Let me see if I can add another dot or two. CBS probably gets a truckload of tin foil hat conspiracy thoeries faxed to them every day. So, without someone that CBS News knows intimately from past associations (or their being vouched for a trusted person) paving the way, this guy's rant ends up in the dumpster with the rest of the trash. The significance of the "unimpeachable source" comment Rather made now takes on real significance. Who paved the way for these forgeries -- there is the person to look for?
Dan Rather's daughter lives in Austin. That disgraced ex-Lt Gov (Barnes?) lives not too far from Abilene, Texas. This Burkette's lawyer is a Dem operative, a Gore chad counter, ex-labor lawyer for the AFL-CIO, and Dem candidate for Texas Supreme Court.
There are way too many conincidences here. Some rumblings a short while back about Bush's Guard service, the CBS forgeries based story, followed IMMEDIATELY by the DNC "Fortunate Son" ad campaign (they don't crank out those ads overnight on a laptop). Does anyone else smell an intricately planned smear assault that went horribly wrong?
That's the bad thing about being a "bomb factory" - sometimes one of them blows up in your face!
Given his history with mental illness and festering grudge, Burkett certainly does not qualify as an unimpeachable source. But they are doing there best to point us in his direction.
Major Players:
Robin Rather
Dan Rather
Barnes
Burkett
David Van Os
David R. Richards
Ann Richards
DNC/Kerry Campaign
Paul Begala (just becasue he is from Texas)
All dedicated to the destruction (not just defeat) of George W Bush
Do not forget Dan's Rather's disgust when Ann Ricahrd's was defeated. Would Ann or husband be considered unimpeachable?
It does for me. Jerry Killian's widow is a "Bushie," or "partisan political operative." She doesn't count for anything. Jerry Killian's fellow officers who do not back the CBS story's premise (several) are the same sort of unreliable people. They mean nothing.
Ben Barnes, perjurer and Democratic fundraiser ("Hey! What's the matter with THAT?") though he may be, is an unimpeachable source. Bill Burkett, never mind his past mental health problems and seeming fixation with Bush, is an unimpeachable source. They and any documents they bring are a "preponderance of evidence."
If CBS's own experts warn in advance that the documents at very best cannot be authenticated and are highly questionable, the "preponderance of evidence" means it's OK to go ahead.
That indeed tells me something. This story was going to happen no matter what. Probably because something called OPERATION FAVORITE SON demanded that it happen.