I have thought the same thing. It's hard to imagine that, with his checkered background, anyone would consider Burkett to be "unimpeachable".

Barnes. Works for Kerry campaign.

Not enough.

Put me in the "Rather's ego was why" camp. Maybe he was concerned about protecting Kerry but I just think the man cannot admit he was wrong. He's been on a mission forever to bring down the GOP.

But it will be interesting to see what the Kerry campaign and DNC knew and when they knew it.

Also, Rather knew that Burkett was a shady source but the story he told was very intoxicating to liberal Democrats. Rather finally drank the wine. He knows that among his peers when it was revealed that he relied on Burkett that he would be laughed at.

If we discount stupidity and insanity we are left with either guilibility or someone Rather et al would consider reliable.

It seems to me its possible Burkett was believed because they "knew" the memo were accurate and therefore real. Even though they are now known to be fake they still think they are accurate. Its actually a classic mistake that is made in science all the time. If you look hard enough anything can be seen as true. You may say to yourself but that's ridiculous but as someone who worked in a science lab for more than 2 years I can tell you its common.

However my suspicous nature tells something else is going on. Somethings don't add up. Burkett looks like a patsy to me.

- Col. Lively [TANG commander in the Bush era] went on FOX this morning and debunked every one of the claims in the "contents" of the fake memo's...

- I personally think there was yet another higher up Dem/DNC voice in all this egging CBS on....

- "Deep paper" Burkette is a well known nutcase and Barnes is not above skull duggery as he has shown repeatedly in his checkered past....I think no matter how much Mapes was champing to pursue this CBS mucks insisted on additional concurance on authenticity and they got it...

- That would explain why they were so sure of the position they were in when the fraud first broke....So far everything is designed to not "out" whoever that official was....They have more or less rolled over on Burkette and Barnes....

- All this activity is a smoke screen...The players in all of this maybe egotistical and arrogant but their not stupid ... there has to be more...

Of course, Kerry supporters have not relinquished the possibility that Karl Rove planted the fakes on Dan Rather.

http://freakappeal.blogspot.com/2004/09/evil-genius-rove-controlling-dan.html

Here, I examine Maureen Dowd's latest foray into this "We Never Went To The Moon"-level hypothesis in the NYTs.

Some have speculated that Cleland is the "unimpeachable source" that CBS referred to.

I do think this source was probably someone from the Kerry Kamp such as Cleland...I don't think Burkett would be tagged as such, even by CBS, and it couldn't have been Barnes, as Barnes was waiting for CBS to uncover docs before he would go on air...

I don't think CBS would cover so much for either Burkett or Barnes...this goes much higher into the Kerry Kamp...

Excuse me, but I believe there's an elephant in the room...

The Kerry campaign set this up.

- Kerry made at least three glaring errors in his speech in NY this morning...

- In an early segment he said that [among] the area's that Bush lied about was the connection between "Al Qaeda and 9/11" ....

- Later he said Bush [falsely] tied Al Qaeda to Saddam/Iraq] .... Everything continues to be doom and gloom...

- Then he said Bush [has] rejected every offer of help from non-coalition countries... Name one country that offered help we refused...Total spinspeak BS...

- Kerry is parroting the Iraq/plan of Joe Biden...Apparently the extreme left is forced to reach out to party moderates at the 11th hour after all to frame any sort of Iraqi stance...

- He keeps trying to say that his vote to go to war was a vote to go to negotiations...

- The reticent bridesmaid countries are actually starting to come on board....Russian watching its citizens get slaughtered in that schoolyard and France and the Euro powers seeing Iran test long range rockets/refine weapon grade MWD materials that could pee in their cornflakes....

"Never attribute to duplicity what can be explained by stupidity." - Napoleon

This is an extension of Occam's Razor applied to human interaction. I really do believe that Burkett and Barnes were enough to set off the CBS News guys into a round of mutual self-congratulatory, self-deluding, verbal fellation.

I can just see these guys sitting around saying, "All we really need is one more story before the dam breaks and the bourgeois swing voters start to see things our way." At that level of delusion, how can you infer anything logical from this?

Sometimes addicts lie when confronted, even when the truth is less troubling than the lie. It's part of the insanity and BDS had parallels.

I think it's Cleland, since (1) he's a former Senator and Vietnam vet and (2) Burkett has said he was in contact with Cleland.

