On Fox & Friends this morning, guest host Eric Bolling reignited his familiar complaint that shadowy members of the left wing are attacking the GOP presidential candidates. He even went so far as to baselessly suggest Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel was the source of the leak that led Politico to reveal that Herman Cain had been accused of sexual harassment in the 1990s. In this morning's edition, Bolling accused “all the left-leaning stuff” like MSNBC and Politico of being behind, among other things, the story that GOP presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann suffered from debilitating migraine headaches:

BOLLING: Almost -- by -- on -- like a clock ringing in the morning, when you hit the top of the GOP number --

BRIAN KILMEADE (co-host): You bang your head.

BOLLING: -- they start attacking you from the left. No, yeah, you go, wait, I'm not sure if I want to be up here right now, because the attacks start. Yesterday morning, Newt was at the top, off the top, the left -- the -- MSNBC, the Politicos, all the left-leaning stuff started attacking his relationships with Fannie [Mae] and Freddie [Mac]. Really, it's almost -- you can see it happening.

KILMEADE: You got to be ready for it. And this is a good time to find out if all his -- if his consulting contracts can withstand the scrutiny.

BOLLING: Yeah, but what was it -- it was Michele Bachmann's headaches. It was Rick Perry looked tired in debates. You know, it goes on and on.

But the problem with Bolling's portrayal of GOP presidential candidates being the victims of left-wing smear campaigns is not just that he's consistently unable to produce evidence to back up his claims, but that in some cases, the stories unequivocally came from the right. The story about Bachmann's headaches was broken by the conservative website The Daily Caller, which was widely criticized for the story:

The Minnesota Republican frequently suffers from stress-induced medical episodes that she has characterized as severe headaches. These episodes, say witnesses, occur once a week on average and can “incapacitate” her for days at time. On at least three occasions, Bachmann has landed in the hospital as a result.

“She has terrible migraine headaches. And they put her out of commission for a day or more at a time. They come out of nowhere, and they're unpredictable,” says an adviser to Bachmann who was involved in her 2010 congressional campaign. “They level her. They put her down. It's actually sad. It's very painful.”

Bachmann's medical condition wouldn't merit public attention, but for the fact she is running for president. Some close to Bachmann fear she won't be equal to the stress of the campaign, much less the presidency itself.

[...]

Sources who spoke to The Daily Caller said they did so because they are terrified about the impact the condition could have on Bachmann's performance if she actually became president. They also worry that the issue could blow up in the general election campaign, giving President Obama an easy path to re-election.

“It's a careful choice of words I used: 'incapacitated,'” the adviser says.

Bolling has never called out the conservative outlet for its attack on Bachmann, despite the fact that she's one of his favorite candidates. It's not as if he hasn't had the opportunity; three days ago, Bolling hosted The Daily Caller's Jeff Poor for an entire segment devoted, ironically, to complaining that Politico broke unfavorable news about Herman Cain.