CBS Headquarters
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Dan...really...you want
Americans to
believe your pffhttt!
Posted on 10/06/2004 8:19:21 PM PDT by kingattax
FORT WORTH, Texas - (KRT) - Fifty-one members of Congress have requested an investigation into the suspected forgery of memos used by CBS to report on President Bush's service in the National Guard.
Kathy Colvin, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Dallas, said Tuesday that federal officials were "still consulting" with the Justice Department in Washington and that no decision had been made on whether to launch an investigation.
The Texas Rangers, meanwhile, have also been asked to look into the matter by U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, in a letter signed by him and other Republicans in Congress.
"We've received a copy of the letter, but we're not doing anything at this time," said Tela Mange, a Rangers spokeswoman in Austin. "We're still looking at it."
Smith sent the letter last week to state Attorney General Greg Abbott and U.S. Attorney Richard Roper in Dallas. Abbott referred the letter to the Texas Rangers.
"A crime may have been committed to influence the outcome of a presidential election while our commander in chief leads the war on terror," Smith wrote.
"This is a grave offense that demands the attention of the appropriate law enforcement and investigative authorities."
The four memos - now being sharply questioned - were purportedly written in the early 1970s by a commander in the Texas Air National Guard. They said that Bush, as a young member of the Guard, was not meeting expectations and that another commander wanted to "sugarcoat" it.
CBS used the documents for its Sept. 8 report on "60 Minutes" about Bush's service in the Guard. The network has since apologized for the report and has begun an internal investigation.
U.S. Rep. Kay Granger of Texas said Tuesday that she joined other Republican members of Congress in calling for the investigation to determine whether the report was anything more than a case of sloppy journalism.
"I believed it needed to be looked into," Granger said. "It just seemed like more than just a mistake."
The memos were given to CBS by West Texas rancher Bill Burkett, a former commander in the National Guard who has criticized Bush in the past. He could not be reached Tuesday for comment.
In a recent interview with the "Star-Telegram," Burkett said that he first learned of the memos' existence during an unsolicited phone call from a woman who identified herself as Lucy Ramirez.
An unidentified man, he said, subsequently handed him the documents on March 3 while he was at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
Burkett told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he believed the memos were legitimate but said he warned CBS to independently verify their authenticity.
In his letter, Smith said one possible crime could be "tampering with a governmental record."
"We do not know if Mr. Burkett forged the document, or if other individuals may have been involved," Smith wrote. "Please take whatever action is necessary ... to fully examine this matter."
Let's not hold our breath. Anybody heard anything on the Sandy Berger "Trouser-gate" scandal lately?
Let's not hold our breath. Anyone heard anything on the Sandy Berger "Trouser-gate" scandal lately?
No, they've begun a cover-up, with some really amusing similarities to Watergate.
Trouser-gate" scandal is in the process of an investigation. I read it somewhere yesterday. Not much talk about it.
Say it isn't so! The Rangers have been taken over by (D's)?
They should start with the DNC and the Kerrry campaign.
No sense beating around the bush.
While the documents were forged, the content is still accurate. Karl Rove used a Halliburon-invented time machine to go back in time and confiscate the documents.
;)
I mean the REAL documents......
I agree. These scandals will disappear. Either nobody has any guts or there's so much corruption that everybody's got dirt. Either way, both of these scandals will be covered up. Even the Texas Rangers don't care. Sheesh.
Rather has enough friends and admirers in the House and Senate to ensure this will go nowhere. Still, I bet this is making him sweat a little. Makes my night.
Bush & Rove are no doubt doing a cost/benefit analysis on going forward with this prior to the election...
Taking Rather and CBS out right now, would probably produce as much of a distraction - and take the heat off Ketchup Boy - as it would to discredit Demonrats generally. Same goes for Sandy Burglar. For that reason, I'll cut Bush and the Republicans and the Gummint generally some slack until after the election.
But if the aforementioned worthies don't set loose the dogs of Hell on all these sniveling rodents *after* the election, it will be proof positive that the Republicans really *are* the Stupid Party, and are incapable of learning anything from past mistakes dealing with Demonrat scum. You don't give them a pass - you stomp them into the mud, face down, every chance you get - because they are, without a doubt, the Evil Party.
Great post. You make good points.
There's something else, too, that may be in play.
In New Jersey, there is a successful businessman by the name of Doug Forrester who has been running what appear to be "public service"-type radio advertisements for several months now. You may remember Forrester - - he was the Republican candidate for Senate who was defeated by Lautenberg after Torricelli got.... Torricellied.
Anyways, Doug is not offically "running" for anything as far as I can tell, and he appears to be running these ads to establish his conservative bona fides and to get his name out there in the event that he does declare for office. (He will probably run for Governor.)
His ads have mostly been about the corruption and disgrace of Governor Jim McGreevey, but there have also been ads where he puts forth some very good conservative proposals for governing. For example, one ad makes the case for requiring a super majority in the state legislature for any tax increase.
Believe me, these radio ads are smooth, optimistic and really, really good. Lots of red meat for conservatives (like me). Every time I hear one on my car radio I smile and think "YEAH!!"
For the last couple of weeks, Doug has been running an ad which calls for the firing of Dan Rather. Doug pulls no punches. In fact, he is downright brutal. He says (paraphrasing) that Dan Rather and the liberals at CBS used forged documents to support a fabricated smear of President Bush and attempted to effect the outcome of a Presidential election. They should be held accountable under the law and rather should be fired. Doug even has a website devoted to ousting Rather where you can go and "sign a petition".
I suspect that Doug is in communication with the RNC and is coordintaing with those folks, at least to some extent. I think it would be a very clever strategy to keep pressure on the liberals on a local basis by using a friendly local spokesperson to pound home "hard right" ideas that may not necessarily be considered "Presidential" on a national scope. Bush is distanced from the "ideologues" and remains above the partisan fray, you see.
I have been wondering if there are other "rogue" candidates-to-be like Doug Forrester in other cities and regions who are airing similar radio ad campaigns. I certainly hope so.
That's right out of Horowitz's playbook, and Horowitz and Rove are good friends.
Horowitz credits Clinton with employing that technique to his advantage as part of his much-vaunted "triangulation" strategy. He would get subordinate or extraneous groups to go after his enemies, and act like he knew nothing about it.
If the Republicans are using the Demonrats' tactics against them successfully, it's nothing more than the Demonrats deserve for having dragged American politics into the sewer the way they have been methodically doing for the last few decades.
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