Posted on 09/20/2004 6:28:41 AM PDT by johnny7
As most Americans were glued to the television sets on Saturday watching their favorite college team fight it out on the gridiron, a diligent Associated Press reporter filed his daily column and then probably found a television set himself to cheer his favorite team. On college football Saturdays nearly everything stops. This report was picked up by Fox News but only in passing--at least for now. Perhaps not wanting to fall into the same hole as CBS NEWS, Fox is being a little more careful.
What was in this AP report that seems to be slipping under just about everyone’s radar screens? Bill Burkett, the former Guardsman from Texas and the man now being fingered as the source of the forged ''Memogate'' documents, has admitted that after plowing through several layers of ''bureaucratic kids'' he contacted John Kerry’s good friend, the former senator from Georgia, Max Cleland. Burkett told Cleland that he had information that the Kerry campaign could use to ''counter the swift boat ads.'' Mr. Burkett stated he asked Cleland ''if they wanted to counterattack or ride this to ground and outlast it, not spending any money.'' Burkett reported that Cleland told him that they wanted to counterattack. Bill Burkett states he then sent what he had to Max Cleland, and that was the last Burkett heard from anyone involved with the Kerry campaign. The implications of this report are enormous. If these forged documents can be traced from Bill Burkett to John Kerry via Max Cleland, members of the Kerry campaign--if not Kerry himself--could be under criminal investigation for passing forged government documents.
From this point--at least for now--much is speculation, but there are certain facts that are known. The people at the CBS News department stated that they had been working on the Bush Texas Air National Guard story for over four years. In all that time apparently no one had been able to come up any evidence solid enough to take on the air. Then these ''documents'' were dropped into their laps. As any news source would do, CBS has so far refused to reveal its source. One would think that if that ''source'' intentionally passed CBS forged documents, the unwritten rule to protect them could be thrown away. But, as of this writing, CBS officials continue to protect their source. Would CBS go to such lengths to protect a retired and bitter ex-guardsman from Texas?
Many experts have come forward to say that they warned the CBS executives that there were abnormalities within these documents and at the very least required a more detailed study. For some obscure reason, CBS decided to run with the story. Those are the known facts to this date. Were the CBS bosses careless? Were they anxious to get ratings? Were they just anxious to ''get Bush?'' Is it possible that because of a trusted ''source,'' CBS felt that the documents had to be real? More than likely, Bill Burkett was not the direct source. If that had been the case, they would have been much more careful and investigated the source of these documents. The Kerry campaign may well have been the source and because of this, CBS let its guard down and accepted the documents at their face value giving them only cursory checks. The documents were manna from heaven. Finally they had something concrete to nail George Bush from a source CBS felt could be trusted.
Anyone in the Kerry camp could have made a quick trip to Abilene, Texas, to fax the documents to CBS News. If anything went amiss with the plan, the Kerry people could just plead ignorance. If allegations started to fly, the Democratic National Committee would put out the idea that the ingenious and evil Karl Rove was the culprit, out to make the innocent John Kerry look bad. It was just a Republican smear campaign! No matter how serious the situation got, all fingers would point to Bill Burkett, not Kerry. There was no direct contact between Kerry and Burkett so it probably seemed worth the risk to take a shot at President Bush in desperate times. Perhaps there was just one thing John Kerry, Max Cleland, and Terry McAuliffe didn’t count on or just didn’t know about--Bill Burkett has a small history of being a tad unstable. Mr. Burkett has a long history of speaking his mind. He also has a long history of disliking the Bush family. Did he feel slighted when he received not so much as a ''thank you'' from the Kerry camp for all his hard work? What would possess him to speak to a reporter and tell him of the contact with Max Cleland? Max Cleland is a direct line to John Kerry. Was granting an interview to a reporter his revenge for being slighted?
Did Burkett realize that he was going from hero to goat? Did he sense he was going to be thrown to the wolves? If this turns out to be the case, it will be a very costly slight for the Kerry campaign as this report is picked up by the other major networks who are circling CBS like vultures over a dead body. The news business is very competitive and only the strong survive. It is the unwritten law among newsmen that you make sure your information is as accurate as possible before you go public, but CBS broke this rule. The oldest network among them broke the cardinal rule and in doing so, embarrassed them all. No mercy will be shown and no quarter given. A story is a story and CBS is the story. If it can be shown that CBS received these forged documents from the Kerry camp, it will be a story with repercussions that will be felt right through to the election. How far will CBS fall before it decides it must try to salvage what’s left of its own integrity? If the Kerry people are the source, to what lengths will CBS go to protect the candidate? If the CBS plan was to affect the outcome of the November election, CBS can claim ''mission accomplished.''
