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.
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About zero. Clintoon 08 may well be in danger if this goes nuclear. The American people will simply not trust the democrats for 16 or so years until they get their house cleaned.
Nope. This is a disaster.
Kerry is directly tied to Cleland. These two have campaigned together and are close allies in the Senate. If Cleland helped push this, there can be no doubt that Kerry knew and approved.
The fact that the docs were either constructed at or copied at Kinkos in Abilene doesn't let the Dems off the hook.
There is no documentation that Burkette directly contacted CBS--and he surely would have bragged about it on his emails to the Dems websites.
However, he does brag about his contact with Max Cleland. What does that tell you?
Correct. Cleland. The Senator is the "Unimpeachable source".
He was not drunk at the time of his accident. He was on his way to go get a beer and exiting a helicopter when he spotted the dropped grenade on the ground.
I think yo're right. The crucial point is Burkett was in the Texas Army National Guard, not the Air National Guard. The forged memos contain a number of pieces of Army jargon, not AF jargon. That points to their creator as a formeer Army National Guard Officer, Burkett.
Hunter Thompson once said that Nixon's idea of a good joke was a paraplegic who couldn't reach high enough to vote Democratic. But Max Cleland just made himself the joke and ensured many folks won’t be reaching for that demo-lever on 11/2. The post-op on this will be fascinating. It’s going to look a lot like an old “Fugitive” rerun. Who was that one-armed man?
hobbes1: ¨Correct. Cleland. The Senator is the "Unimpeachable source".
Very possibly. Or Cleland could have employed an intermediary to forward the false accusations, (i.e. those also contained in the memos), back to Mapes to make her believe she had corroborating sources. It may have been someone who formerly knew with Killian like a secretary or coworker for example. The Dems may have been playing CBS like a drum.
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