Posted on 09/17/2004 2:41:51 AM PDT by beyond the sea
The Texas man who was named on Thursday as the source of forged documents aired by disgraced newsman Dan Rather accepted an invitation to address a local Democratic Party gathering earlier this year - and is a regular poster to pro-Democrat Web sites.
Retired National Guard Lt. Bill Burkett is viewed as "an intelligent activist or statesman of sorts" by local Democratic Party officials, reports Friday's Washington Post.
He's also known as a "crusading voice against what is wrong with the Republican Party in general and with Bush in particular."
When the Bush Guard story resurfaced in February, the Taylor County Democratic Club invited Burkett to speak to its members about the "state of politics in America."
As part of his speech Burkett said he believed Bush aides ordered that the president's National Guard record be purged of any negative information.
Burkett has frequently posted notes to an Internet message group for Texas Democrats, the Post said.
His comments urged other members to work harder to defeat Bush in the election, and blasted John Kerry for presiding over "one of the worst run campaigns I've seen in my lifetime."
"Many of us have risked everything on this election," Burkett said in a message posted a week before the Rather report. "The disappointment is deep and difficult to manage. But we fight on, in spite of incompetence at the top."
Burkett also recently posted an analysis of the president's Guard record on Democrats.com under the headline "Study Proves Bush Was Legally AWOL."
"Many of us have risked everything on this election," Burkett said in a message posted a week before the Rather report. "The disappointment is deep and difficult to manage. But we fight on, in spite of incompetence at the top."
"Many of us have risked everything on this election"
Well at least you got that right...
A little jail time may well be in your future.
http://www.madkane.com/wwwboard/messages/3286.html
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“One report describes Robin Rather as an environmentalist and "a likely candidate for Austin Mayor in 2006." Another report states that she lives in the same congressional district as the former Texas lieutenant governor and heavyweight Democratic contributor Ben Barnes. He is the man behind most of the charges about President Bush's service record. Potential mayoral candidates and heavyweight campaign contributors tend to mingle. And according to that second report, Robin Rather and Barnes worked together on Democratic party fundraisers--perhaps including that March 2001 event described above.
Dan Rather refuses to disclose the provenance of the forgeries, and CBS claims that they came from Lt. Col. Jerry Killian's "personal" files, which his widow and son deny. So where did they come from? And why is Dan Rather stonewalling--despite the terrible risk both to himself and to CBS News?
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
Did the documents come from Barnes? If so, how did they make their way to Dan Rather? Was Robin Rather the conduit, either for Barnes or for some unknown party? If so, then Dan Rather's seemingly inexplicable conduct suddenly makes sense. If the disclosure of certain facts could be expected to cause his daughter severe damage, what father would not risk everything he had to attempt to insulate her?
Texas Dumocrats have never understood how they lost the battle for Texas. The have been eating their own, I guess Burkett decided to be the final suicide bomber against President Bush.
That's exactly what I was thinking. This guy is so unstable he just might take somebody else with him.
But, maybe he'll get off because he's nuts.
Well Barnes does have a history of scamming people. But, I think Rather (both) knew these were phoney from the get go.
Hmmm...
Insanity defense for forging military memos...
That might be interesting...
OH this is rich! I love it... :^D
Me too. I just can't believe how he thought he could get away with it! But if FR ("a bastion of right-wing lunacy") and others hadn't started the ball rolling, who knows whether the "big media" would have pursued CBS and the forgeries by themselves? "Big media" always protected each other until now. This really is a watershed event in the history of media!
"Dan and The Pajama People"
LOL
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"It was amazing Thursday to watch the documents story go from FreeRepublic.com, a bastion of right-wing lunacy, to Drudge to the mainstream media in less than 12 hours," said Jim Jordan, a strategist for independent Democratic groups opposed to Bush.
"But apparently the entire thing was cooked up by a couple of amateurs on Free Republic. The speed with which it moved was breathtaking."
Breathtaking for sure!!!
He's been hospitalized for his head. Rather can go the same way.
Kinko Dan, the Forgery Man
Run, run as fast as you can.
You can't catch me,
I'm the Forgery Man.
Whose story got the Net in a lather
Though he stuck to his line
He couldn't save his behind
Now he can't get a job doing weather.
FReeper - Atigun
Excellent!
Please help me out here. If Burkett really saw all those Bush documents lying in that trash can, as he claims, why didn't he scarff them up and keep them as Exhibit-A? Methinks he's so full of _ _ it that his eyes are brown!
Those brave, risk everything, dems?
Bad choice.....live with it.
Robin Rather is in Travis County,
250 mi from Taylor County. BTW, Burkett lives in an adjoining county to Taylor - Callahan. Next weeks Geography lesson will be.... (only kidding).
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