I appreciate the Napoleonic maxim about stupidity, but I think even Occam's razor here requires taking Cleland's role into account based on Burkett's published comments.

Speculation: Cleland was approached by Burkett and, as the story now goes, told Burkett to contact the Kerry campaign. I'm supposing Cleland actually acted as the go-between and passed on information to the appropriate people, keeping the campaign at arms length. Insiders in the campaign hashed out a strategy and fed back instructions, and then quietly started blowing smoke back to CBS to try to start a fire. Rather is protecting whomever in the Kerry Campain was dropping input to him ahead of the public fact curve.

So Burkett fell on the sword, claiming to be the source. How convenient, the crazy
old coot from Texas was the instigator of the CBS attempt to unseat Bush, which may have succeeded except for some sharp-eyed blogs. Who is Burkett covering up for and
why? Was it Stumpy or Ma that put him up
to it? They are both charter members of the hate Bush club. To be continued, after the election of course....

Guys, where is this story going to land you if true? Cleland, Kerry, McAuliffe, et.al. passed a bunch of documents that they did not bother to verify to CBS News and expected that CBS would verify the docs because that's THEIR JOB. You've got no way to prove the go between had knowledge of forgery.

Stop trying to kill all your political birds with one stone. OF COURSE a partisian Dem passed the docs to CBS. OF COURSE he (or she) is well connected. Politics is a blood sport and that's part of the game. The point is that Rather, Mapes, and CBS swallowed the bait without looking for the hook. This VLWC meme is a total non-starter.

- CBS's mea culpa asserting "We cannot authenticate the documents and therefore they should not have been aired" adds no new info to the dialog and stops far short of outright admitting they are fakes...

- Early rumors that Burkette could not convince Rather that the document sources were reliable have given way to "Burkette admitted to Rather in the interview on sunday that he intentionally missled CBS"...

- Probably the best chance we have at getting to the truth is if one of the players feel scapegoated and rolls over on the whole fiasco....

I think Burkett is the forger, and the root source of the CBS memos.

He has the necessary "personal qualifications", and the wording of the documents is suggestive enough to make the case that this set of documents was made or supplemented by him.

It does boggle that CBS could be so desperate as to bite the cheese on Burkett's hook, with so much recklessness, although it is clear CBS had a political agenda and bias-blinders.

The term "unimpeachable source" always rankled me, because event the most respected and reliable witnesses can get facts wrong or be affected by bias. But that term applied to Burkett seems impossible.

He must have had some sort of"letter of introduction, an intermediary. But there is a lot of room between "tip" and "vouch". If Mapes was merely tipped off, she did not apply much scrutiny to Burketts tale. She might even have embellished it?

Rather looks ravished by this episode. This is intensely personal. I think his daughter who is active in Democrat circles is behind this and he is being blackmailed by the Clinton strategy team who don't want this to go away anytime soon.

Rather is between a rock and a hard place.

CBS got the documents on a "blind" basis. They tried to authenticate them. CBS legal ran into the little "trafficking in forged documents problem" detailed elsewhere. So CBS needed a patsy to do 2 things: 1) Vouch for the documents' content and 2) State that they were from "personal files" [to avoid the felony issue].

25 cents says the fax cover sheet from Burkett says, "These are from personal files."

Too cute.

- That burkette would be willing to take a bullet for the team is no stretch...His hate for all things Bush is well documented in his own words although as of late he has moderated a bit... Maybe after all these years the Meds have finally kicked in....

- CBS will try to fight against cutting anyone loose...If they do that they make an enemy that knows the truth and could sink their swiftboat...

- There are Bush supporters within CBS and scattered throughout this story...CBS has to hold on grimly and hope no one else comes forward...

- Rathers version of a mea culpa press release sounds more like "I'm sorry we didn't get away with this and we let down the Democratic party..."

Totally non-fact-based irresponsible speculation:

Where is Ann Richards in all this? Can you think of a TX Democrat with more of an axe to grind but who Rather would view as beyond reproach?

I agree that one thing that would explain Rather's behavior is if his daughter is the source. I almost couldn't blame a 72-year-old man for going to any lengths to sacrifice his own career, if it gets to that, to protect his daughter.

Three words: Bill and Hill

Where did USA Today get there copy of the documents? Are they going to agree on the Lone Typist in Blaire?

