One easily checked claim about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) -- which an e-mail newsletter from the right-wing website NewsMax.com hyped as a major revelation from a new book devoted to attacking her -- is false.

According to the June 5 edition of “Insider Report,” NewsMax's e-mail-only newsletter, “NewsMax pundit” John LeBoutillier, a former Republican congressman, recently interviewed author Ed Klein about his book, The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President, which is excerpted in the July issue of Vanity Fair and is to be published by Sentinel, a conservative imprint of Penguin Putnam, June 21.

“LeBoutillier says the book will reveal Hillary's struggle with New York's Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan to get his seat. Though a Democrat, Moynihan had little use for Hillary,” NewsMax reported.

According to NewsMax, based on an interview with Klein, “LeBoutillier writes” that the book will reveal Moynihan's alleged resistance to Clinton's candidacy, supposedly voiced to Clinton at a meeting with Moynihan, who died in 2003, and his wife, Liz, at their Watergate* apartment:

Still, a few months later Hillary got what she wanted: the prized photo 'op' at the Moynihan's upstate farm. There, as she announced her candidacy, Pat and Liz Moynihan stood and in effect gave their 'blessing' to this out-of-stater who was parachuting in to create her own base for an inevitable White House run.

Oddly, Pat Moynihan never uttered Hillary's name -- not even once -- during this event. He could not bring himself to mention Hillary by name -- but the press reported his 'endorsement' just the same.

But a CNN transcript from July 7, 1999, shows that Moynihan in fact said both “Mrs. Clinton” and “Hillary Clinton” in making his endorsement:

MOYNIHAN: Liz and I welcome you to Derrymore [Moynihan's farm].

[...]

Mrs. Clinton and I have been up in the schoolhouse just for a little bit, which you can see over there.

The schoolhouse was built in 1854. Stayed a schoolhouse till the school bus arrived in 1946, and I've been in there for the last 36 years, and I can tell you, it's a good schoolhouse.

We have the -- I showed some of the records we have from 1856. I think you'd agree, the school had three teachers, 13 students and 71 books in the library. One, Paradise Lost --

CLINTON: Plutarch's Lives.

MOYNIHAN: Plutarch's Lives, Life and Essays of Franklin, Pilgrim's Progress. We haven't necessarily advanced in some -- in our educational reading assignments since 1856, but then there's still help.

Now, I have the great pleasure to welcome Mrs. Clinton to the farm and turn over the microphone to our candidate.

Before you do -- before I do, and, my God, I almost forgot -- yesterday, Hillary Clinton established an exploratory committee as regards candidacy for the Senate, United States Senate, from New York, a seat which I will vacate in a year and a half.

I'm here to say that I hope she will go all the way. I mean to go all the way with her. I think she's going to win. I think it's going to be wonderful for New York, and we'll be proud of our senator and the nation will notice.

Klein, the author of the Clinton book, has been criticized for his reliance on “anonymous sources” and “psychobabble” as well as his inaccurate reporting.

NewsMax's LeBoutillier is a co-founder of an anti-Clinton library. He also published an unsupported claim about Democratic candidate Sen. John F. Kerry (D-MA) in June 2004.

* Newsmax reported that the Moynihans had an apartment at the Watergate. According to the excerpt of the upcoming Klein book, published in Vanity Fair, the apartment was actually on Pennsylvania Avenue.