Amid Skepticism, CBS Sticks to Bush Guard Story (New info--CBS 'expert' looked at only 1 doc)

LA Times ^ | 9-11-04

[ambrose]

Amid Skepticism, CBS Sticks to Bush Guard Story

By James Rainey and Elizabeth Jensen

Times Staff Writers

September 11, 2004

A CBS News report that suggested President Bush did not fulfill his military commitment 30 years ago fell under a growing cloud of skepticism Friday. But Democrats insisted that they had plenty of evidence to continue their campaign to show that Bush got breaks that other young men did not during the Vietnam War.

-snip-

A retired Guard major general — who Rather said in an interview would corroborate the CBS account — instead told The Times that he believed the memos from the late Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian were not real.

-snip-

Deflecting questions about whether Democrats had given CBS the documents implicating Bush, McAuliffe suggested it might have been White House political advisor Karl Rove who did so.

He offered no evidence to back that charge and White House spokesman Reed Dickens called the insinuation that Rove was behind the documents "complete nonsense."

-snip-

As another of the corroborating experts for its report, CBS and Rather presented an on-air interview with Marcel B. Matley, a San Francisco document examiner. Rather said Matley had corroborated the four Killian memos.

But in an interview with The Times, the analyst said he had only judged a May 4, 1972, memo — in which Killian ordered Bush to take his physical — to be authentic.

He said he did not form a judgment on the three other disputed memos because they only included Killian's initials and he did not have validated samples of the officer's initials to use for comparison.

-snip-

[prisoner6]

Wow. The LA effing Times My thoughts exactly! WOWSERS!

"...waist deep in the Big Muddy and the big fool says to push on..."

I haven't read the rest of the thread yet but I'd wager you and I are probably the only two here who remember the Pete Seger song...sigh.

prisoner6

[js1138]

you and I are probably the only two here who remember the Pete Seger song...sigh.

This isn't exactly a Pete Seger fan site.

[mvpel]

But Democrats insisted that they had plenty of evidence to continue their campaign to show that Bush got breaks that other young men did not during the Vietnam War.

What amuses me is that they think this is newsworthy.

Al Gore - son of a wealthy Tennessee Senator - got a cushy job as a Stars & Stripes journalist, and a bodyguard.

Kerry got reassigned as an admiral's aide after spending only four and a half months out of a one-year tour of duty in Vietnam.

I think you'd be hard-pressed to find any son of privelege and higher education who didn't get at least one break during Vietnam, among those who didn't avoid service entirely, such as Bill Clinton.