Erp is right in suggesting the Clinton Dems may be keeping this story alive to sabotage Kerry and blackmailing Dan from revealing too much by threatening the political prospects of his daughter. Robin Rather doesn't even have to be a source or middleman in this forgery case to be vulnerable to the machine. The docs could have been done just well enough to convince the Kerry campaign and the press that they could pass, but designed to implode upon being touted. Somebody could have convinced Kinko Burkett to manufacture them, knowing he'd do an amateur job. Or, they easily could have been provided him. Either way, he certainly has been deignated the nut-case fall guy.

And the Cleland connection is BIG. But even he may not know who actually made the docs.

Source could be ... Dan Rather's daughter who is a democratic big wig in this area?????

Don't know what to make of all this, but here's what liberal blogger Kevin Drum said very early this morning.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I really want to hear this story. I talked with Burkett at length back in February, and speaking as someone who believes his story about Bush's files being purged, I still wouldn't trust him for a second if he suddenly produced a bunch of never-before-seen memos out of nowhere. If he really is CBS's "unimpeachable source," they've got some very serious problems with their news judgment.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2004_09/004732.php

--Rick Taylor

Did CBS pay Burkett for the recent interview?

I think the answer to this question could be important relative to determining whether or not Burkett is taking the fall for others who may be complicit in this attack using forged documents - especially the DNC.

And I do not think a simple coincidence that CBS suddenly sprung this “story” on the very same week that the DNC launched its attack on Bush’s National Guard service.

Mark: Three words: Bill and Hill

Bill and Hill are jointly recovering from his unfortunate and necessary, but somewhat electively scheduled heart surgery, safely esconced away from this scandal right as the story was to break. Also, political animal Clinton is going to be out of action for most of this important final stretch of campaigning. He has a note from his doctor saying that he couldn't wait just another eight weeks for the procedure. What an unfortunate turn of events for Kerry---

CBS and rather aren't going to cover for Burkett or Barnes. Both are damaged goods already, and CBS would take the hit for believing them under the rationale that even a stopped clock is right twice a day (once for military time).

This is someone bigger. Could be Cleland. He's angry and bitter, but has never struck me as particularly duplicitous - at least to this extent. He may be a link in the chain, but if so, probably unaware of the forgery aspect initially and is not the one who did know but decided to float this.

My money is on Joe Lockhart as the final link to the Kerry campaign. The trail will be dim and getting dimmer with time (CBS' hope), and may not be uncovered until after the election. Lockhart is very quick to delve into this sort of shenanigan, and has never particulary cared what he has been connected to after other elections. The key is to hold off the dogs until after the election is history.

Just to close the thought. Sometimes the obvious trail to the guilty party is cluttered by the attractive conspiracies you encounter in getting there.

It's tempting to assign Bill and Hill the role of conspiritors in this, but any advantage to them is four years in the future and not worth the risk now.

Consider Terry McAuliffe's comments over the last few months. McAuliffe, almost word for word, has been claiming the very things CBS's forged memos were alleged to finally verify. Where did McAuliffe get his "certain truth" that so perfectly matched-up with the forged CBS memos? For the last several months, McAuliffe spoke with absolute factual certainty of inside knowledge about Bush's ANG record... it was as if he had proof in writing. Were the forged memos touted by Rather the same that McAuliffe apparently relied upon over the last several months? Would McAuliffe trash Bush so boldly if had no written documentation? Terry McAuliffe seems to be a likely player who deserves closer scrutiny in the CBS forgery scandal. Barnes, Cleland and Burkett are bit players. McAuliffe is not.

Rather is a gullible nutbar. Could have been anybody giving him the documents.

So here's three better words: Kang and Kodos.

I think Brett has a point about never underetimating stupidity. As I stated above it is a possible exlanation. But I have trouble accepting it for a couple of reasons.

First I just can't believe a major organization could seriously believe Burkett is unimpeachable. Its just highly improbable.

Second another thing you should never underestimate is the urge to survive. Staking your rep on Burkett might be considered by some to be suicidal. And there has to be something to make them consider taking such a hit. I dunno Barnes doesn't seem like big enough player for that.

Third their various attempts at explication have been obvious loads of crap. Worse than lies they are just plain ridiculous half-ass excuses. It is the behavior of someone hiding something not someone who believes.

Combining all these makes me ... suspicious.

