Cleland goes down to Texas to deliver that letter to Bush at his ranch. Bush snubs Cleland, Burkett contacts Cleland with documents in hand. Cleland contacts Rather and says he has a gold mine that he is looking at and it will destroy Bush. Rather starts foaming at the mouth, he now has an "unimpeachable" source for something. The documents get faxed to Rather and he is off to the races and doesn't bother to fact check anything since they came from a former Democrat Senator who says they are good as gold. Cleland doesn't know Texas politics and doesn't know that Burkett is a loose cannon. Rather doesn't check up on where Cleland got the papers.
Makes sense. Cleland's display at Crawford was disgraceful--