Aaron Klein's PR agent, Maria Sliwa, today issued a press release in which Klein -- author of the factually dubious, guilt by association-laden, WorldNetDaily-published book The Manchurian President -- affirms Glenn Beck's own guilt-by-association attacks on Obama administration officials:

For the last year, Fox News host Glenn Beck has used his mega-platform to warn that our president is deeply tied to and backed by a fringe, anti-American extremist nexus.

For his groundbreaking work, Beck has been called a liar, conspiracy theorist, fear-mongerer, hater, racist and even just plain nuts.

“I defy those who doubt Beck's central thesis to read my new book, 'The Manchurian President: Barack Obama's ties to communists, socialists and other anti-American extremists,'” says Aaron Klein, the book's author.

With nearly 900 footnotes, “The Manchurian President” factually proves in black and white that Beck has been right all along, says Klein.

[...]

“I believe this book is crucial to Americans from across the political spectrum,” says author Aaron Klein, “including mainstream Democrats who should be alarmed that their party has been hijacked by an extreme-left fringe bent on permanently changing the party to fit its radical agenda.

”Meanwhile, those who criticized Beck for his arguments owe the television and radio personality a resounding apology," Klein said.

Of course Klein would suck up to Beck -- Beck's commentary has often echoed Klein's reporting.

In his book, Klein and co-author Brenda J. Elliott take much of the credit for exposing the “radical” connections of Van Jones that were later “picked up” by Beck:

In April 2009, Aaron Klein reported at WorldNetDaily that Jones was a founder and leader of the communist revolutionary organization STORM -- Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement.

[...]

The mainstream media predictably ignored the Jones revelations -- right up until the moment of his resignation on September 5, 2009. Much of the investigation into Jones had been conducted over the Internet, including reporting by Aaron Klein, Brenda J. Elliott, and Trevor Loudon, a New Zealand blogger. Fox News Channel's Glenn Beck picked up the reports and released new information for weeks, until Jones was forced to step down. [Pages 153-154]

Klein's boss, WND editor Joseph Farah, was a little less shy, declaring that Klein “broke the first major story on Jones who was identified as a self-described radical communist and 'rowdy black nationalist' who said his environmental activism was actually a means to fight for racial and class 'justice.' ”

What's going on here is a bit of circular logic -- Klein is claiming that his book proves Beck right, even though Beck's attacks are based in part on Klein's own reporting.

Klein seems to like this kind of circular logic, since he uses it elsewhere in The Manchurian President. As we've noted, Klein uncritically promotes the conspiracy theory that Bill Ayers “may have ghost-written” President Obama's book Dreams From My Father. The two sources Klein bases this claim on are WND columnist Jack Cashill and biographer Christopher Andersen. But Andersen was basing his claim in part on Cashill's conspiracy theories, something Klein does not acknowledge in his book. (Nor does Klein acknowledge that Andersen walked back the claim in a CNN interview, stating that “I definitely do not say [Ayers] wrote Barack Obama's book.”)

Klein's fawning over Beck may have an ulterior purpose -- to get Beck to acknowledge Klein's book or, even better, to invite Klein on his show to discuss it.

Klein is certainly not afraid to suck up when it suits him. When Klein was criticized in 2006 for falsely implying that Fox News paid a $2 million ransom for the release of two Fox News journalists who had been kidnapped in Gaza -- Fox News chief Roger Ailes told the Drudge Report, “The story is absolutely 100% false” -- Klein was quick to add some serious sucking up to an attempt to defend himself: “I cannot stand idly by while others misrepresent and falsify my words to wrongly smear America's best cable news network.” Klein made sure to add, “I have enormous respect for Ailes.”

Since then, Klein has made several appearances on Fox News and Fox Business. It seems Klein is hoping to work the same magic with Beck -- and sell a few more books in the process.

UPDATE: Klein has reworked his press release into a WorldNetDaily column.