Posted on 09/16/2004 2:36:57 PM PDT by swilhelm73
Apparently the Chirac Broadcasting System hasn't learned the first rule of politics: when you're in a hole, stop digging. Marian Carr Knox -- the 86-year old former secretary to Dubya's squadron commander, Jerry Killian -- was flown to New York to talk to 60 Minutes last night, and began the conversation by saying the famous CBS memos weren't authentic. But, like any lawyer who doesn't have opposing counsel to object to improper questions, Dan Rather led her through statements about which she apparently knew nothing. And Mrs. Knox speculated her heart out.
Mrs. Knox said that though the CBS documents weren't real, what is stated in the forgeries is. She talked and talked about how Killian was upset with Mr. Bush, how the rest of the pilots resented him for being a child of privilege, and said that Killian's son -- who disputes the validity of the CBS case against Mr. Bush -- "...has no way of knowing whether it's true or not." And she does? Not according to the members of the squadron I spoke to this morning.
Col. Bill Campenni (USAF, Ret.) wondered just how Mrs. Knox would have more knowledge than Killian's son. He told me that not only was young Killian the son of the squadron commander, he was a member of the squadron on duty with the rest of the guys. Mrs. Knox -- the squadron secretary -- only knew paper. Not people. Killian's son was in a very good position to know, and she wasn't.
Mrs. Knox said she remembered that Killian was upset because Mr. Bush didn't take his flight physical. And she transforms Killian's supposed frustration into a statement that the other pilots werer resentful of Mr. Bush be cause of his attitude. That's flatly false according to both Campenni and Joe Glavin, another pilot who flew with Dubya. I asked Glavin if there was any such resentment of Bush. He said, "Absolutely not," and added that you'd have a really hard time finding anyone who would agree with that.
(Bill Campenni reminds me that though Mr. Bush missed the physical, it made no sense for him to have taken one. He wasn't going to continue flying. His skill with the F-102 was obsolete, and he wasn't going to retrain for another aircraft. He was about to leave the Guard to go to Harvard. Which makes it pretty unlikely that Killian actually ordered Mr. Bush to take the physical.)
So why is Mrs. Knox saying all this? Glavin says nobody should care what she said. "She had nothing to do with the unit. She didn't fly, she didn't hang out with us." According to Glavin, she was out of the mainstream of the squadron, in an office that the pilots only visited occasionally. According to Bill Campenni, Knox is a "yellow dog" democrat, and her biases were noticeable even in 1972. Leave it to CBS to find the one yellow dog Dem in the 1972 Texas Air National Guard. Her statement is as valid as the CBS memos.
Gee, will this be in the Washington Post in the morning?
Well, that "selected not elected" comment says she's a delusional kool-aide drinker. That's not even an arguable claim.
If people only got into the TANG because of their connections, how come Mrs. Knox - a lowly office clerk - was able to get her son into the Guard?
How can you possibly take Campenni's and Glavin's word over Mrs. Knox's? They are obviously pro Bush.
<<"yellow dog" democrat, and her biases were noticeable even in 1972>>
EVEN in '72, something to consider.
everything she said she could have learned and been inspired by from the weekend talk shows and DNC/CBS talking points spun there.
IMO the interesting thing is if the Houston Chronicle interviewed her last week and their description of her remarks about Bush then were accurate.
Glenn Beck had a lot of fun this afternoon dismantling a tape of the Rather/Knox interview. Highly entertaining!
Not only does that comment make her a delusional kool-aid drinker, it indicates she was coached by the DNC.
Back when she was saying she didn't know Bush herself, she commented generally on all the privileged types there who got special treatment. Who exactly was left to resent them?
Maybe SeeBS should dig out some janitor or carbage "engineer" to get their opinion about that "no-good" W privileged son.
Yea, dig into W, but leave that "working class" sKerry moron alone, build him up as Vietnam hero, and all around nice guy (who is hero, but then he throws his medals away) then he helps communists and is absent from senate and votes against military spending, yada yada...
What is criminal, is the forgery of government, military documents, use of those for political purpose and against sitting president. This doesn't just smell like impropriety, but it is CRIMINAL, hello Done Rather and SeeBS?