It will be fascinating to hear the denials and excuses as the Kerry people turn on poor Mr. Burkett. He wanted to help John Kerry; he wanted to get even with the Bush family, but now that one phone call to Max Cleland may bring down the entire Democrat Party. For political junkies, does it get any better than this?
About the Writer: Barbara is a registered nurse who enjoys writing about politics and current events.
She has a website at http://www.republicanandproud.com/.
Barbara receives e-mail at dickens502003@yahoo.com.
Also- General STAUDT was IGNORED!!!!!
He is still alive and living in Texas!!!!
No one in CBS seems to have contacted him for comments.
Yet General Staudt is explicitly named (and slandered) in one of the memos as pushing Guard officials to "sugar coat" their performance reviews.
Un-be-frickin-lievable "journalism".
I think Cleland is a definite high probability.
CBS must divulge all sources in the chain of custody of the documents.
If they were "decieved" then there is no first amendment protection issue. divulge the decievers.
Yup! One look at her face and you can see she's no major player... neither is Burkett... they're just the mules.
Cleland to Kerry to Rather... the baseball opposite of Tinker to Evers to Chance.
Who say's politics and baseball have nothing in common!
all over the WWW this morning is the "CBS thinks they were "midlead" .. this is SO MADDENING to read!!...mislead?? Dan Rather himself said "there is No APOLOGY coming and no investigation coming, NOR SHOULD THERE BE"... they are ONLY doing this AFTER A SOLID WEEK of people like us, calling them on it.. if NOT they would have "STUCK" by that pack of lies.....I say they get NO PASS ON THIS.....that RATHER and his PRODUCER BOTH and the HEAD OF CBS should be fired....less than THAT is an INSULT to US and the President of the United States....
dont LET this story go away!!!
Maybe Cleland was trying to deliver copies of the "memos" when he showed-up at W's ranch?
*groan* :)
Two thumbs up, Max.
A week before McAulliffe started accusing Rove of planting the documents, I posted a thread showing the dems were trying to pin it on the GOP. (The thread was pulled for some reason)
Anyway, the DemocRATS proved to be true to form.
Possible. It would sure cut their credibility off above the knees.
Bill Burkett states he then sent what he had to Max Cleland, and that was the last Burkett heard from anyone involved with the Kerry campaign.
This is the first time I've read that Max Cleland was in the actual chain of custody of the ''documents''. What I've read other places is more ambiguous, something along the lines that Burkett gave ''them'' the information, implying the Kerry campaign organization without any info as to ''who'', specifically, the info was mailed/ faxed to. IF it has been nailed down that the info was sent to Cleland, this is a significant new fact, I would think, although not a real surprising one.
After listening to all the stories and thinking about all the personalities involved, here's the way I think it went down: Bill Burkett first provided the memos to Max Cleland who passed them along to the DNC/Kerry Campaign. The Kerry gang discussed the memos, looked them over, argued among themselves whether to use them or not, and ended up sitting on them. In the mean time, CBS producer Mary Mapes is still trying to get some dirt on Bush's ANG career. She gets in touch with Burkett, who by that time is getting impatient that the DNC/Kerry campaign are using the memos and he feels they are running out of time. Burkett decides to take matters into his own hands, and provides CBS with copies of the memos. The rest, as they say, is history.
Simplest scenerio: Burkett created and faxed the memos. Barnes and Cleland vouched for them. CBS showed the documents to the WH and held their breath.
Now from the point of view of the WH, the documents are noting thyy've seen before. They are either real or not. If they are real, it is best not to say anything. If they are fake it is best not to say anything.
CBS takes their silence as "proof" that the documents are real. I am pretty certain that the WH played poker on this.
If Cleland is the source, you can expect 0 legal ramifications from this and the story will probably die.
Despite the obvious fact that things were done that were illegal against federal law, you're just not going to see anyone from the Bush Administration go after a handicapped vet, it's just not going to happen.
By making Cleland the conduit, the DNC probably, sad by true, protected the inner workings of this strategy and fiasco.
So, if Max was confronted with this, do you think he would be stumped for a response?
Mad Max would give his right arm to get out of this one.
bump to read more comments later
LOL. I'm spent.
Okay, try this one: Burkett comes up with the .docs, contacts Kerry campaign. Cleland goes to Kerry and says "We got dirt, but it's from Burkett." Kerry says, "Whatever it is, I don't want to know." Cleland takes this as a go-ahead with plausible deniability for JFK and lets it rip.
I know, we're all shotgunning this, but we're probably in the ballpark as a whole.
One more possible link in the chain...Dan Rather's daughter is a Democrat activist in Texas with party connections.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.