[longshadow]

and then produce the handwritten letters as proof of.........what?

That Bush lied, of course!

Logically, it makes no sense at all, but from a PR standpoint, it's brilliant: we will have shot our bolt attacking documents that ultimately aren't the ones they are relying upon. Any attempt to question the authenticity of THOSE handwritten documents will then be swept aside as the blatherings of a bunch of crazy internet goons and a few talk radio and cable news freaks.

And they don't have to prove their case; they only need to instill a sense of doubt about Bush's integrity and truthfulness for the pending smear attacks to work.

I know this is a long shot, but there are too many unusual circumstances that are seemingly coincidental to be overlooked (telling Hodges the documents were handwritten, Rather warning the public that they were focussing on the documents and not the content, the use of signature/handwriting expert by CBS instead of a document expert, showing the handwriting expert examining ONLY the signature, and not the whole document).

All I'm saying is there is a scenario they might try that might look something like I'm describing, and we ought to be prepared for such an eventuality.

And I'll be delighted if it turns out not to be true.

[Texasforever]

As I said earlier. For them to type up a document and then place a dead man's signature on it goes beyond dirty politics it is committing a crime. That is why Rather has to stand by his story to the bitter end, someone committed a crime with these memos. There is NO upside for CBS in this story and they know it. Hell this stepped all over their real purpose and publications like the Boston Globe. This is a disaster for all of them.

[MichelleWSC]

If CBS does have handwritten documents why would they have gone through all the trouble of retyping them with MS Word and then forging a signature? The logical thing that would have happened is that CBS would have stated and shown the handwritten notes then stated the notes were typed so the message was clear.

Just my 2 cents

[xJones]

Logically, it makes no sense at all, but from a PR standpoint, it's brilliant: we will have shot our bolt attacking documents that ultimately aren't the ones they are relying upon.

I think you give them far too much credit for intelligence. They've been waffling too long not producing any such handwritten original. The duplicity of suddenly flashing the smoking handwritten letter would look even more suspicious, and it's very doubtful that Killian, in his easily checked handwriting, would have written such things so completely contrary to all his known sentiments regarding the Bushes.