It would seem that Rather is getting some good satisfaction out of making the White House squirm and twist and contort on this, so I can't imagine that he showed ALL he was going to show just last night.
Dear CBS News and Dan Rather: THANK YOU !!! Thank you for standing up to the misinformation that is being presented to the American people on a daily basis from the White House and every level of government. As I news junkie, it has been disturbing to watch the decline of journalistic integrity.
I thanked him and told him I was a typewriter repairman and that the doc's looked authentic to me.
We love you Dan, and a large group of us here are rooting for you (we're all Deaniacs....so you know how intensely we feel about cleaning up the media!) I think you are displaying genuine integrity, and it is this we admire above and beyond whatever the final validity of these documents turns out to be. We trust you, (at the moment, ha!) because of this integrity, and so much of America is aching for this right now!
With CBS acting like the only broadcast media with a spine, I'll wager the far right is afraid of what else they may have found. Keep in mind that the opposition seeks to destroy the messenger, not the message. Witness the focus on the authenticity of paper and ink, rather than the information contained.
I truly appreciate the integrity CBS News has shown in covering these recent stories regarding Mr. Bush's National Guard duty.
Here is my take on this....CBS has the originals, Rove sent the fakes to Rather, Rather knows these are fakes, but these fakes are being used to smoke out Rove. I find it strange that Rather would interview the secretary on his program for her to say she thought these documents were forgeries. Actually, Rather asked her more then once about the forgeries, then she mentions a diary. Maybe CBS has the diary. Although the secretary verified the information I think Rather is too smart to know this is not enough after all he has been investigating this for four or five years. I think Rather wants to prove that Rove sent these so called papers to him -- he is giving every opportunity to allow Rove and company to say these papers are forgeries. My impression he was emphasizing the papers were forgeries just as much as the contents. He also knows there are some documents missing -- proof now the WH has more documents available after I don't know how many times, they keep saying they turned them all over but all of a sudden more are found. When interviewing the secretary Rather was very confident (almost smug). I believe he is holding a lot back. Go Dan Rather!
the docs he's allowing to be broadcast probably are fake in an effort to trip up bushco, but I doubt that Viacom's lawyers would let him go to air with bullshit and risk the financial hit to the stockholders. There is too much money at stake to be that reckless. And Rather isn't like the cable-cabal... innuendo, insinuation and speculation passing for evidence... We don't know all there is to know, so it's too soon to be howling about fakes---Rather hasn't tipped his hand yet.
i suspect that these forgeries are, in fact, forgeries. i suspect that they were leaked by the GOP in order to create the belief that CBS is untrustworthy on not only this issue, but any others in which they have criticized the administration in the past. this all just seems way too intentional to me.
If the memos are forged, but their contents are accurate, why would there be a need for forged memos? If this is all true, why not show us REAL documents that prove the accusations against Bush? Because, like the forged documents, the Democrat's last desperate ploy are all frauds, as is Ms. Knox. That is the only conclusion anyone with a mind can come to.
They are not forgeries, they are fabrications.
Then, not five minutes later, she was running on and on about about his arrogant attitudes and how much the other pilots in the unit resented him.
It was almost stunning because it sounded as if she was talking about two completely different people ... but it depended on which direction in which Rather led her in the interview. Sounded as if she went through some kind of heavy pre-interview "prepping" it you ask me.
She's the "Bush was Selected Lady".
The problem is that old Yeller dems have become crazy rabid dog dems
Who would Bush have known better? Killian's son or Mrs. Knox? Most secretaries worth their salt know a great deal about all sorts of things, so much of what she's saying sounds plausible to me. I'm not sure an 86 year old former secretary's memory would be as good, nor does the "even though these are clearly forgeries, they're right" give one much confidence. In the end, I think it all boils down (once again) to "he said she said", which is another way of saying "believe according to your ideology", which is the best that the Democrats could hope for, given that their guy is clearly a jerk both in the 70's and the present day.
Who was Ricky Knox the guy involved in some scandal with Burkett years ago? Any relation?
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