Hey, now on to the real scandal. How did a whack-job like Burkett get to be a colonel in the Army National Guard? I could see, maybe, colonel in the Confederate Air Force, but a real military unit?

willem, I think you're right. Not only McAuliffe but other Dem partisans had hinted around as to some big revelation re Bush's TANG service. Also, the content of those 'memos' reads like DNC talking points. I had to laugh when I first read them- the attempt at indicting W was all too pat and puerile.

I am not convinced that McAuliffe is even rooting for Kerry. This whole Vietnamization of his candidacy is such an obvious loser from which they are not backing away. Intentionally terrible advice, maybe, on behalf of a Hillary in '08.

Either way, there could be no doubt as to a coordination in theme and timing between these memos, the CBS story, and the "Fortunate Son" attack ads and spin. My bet is that Carville knows what's really going on and why the Kerry campaign and CBS were encouraged to go with such badly done forgeries.

brett,

I think we're beyond thinking that Max Cleland made a call or two to get Burkett and his forged memos some face time with Mary Mapes.

Clearly, Dan Blather went on someone's word that these docs were the real deal. Burkett's word? A relatively low level political hack whose Internet musings place him to the left of Mao? Who has had two nervous breakdowns and dreams up cockamamie theories about why he was sent to Panama??

Gimme a break!! If Dan is THAT stupid, then he's been fooling everyone on the planet for decades.

I don't think Max just clued Blather in to the existence of the memos, and said, "Here, you run with it." I think, and many others think, Max, or someone else in the DNC with "unimpeachability" said, "Yeah, this appears to be the real thing, Dan. We really think it's good to go. Go with it. BTW, we got yer reservation for the Lincoln Bedroom peniciled in for mid-February."

Dibs on this angle:

If we recall this:

From NRO:
Max Cleland, who made a staged appearance at the Bush ranch Wednesday, was appointed by President George W. Bush to the board of directors of the Export-Import Bank in 2003

and this is found out:

CBS Determines Source of Forged Memos is Max Cleland,

You get this:

CBS Learns Bush Appointee Source of Forgeries

I still think the Texan who provided the documents is Paul Begalla.

Yo, c. I'm thinking the conveniently offered (planted?) Aug/Sept timeline leads us away from the real story. McAuliffe and crew have been front-loading media with the basic contents of the forged memo "revelations" for months... months. Then BOOM! -- Dan Rather becomes a rhetorical homicide bomber who fails to explode as intended. Jeeze. They tried to knock-off a sitting president with forged words and malicious hearsay. This smells more like a failed coup than scoop gone bad.

I think I speak for everyone when I say:

How soon till we see some indictments?

That would rock if it was begala then CNN would get it too.

Bingo, willem!

This whole situation is an example of criminal activity. This goes beyond whether CBS News was had or not. And if CBS was smart (after this debacle-debatable) they would be at the forefront of finding out who forged these documents. To me, doing anything else would imply complicity.

willem, Except that i think this was a failed coup attempt by the Kerry campaign in collusion with some press and simultaneously a perfectly placed bomb from a few Dems from another camp who may have done the inept forgeries or who at least convinced the Kerry people to go with them. No matter how the story broke in the public eye, either the Kerry people win or the Clintonites. I think the latter are quite delerious just now.

david:

If Rather believed Cleland on anything concerning Bush, how does that disprove stupidity? For my $.02 Barnes was the "unimpeachable" source. I think this is another "echo chamber effect." I can explain this situation with stupidity and arrogance - why do I need duplicity?

I agree that the whole chain of events should be tracked down. But, if this is the best the Dems can come up with, they really do need to go play JV for a coupla years. If the conspirators are really so bad, why take them off the field? Keep giving them rope.

I just think that turning this thing into a witch hunt will invoke the Law of Unintended Consequences. Let's get Rather, Heywood, and Mapes, declare victory, and go back to sharpening our wits on each other's mistakes until we get another shot at the MSM.

I'm not sure I agree with everything Brett just said, but he's certainly right about one thing. If they have been planning this for months off of very badly forged documents they thought were well forged documents then they are grade A morons.

Brett,

Max was a respected US Senator (at least in Dan Blather's circles). What's more he's a "war hero" done in by evil Republicans who questioned his patriotism!!! Of COURSE he's unimpeachable. To say otherwise is to QUESTION HIS PATRIOTISM. LOL.

