There were about 900 cases of leprosy for 40 years. There have been 7,000 in the past three years.?

?Incredible,? Mr. Dobbs replied.

Mr. Dobbs and Ms. Romans engaged in a nearly identical conversation a few weeks ago, when he was defending himself the night after the ?60 Minutes? segment. ?Suddenly, in the past three years, America has more than 7,000 cases of leprosy,? she said, again attributing the number to Ms. Cosman.

To sort through all this, I called James L. Krahenbuhl, the director of the National Hansen?s Disease Program, an arm of the federal government. Leprosy in the United States is indeed largely a disease of immigrants who have come from Asia and Latin America. And the official leprosy statistics do show about 7,000 diagnosed cases ? but that?s over the last 30 years, not the last three.

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