Forgery Update Speculation: Is Dan Rather Covering Up For The Kerry Campaign?
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Ah, there’s nothing better than watching a mainstream media liberal like Dan Rather sink deeper and deeper into a trap of his own making.
That’s right, not only was Dan Rather dumb enough to stand by documents that were obviously forged in Microsoft Word tonight, he was arrogant enough to say that there isn’t even an investigation in progress! Then as an extra added bonus, Rather trotted an anti-Bush author Jim Moore as an “expert” witness.
This is soooo sweeet because this story has no chance of holding up when even the Associated Press, Washington Post, & ABCNEWS are trotting out experts who’re pointing out that these documents are bogus.
So why is Dan Rather chaining his credibility to this sinking anvil of a story? I have a THEORY, just a THEORY. I think he may be trying to protect the Kerry campaign.
Keep in mind that this is PURE SPECULATION inspired by Dan Rather’s performance tonight, but I SUSPECT that this story broken by The American Spectator is true…
More than six weeks ago, an opposition research staffer for the Democratic National Committee received documents purportedly written by President George W. Bush’s Texas Air National Guard squadron commander, the late Col. Jerry Killian.
The oppo researcher claimed the source was “a retired military officer.” According to a DNC staffer, the documents were seen by both senior staff members at the DNC, as well as the Kerry campaign.
“More than a couple people heard about the papers,” says the DNC staffer. “I’ve heard that they ended up with the Kerry campaign, for them to decide to how to proceed, and presumably they were handed over to 60 Minutes, which used them the other night. But I know this much. When there was discussion here, there were doubts raised about their authenticity.”
The concerns arose from the sourcing. “It wasn’t clear that our source for the documents would have had access to them. Our person couldn’t confirm from what file, from what original source they came from.”
….According to a Kerry campaign source, there was little gossip about the supposedly hot documents inside the office of the campaign on McPherson Square. “Those documents were not something anyone was talking about or trying to generate buzz on,” says the staffer. “It wasn’t like there were small groups of people talking about this as a bombshell. I think people here weren’t sure what to make of it, because provenance of these documents was uncertain.”
A CBS producer, who initially tipped off The Prowler about the 60 Minutes story, says that despite seeking professional assurances that the documents were legitimate, there was uncertainty even among the group of producers and researchers working on the story.
….Now, the producer says, there is growing concern inside the building on 57th Street that they may have been suckered by the Kerry campaign. “There is a school of thought here that the Kerry people dumped this in our laps, figuring we’d do the heavy lifting on the story. That maybe they had doubts about these documents but hoped we’d get more information,” says the producer. “If that’s the case, then we’re bigger fools than we already appear to be judging by all the chatter about how these documents could be forgeries.”
Folks, if it turns out that anybody from the Kerry campaign provided these forged documents to CBS then “Holy Richard Nixon’s bag of dirty tricks Batman” does John Kerry have a HUGE scandal on his hands and Dan Rather knows it. Ahhhh…imagine Dan Rather of all people helping to sink John Kerry’s campaign. Now that would be irony and boy would I love to watch it play out ]=[
Images swiped from the fine folks at Politicalities & Country Store. Make sure to check out their blogs!
***Update #1***: The mainstream media is smelling blood now too and they’re rapidly following up on stories first broken in the blogosphere and talk radio.
From ABC,
“Retired Maj. General Hodges, Killian’s supervisor at the Grd, tells ABC News that he feels CBS misled him about the documents they uncovered. According to Hodges, CBS told him the documents were “handwritten” and after CBS read him excerpts he said, “well if he wrote them that’s what he felt.”
Hodges also said he did not see the documents in the 70’s and he cannot authenticate the documents or the contents. His personal belief is that the documents have been “computer generated” and are a “fraud”.”
Here’s an even more devastating report from The Seattle Times which points out that,
“The man named (Col. Walter “Buck” Staudt) in a disputed memo as exerting pressure to “sugarcoat” George W. Bush’s military record left the Texas Air National Guard a year and a half before the memo supposedly was written, his service record shows.”
Amazingly enough, that doesn’t even seem to have effected CBS…
“Rather’s interview with The Morning News concluded before the newspaper determined the date of Staudt’s departure, but a CBS staffer with extensive knowledge of the story said later that the departure doesn’t derail the story. “From what we’ve learned, Staudt remained very active after he retired,” the staffer said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “He was a very bullying type, and that could have continued.”
Here’s a suggestion for all of the conservative reporters and liberal reporters who value getting a big scoop more than ideology: start trying to find out where these documents came from and more importantly, if anyone in the Kerry campaign & DNC had their hands on them before they went to CBS. Not only does the American Spectator story above indicate that happened, campaigns give this sort of material to friendly reporters all the time.
But, if John Kerry’s campaign fed these forgeries to CBS, then there are all kinds of interesting questions that need to be asked. First and foremost among them being: did someone in the Kerry campaign forge these documents and provide them to CBS in an effort to try to hurt the Bush campaign? If not, then they should be able to explain exactly where these documents came from, right? Oh and did John Kerry, John Edwards, or any of the higher-ups in the campaign see these forgeries and approve of their being handed over to CBS?
Cover-ups, scandals, dirty tricks — that’s exactly what a campaign loves to be dealing with less than 60 days from an election. Ah, a story that could end Kerry’s chances of getting elected, bring down Dan Rather, and elevate the blogosphere all in one fell swoop! I’m lovin’ it…
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