Ben Barnes got run out of Texas politics for a while for being a big crook. My understanding is that he didn't escape prison by much.

Also, Benny boy previously testified under oath he didn't pull strings for W. So, with this story, he's "self-impeaching." (I like that - "self-impeaching.")

So, who is the "unimpeachable" source?

Self-impeached Ben? Crazy Bill?

Or that paragon of virtue, Max Cleland (D-Vietnam)?

I'm open to other suggestions, but not Ben or Bill.

And the reason is... these NAtional Guard rumors came from Mama Ann Richards, and I'm sure she has an axe to grind after W surprised the Lib Dems and whipped her for Governor. Was not Begalla a Texas Demo operative, who hates Bush, and is a member of the "Clinton Youth" and a disciple of their tactics?

And the reason is... these NAtional Guard rumors came from Mama Ann Richards, and I'm sure she has an axe to grind after W surprised the Lib Dems and whipped her for Governor. Was not Begalla a Texas Demo operative, who hates Bush, and is a member of the "Clinton Youth" and a disciple of their tactics?

Your putting alot into the word "unimpeachable" considering it came out of Rather's mouth and he seems to not have much credibility.

The word unimpeachable has not meaning here. What does have meaning is the damage CBS has inflicted on itself and rational behind it.

There are two reasons:
1) Brett's theory of stupidity/insanity
2) They are protecting someone (as Bill's post might suggest)

We can speculate about whether Rather believed his source or not. Its immaterial. What is material is why do they continue to prevaricate? Are they so delusional as to belive what they say or are they protecting someone.

Insanity/stupidity is just that and essentially impossible to analyze.

If we rule out stupidity/insanity for argument's sake then they are protecting someone. I think its a good bet it would be higher up than Barnes.

What's up w/ the Ma Richards rumors? I'm sure she doesn't like GWB, but she's also smart enough not to underestimate him twice. How did her name get involved? Speaking of Texas Dems, I'm waiting for Bob Bullock's name to be dragged into this.(And yes, I know he's dead)

Easy on the moonbattery. THIS is why I've been trying to keep everything in CBS's lap. The roaches will escape if you try to kill too many at once!

Think about ctob's comment: "...If they have been planning this for months off of very badly forged documents they thought were well forged documents then they are grade A morons..." I suspect the reverse is even more true: they're convinced WE"RE the morons... too stupid to notice the difference. This would be consistent with Kerry and crew's longstanding campaign theme: "...I am better than you because..." They really believe they are better than you; better than anyone who does not submit to their dictums. These craven political shills are without shame or modesty. The term "neo-Stalinist" comes to mind. Beria could only admire the rhetoric of the Begala-McAuliffe-Kerry DNC.

ctob,

I'd buy off on all the stupidity arguments, and I'd agree with you on "impeachability" as just so much gas emanating from one of Blather's orifices, but here's the problem:

Some actually smart people were in on this. Andrew Heyward, liberal though he may be, isn't the psychotic suicidal Bush-hater that Blather is. There were other folks also involved in the decision to run with the frauds. I'm sure they all asked, "Danny-boy, who is your 'unimpeachable' source??"

I don't think he told 'em Benny or Billy.

Alternatively, if you think that Blather knowingly put up frauds (not impossible in my view), then perhaps he lied to Heyward and others about his "unimpeachable" source. However, it is very suggestive that if only he, Barnes, Mapes, and Burkett were in on the conspiracy, that the DNC just coincidentally coordinated and timed their fraudulent "Operation Fortunate Son" campaign when they did.

willem,

I wonder whether they'd planned to post the forged memos originally. It's my understanding that once the White House received their copies (and they had to ask for them), the White House immediately sent them out to all the major media.

Did this force seeBS' hand and make them post their copies?

Perhaps they'd thought to make the accusations without ever showing the docs?

I don't know. It seems just as plausible as assuming that everyone at seeBS literally has a room-temperature IQ.

Well, folks, if Kooky Kerry gets into office, absolutely NOTHING will come to light. So the REAL question to be asked is, "How many republicans will go to the voting both to see justice is done?"

