That's true, but the Democrats aren't envisioning these documents as the final blow that does Bush in. These are just the "setup" documents, which they will spin to raise doubts about Bush's integrity and truthfulness, etc. Once that have instilled doubt, they then unleash a veritable mountain of unverifiable accusations against him, and he suffers the death of a thousand cuts.
They don't need to burn Bush, they only need to make lots of smoke, because the average voter thinks that lots of smoke = fire.
These "setup" documents have already been discredited, no matter what Rather says. There's not a single alphabet or cable network that doesn't have experts who question their authenticity.
Besides, the voting public has gone over Bush's National Guard records four times. They've already made up their minds.
Calling Bush a "liar" over the 9/11 weekend will look so friggin' crass that he's likely to get another 3 or 4 points in next week's poll.
Rather's "documents" are losers.
Although I am not with you on your Misdirection premise, I do agree with this last post.
I don't put it past the Democrats to conjure up such a Machiavellian scheme.
The problem with it is that CBS, by staking everything on the authenticity of the original Killian documents, has also forced the Democrats to stake everything on them too.
Discrediting one set of negative documents related to Bush's Guard service will cast similar discredit over other related documents.