Posted on 09/13/2004 3:57:28 PM PDT by Hank All-American
I just finished watching the all-star round table discussion with Brit Hume, Fred Barnes, Mort Kondracke, and Mara Liasson on Fox. No longer are they giving serious consideration to the possibility the Bush ANG documents are not fakes. Even Liasson more or less admitted there was no chance they were real. She also admitted the burden of proof was on the people making the allegation, and that this had "blown-up" in the face of the Bush-haters.
This segment was notable in that this is the first time I've seen the issue treated without the seemingly-obligatory agnosticism we've been seeing. They said they were fake and took CBS to task. Kudos to Brit Hume for pointing out this had virtually nothing to do with Bush showing up in Alabama, but contained new allegations about favorable treatment and pressure from higher-ups that have no substantiation if the documents are fake. Liasson grudgingly agreed.
In fact, to paraphrase a former Texas governor, she looked like she realized there was nothing she could do about it, so ... you know the rest.
Wow, if Mara conceded they were fakes, that's something. But will she ask the obvious question, "What did Dan Rather know and when did he know it?" Unlikely - the "what did he know and when did he know it" question is only asked of conservatives and Republicans.
Only See-BS is still claiming the papers are true.
Rather reminds me of Nixon in the summer of 1974. He was in denial as well.
Okay. Now how do we get this out in the MSM? There must be someone who is unbiased in the MSM that will help. If this situation were reversed, think of the way the media would be handling it. If the Bush camp was suspected of wrong doing with any forged documents, can you imagine?!
Actually it wasn't a former Texas governor, but was the overconfident Republican candidate running for governor in 1990. He made the unfortunate mistake of inviting a bunch of the press to a campfire dinner and then telling the joke comparing the weather to rape. This of course was immediately spread all over the news, and was part of what sunk his campaign. The other thing was publicly refusing to shake hands with Ma Richards at the beginning of a debate.
Darn! Of all days to get home late.
Thanks for the update.
You are correct. I should have said "gubernatorial candidate." I was typing faster than I was thinking.
It was Clayton Williams, by the way. And he was making an informal joke off the record that no one present thought twice about.
Darn, I was really looking forward to Clayton introducing criminals to the "joy of busting rocks."
That would be Clayton Williams, methinks.
Not the kind of humor cowboys find acceptable or tolerate.
CBS has to defend them. If they admit they were fakes the story moves to "Where did you get them from?" If they give up the loser who gave them to them they will be admitting they got them from a Kerry/DNC shill. And then it will be obvious that they work working with the Kerry campaign to time the release of these memos to come out just a week before the Kerry campaign ran the BS story about Bush claiming to be in the A.F. in an old campaign brochure. (he was active A.F. for pilot training).
The Kerry campaign was trying to pull a SBVT on Bush, first with the memo then with the brochure thing a week later. Get Bush on the defensive.
The Reason CBS was happy to not do due diligence on the Memo was the Kerry campaign needed it to run on time: first the memo story and then the brochure story.
And if all that is correct, and I think I am right or I wouldn't be typing this, then Rather has to defend this because it's his decision to do all the water carrying for Kerry.
He runs CBS news. Nothing like this can go over the air without his thumbs up. This was Dan the man Rather's turd and he's trying to polish it up and tell everyone it's a dinosaur egg or a meteorite or anything other than a turd the Kerry campaign/DNC handed him.
It's a turd Dan.
Mara didn't exactly concede they were fakes. She didn't exactly deny it, though, either. What she said was that the whole issue had blown up in the face of the Kerry campaign (or something to that effect) because all the focus was on whether the documents were fake. But she did not contradict anything Fred or Mort or Brit said about the documents being fake. Mort even took the lead, saying the evidence that they were fake was just pouring in every day.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1214997/posts
Brit Hume Special Report, Expert Says FORGERY! 09-13-04
FoxNews | 09-13-04 | GRRRRR
Good to hear
I'm hoping to see Brit bitch-slap O'Reilly into CNN...
While I agree with your assessment of the Mara Liasson/Dan Rather response... I believe the real question at hand is "what did (John Kerry) know, and when did he know it"! Even the left-leaning Bob Woodward would come to the same conclusions! Either junior-Senator Kerry was completely complicit in the scandal... or, he was foolishly aloof of the operations of his own campaign. In both instances, he is painted into a very unflattering corner (right where he belongs!). I believe it is vitally important that the President's campaign use this prisim through which it illustrates the Kerry operation for the duration of the campaign.... repeat it, repeat it and repeat it again! Who would've thought that John Kerry could make Mike Dukakis look quite "manly" (and that's a picture I don't care to imagine)!
"No... [*sigh*]... I guess that's enough KoolAid for me right now, thanks..." :)
"No longer are they giving serious consideration to the possibility the Bush ANG documents are not fakes."
If Juan Williams were on the show today, he would have put a whole other spin to it (he was downright combative over this subject on Fox News Sunday). Actually, Mara tends to be pretty fair about most issues, considering she, like Williams, works for NPR.
Quick, someone throw a baby stroller on the rubble of CBS's credibility...
Hey Dan, after you put that thing away, I think I see something you need to wipe from your face. You don't need to wash your hands, just reach up and brush it off.
Well, watching Mara eat a little crow may not be as satisfying as watching Elenor Clift admit that there IS a dress in Ms. Lewinsky's wardrobe with Slick Willie's DNA spattered all over it, but it's close.
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