Perhaps there are two elements to the origin of the forged CBS documents: the forger, and the sponsor of the forgery. I like ctob's read on Dan Rather's source being higher-up than Ben Barnes. Above Barnes, not many names are left. The higher up you go, they're unlikely to forge documents themselves. But unsolicited favors do occur, and with such favors in hand, powerful sponsors can have men like Rather and Barnes dancing like invisibly strung puppets. As the elephant metaphor is not applicable here.. I'd say there's a very big ass in the room.

david. Your question about initial intent is a good one that we need to think about more. Ochem's Razor certainly applies; but irony being what it is, the matter of intent may not be that material to the Dems latest version of a "bimbo eruption." The sex is gone, but the naked truth is more humiliating than ever.

Remember Einstein's favorite quote: "Only two things are truly infinite: The Universe and human stupidity, and I'm not so sure about the former."

Agree with other posts that there is someone high up in the Kerry campaign who is guilty, or that the Kerry campaign set the whole thing up. Also possible that CBS News willfully colluded in the deception.

Why? One big reason: because of all the stonewalling over the past week. It was clearly not hard to know the docs were forgeries. Rather and CBS needed the time to strategize a game plan to protect the Kerry campaign.

Max Cleland is as Dumb as a Rock. He lost in Georgia because he voted like a Massachusetts liberal. That is why he sucks up to Kennedy and Kerry.

Is he THAT stupid? Absolutely. So is McAuliffe.

Barnes has had 22 associates jailed for past crimes. Barnes has NOT been jailed YET. This may be the time that gets him there. He should have been in jail 30 years ago.

Ultimately, this will take down a lot more people. I hope it explodes in time to eliminate Tom Daschle and a lot of other Democratic candidates.

leaddog2,

"Barnes has had 22 associates jailed for past crimes."

Tough to make this guy out as "unimpeachable." "Unimpeached," maybe, but not "unimpeachable." LOL.

"Barnes has had 22 associates jailed for past crimes."

Time to tack on a couple dozen more.

I do not really think stupidity can explain this all. But there are seem to be things that don't add up well.

I think it behooves us all to never underestimate stupidity.

I suspect the real answer in a mix of the two.

And I really think willem's mention of the converse(?) of my previous statement is important. Namely that they think we are morons could be very true. And would explain a number of inconsitencies. But you see thinking everyone else is a moron is a classic sign of a moron ;)

I defintely believe there is a large vein of elitism and arrogance in the Democratic party. So this would not surprise me in the least.

There's more here than is meeting the eye. I would caution too much gloating until the story plays out. Cleland, Barnes, Burkett, Dan's Daughter... every one of them are hardcore Democrats, and everyone of them is, therefore, very much impeachable. None of these is "the player" that Rather said was unimpeachable.

Rather was very clear -- "we got these from an unimpeachable source." Was he merely repeating what he had heard? I think not. And Burkett is saying even he is protecting someone else's identity.

What if... what IF, holy moly, by some stretch of the imagination, Burkett actually RETYPED the documents while looking at the originals, leading Dan to lay out his ridiculous "the story is still true, I still believe in the accuracy of this information" declaration. And what about the weasel apology from Rather-not: he can't continue to "vouch for them (the documents) JOURNALISTICALLY" speaking. The use of the phrase "vouch ... journalistically" is a very very very important qualification in "how" he cannot now vouch for them.

"Journalistically" speaking -- having absolute facts or corroborated testimony -- CBS does not possess such "facts" yet. But in their apology, they only said they "coudn't prove the docs were not forgeries," not 'we're sorry, someone has proven to us that the documents were forgeries."

So.... Heyward apologizes for what? For using inauthentic documents, not for the CONTENT of the story.

CBS still very much believes that there is a "there there," and I believe they fully intended to blow open the story with the real docs before the execs got tired of waiting for them to make progress and finally said "retrench carefully" (with a crafty statement), while encouraging their team to continue the investigation to get to the REAL docs.

If "deep paper" comes forward with the real docs, whoa!!

After seeing Dan's "apology" and the clip from the Barnes interview, I'm a bit more persuaded that Dan's covering up for direct Dem involvement.

1. Danny-boy has just suffered the worst defeat of his career, and it may still prove to be career-ending. All things being equal, he'd be out for the blood of whomever did this to him.

2. If it was only Burkett who did this to him, and Burkett were not joined to the DNC at the hip, Danny-boy would have crucified him. He'da pointed out the man is a psycho - two nervous breakdowns - is a political nut - he'd have cited some of Burkett's lunatic ravings, etc., etc.

3. That he went easy on Burkett means that hitting Burkett too hard would lead to the connections to the Dems.

I don't know what the connections are, exactly, but I'm pretty sure they're there.

