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There are several things that stick out in my memory about the Rather Report that did him in.

On the day the report aired Rather had copies of the Documents presented to the White House with a request for comment. When the white house had not replied by late afternoon Rather contacted the White House and asked for a comment on the Documents. Rather was told the White House had "No Comment".

At about the same time the White House put the Documents on the White House web site for all to see.

Why?

For those fake documents to make it to the White House web site two things must be true. Some one very high up... the president most likely.... had to approve putting those documents on the web site. If Rove or the President thought for one half second that the documents were true and accurate they would NEVER have put them on the White House web site. The conclusion is the White HOuse knew the information contained in the documents was false and the Documents were fake.

Why then did the White House tell Rather,"No Comment"?

Anyone who had been around Washington more than a half hour would know that Rather would interpret a White House "No Comment" as an admission of guilt. Even when politicians are guilty they still challenge any and all evidence.

Rather had to assume that if the information in the documents was false then the Bush white house would have screamed that information in the documents was false.

Rather reasoned that even if the documents were fake, the information they contained had to be true.. other wise Bush would have shouted the documents are false at the top of his lungs. "No comment" to Rather meant Bush is guilty. And that was enough for Rather to bet his career on those fake documents.

The President had to know that what was contained in the documents was untrue. It is very likely that in about the same time it took Buckhead to determine the documents were fake, the White house knew they were fake.

Then why the no comment and why put the documents on the White House web site?

It seems to me that when the documents were shown to Bush and Rove, they decided to use them to take Rather down. Rove certainly had studied all the network anchors. He had to know that if they waited until Rather contacted them and then said "No Comment", Rather would bet his career that the documents were at worst "fake but accurate". Rather could not believe that the Bush White House would say "No Comment" if the documents were "Fake and Lies".

Putting the Documents on the web was an attempt to make it easy for someone other than the White House to prove the documents were fake. If no Buckhead had come forward, I think the white house was prepared to prove the documents were fake and the contents lies.

But that "No Comment" comment would insure that Rather would believe that even if the documents were fake the contents were the truth.

I think Rather Got BUSHwhacked.. big time. I think it took a long time for Rather to find out he had been BUSHwhacked, The CBS suits suspected, but Rather do doubt lied to them.. Rather I think told them he had iron clad proof that Bush was guilty as charged. The Iron clad proof was the White House "No Comment". So the suits let Rather play out his Fake but Accurate ploy.

When at last the Suits were certain of the truth they had to know that Bush And Rove had Bushwhacked not only Rather but CBS.

Rather had to go. And the whole world had to be made aware that Rather had been fired.

The word BUSHwhacked has to be burned into Rather's brain.

But I have one other thing to say. Reagan told the world that Peggy Noonan wrote his speeches. But since leaving the White House Peggy has never been able to write as well as she did when she wrote for Reagan. Yet Reagan even when announcing he had Alzheimer's, wrote just as well as Peggy did when she was given credit for "writing" Reagan's speeches.

Don't be surprised if once Rove stops working for President Bush, he never again reaches the level of expertise he shows when working for Bush. And don't be surprised if Bush in th future is just as good a strategist as he was when Rove was getting all the credit.

I think Rather got into a contest with President Bush and got BUSHwacked .... big time.