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I would venture a guess that the Kerry campaign seniors returned Burkett's call on August 23rd. All day on the 24th the media was saying that Max Cleland was headed to Crawford to hand deliver a letter tomorrow (in that case it would have been the 25th of August). Because Max Cleland went out to Crawford on the 25th to hand deliver a letter to Bush about the Swift Vets, not before making some idiotic statement to the press.

"All day on the 24th the media was saying that Max Cleland was headed to Crawford to hand deliver a letter tomorrow (in that case it would have been the 25th of August). Because Max Cleland went out to Crawford on the 25th to hand deliver a letter to Bush about the Swift Vets, not before making some idiotic statement to the press."

Right. Which is significant, because you got the sense that Cleland was off the reservation that particular day: Cleland's stunt burned a news cycle (it led on C^BS, of course) at the same moment the Kerry camp realized they were taking on water from the Swift Boat Vets and were trying to game their way out of the Purple Heart imbroglio.

So Cleland's statement on Burkett is huge...

Does Cleland's statement even remotely sound like it was vetted out in advance by the Lurch cadre and the DNC? No friggin way.
Further proof Cleland may be off the reservation again this time -- he left the door open! He not only left the door open, he kicked the communication with Burkett upstairs to higher-ups in the Kerry campaign!