I give quite a large rip, actually. If the chain includes Kerry campaign officials, and that fact becomes public, the election is over and we take 56 seats in the Senate. That would be a good thing and that all goes back to chain of custody.
Given their protestations about 'unimpeachable sources' and a 'rock-solid chain of custody,' CBS will be hard pressed to be vague about where and how they got them. My belief is that the whole reason CBS has twisted this long before admitting the documents were forgeries is that they had to come up with an approach to doing so that does not reveal the Kerry campaign's involvement.
It will be important to watch the hand that is not gesturing over the next few days. That hand holds the actual chain-of-custody information.
I agree, but I think it's too much to hope for that CBS will give up anyone in the Kerry campaign. They'll say they got them directly from Burkett, dealt with Burkett, etc. IF the Kerry people have any sense at all they didn't provide any physical evidence directly to CBS, they probably just helped CBS to get together with Burkett and told CBS that Burkett could be trusted (yeah, right).
I think both Rather/Mapes and Burket/Van Os will go to their graves before they give up Cleland or anyone in the Kerry camp. Unfortunately, I expect the best we can hope for is a major shake-up within CBS and a prosecution of Burkett, but Rather and his pals in CBS will fight to make Mapes the only scapegoat there..... I say fire everyone who touched this story and prosecute Burkett to the limit!
Okay, maybe I was just reading this too late last night. I took the statement to mean that they had a good chain of custody from the time they got them at CBS. That's why I was so outraged. Yeah, obviously a chain of custody from BEFORE CBS got them would be invaluable.
I guess I'm so used to Clintonian parsing that when the spokesperson said "we" have a chain of custody I took it to be in the narrowest possible sense.