OK bloggers, off your asses. All this speculation is bull manure.

Let's find the original source!

ctob nails it: "elitism and arrogance in the Democratic party."

If I may say it again: These craven political shills are without shame or modesty. Calculated; treacherous; without remorse.

Remember the kids you couldn't stand who vigorously conspired to take-over the high school prom committee; who had a psychologically unbalanced need to be in charge? They grew up, got law degrees and went to work for today's DNC.

And so, today, the colorful Lady Teresa calls their detractors "scumbags." Go figure?

Not to worry. "Deep Paper" is coming soon. Professional forgers are working on an unimpeachably skilled original. Gunga Dan may yet vanquish the unwashed pajamahadeen!

I suppose my only comment is in reference to whether or not Burkett, Barnes, etc. would be rather to lean in over the plate and take one for the home team. That of course assumes that they thought they'd ever get caught. In a word where people are immensely ignorant of anything outside of their realm of specialization (professional journalists) this crap can happen. It's funny: newspapers, TV news, etc. always hire "experts" to vet things (admissions that they don't possess cognitive skills on their own), but the mistakes and goofs in these memos, which were ripped apart by blogger non-specialists, should have been similarly destroyed by professional journalists... hell, they guys upstairs could've run the damn thing down to the printers, where the old timer typesetting guys could've torn it apart in a matter of minutes. What? Leave that type of judgement to a layman? Are you kidding? Reporters know everything!
This cracks me up! I'm glad Dan and the gang are getting what they bargained for. I hope the "unimpeachable source" is outed. I'm thinking midlevel Kerry Campaign staffer...

Hooah!

Mistercalm,

"I hope the "unimpeachable source" is outed. I'm thinking midlevel Kerry Campaign staffer..."

This fish stinks from the head down.

Am I the only one who remembers? (Then again I may have "old timer's disease.)
Wasn't it Jim Geraghty in Kerry Spot (I may be wrong) who had a couple of reports a couple of days after the original hatchet job, relating that a source at the DNC had told him that they had received the documents six weeks earlier and had had their doubts about them but passed them on to the Kerry campaign anyway. I also remember the comment that the issue was kept very close to the vest and was only known to very few people.
(I would love to revisit those reports. I think they were linked on this blog, if I remember correctly.)

I vividly remember the "6 weeks ago" comment, but not where I saw it. I thought it was on the Kerry Spot, but I'm not sure. My memory cannot be authenticated. But one thing's for certain, McAuliffe has been publicly spewing acrimony and malicious hearsay about Bush/TANG for the last year; did it as proven fact, not as speculation or opinion.

And what about USA Today? Who gave them their copies of forged documents to compliment the copies broadcast by Rather at CBS. The same memos went to USA Today and CBS... (and Rather can't even get that part of the story right)

Who fed dirty docs to USA Today? Why has this disappeared from the blogosphere? USA Today was a parallel play to CBS.

Somewhere in the confluence where USA Today meets CBS, we should find the sneaky, eggsucking rodent with the crusty whiskers... the beady-eyed mastermind behind Operation Fortunate Son.

Has anyone else heard the rumor that El Rushbo is going to do a parody called "Operation Fortunate Husband?"

just read AP article linking Lockhart and Mapes and Burkett.
"Mapes called Lockhart(!)...it was common knowledge that CBS was working on a story raising questions about Bush's Guard service. Mapes told him there were some records "that might move the story forward..." Lockhart then calls Burkett.
Uh oh.
White house has already responded.
link: (credit lucianne) http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/politics/9715708.htm

It's started!

Did you catch MSNBC's Deborah Norville and Joe Scarbrough shows tonight? Big-time media personalities ripping CBS and Rather limb-from-limb and gagging them down in great bloody gulps.

Because of the Lockhart connection, it's going to the Kerry campaign by tomorrow.

I knew something was up when Rather took sooooo long to get something on the air, and another clue was how tepid an admission and apology it was. The delay was all about getting together a game plan to protect someone higher, and who could be higher than Gunga Dan. Kerry, that's who.

Why does all this matter? Because today the shit-eating vomit-sucking terrorist dogs in Iraq beheaded another innocent American, and if Kerry and his ilk are elected they will keep us from justice.

Sorry... I don't usually talk that way, but now I did.

Fergus