Everyone knows that Lockhart is a hack. It's the question of how he, or Mapes, felt it was professionally ethical (on her part) for him to follow up on a lead which she supplied to him and that could've affected the outcome of a federal election.
He must've known that the whole thing, at the very least, would appear to stink to the high heavens. But hey, you have to care about appearances in the first place, and I think that the Kerry camp is so desperate to come up with a "smoking gun", that they'll stoop to any measure at this point in time in a vain attempt to pull the old rabbit out of the hat.
Of course a Kerry operative is going to pursue leads. Why shouldn't he? Bashing Lockhart is a non starter. If the Kerry campaign was in the chain of custody of the forged documents, that is another matter.
"how he, or Mapes, felt it was professionally ethical (on her part) for him to follow up on a lead...
These people have no ethics. Seriously.
"you have to care about appearances in the first place..."
They expect not to be caught. Or, if they are, they can stonewall it till after the election in which case they don't care how they look.
Late to this thread, sorry. But there's a curious observation on another thread here (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1222002/posts) that could lead us to some answers.