Take One for the Kerry Team

The NY Times is reporting that CBS News will admit it was duped and take one for the Kerry team. Unfortunately for CBS, their fall guy, Bill Burkett, will not take one for the Kerry team, so says his lawyer David Van Os.

It's going to be interesting if any muck hits the Kerry campaign when this thing lands.

Dan: "The White House Made Me Do It"

Oh geeez. The LA Times has the story about how CBS pulled the story together and how quickly it fell apart. Here's the money quote:

Josh Howard, the program's executive producer, told the Los Angeles Times in an interview Friday: "The White House said they were authentic, and that carried a lot of weight with us."

But the White House actually said:

Bartlett's answer was: "I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying that the fact that documents like this are being raised when, in fact, all they do is reaffirm what we've said all along, is questionable."

I think some heads should roll, especially Dan's.

On the Road Again?

Teddy Kennedy is hitting the road for the Kerry campaign. A warning to everyone out there: don't hitch a ride from him. Also, I wonder why Kerry is hitching a ride?

Colonel Vapor (Rathergate)

Via Kansas.com, the Dallas Morning News is reporting that the colonel who pressured Bush's superior to "sugar-coat" the record wasn't even in the Guard when the memo was made by Killian:

The man named in a disputed memo as exerting pressure to "sugar coat" President Bush's military record left the Texas Air National Guard a year and a half before the memo was supposedly written, his own service record shows.

An order obtained by The Dallas Morning News shows that Col. Walter "Buck" Staudt was honorably discharged on March 1, 1972. CBS News reported this week that a memo in which Staudt was described as interfering with officers' negative evaluations of Bush's service, was dated Aug. 18, 1973.

CBS and Dan Rather stand by their story. This is really starting to unravel.

Smeared by Fakes

CBS News performed a drive-by hit on President Bush's National Guard service by releasing several memos from a dead Texan that was Bush's superior officer in the TANG. Here are the memos: August 18 memo, May 19 memo, May 4 memo, and August 1 memo. Interestingly, the memos are typed in a proportional font, similar to something you'd find on a word processor or a webpage like this, but not in the National Guard of 1972. Plus, the signatures don't match up. CBS said it consulted with a handwriting expert, but that expert is a friend of Barnes, the very guy that is now making scurrilous allegations about Bush.

There's more to this story that needs to come out. In the end, I don't believe it will matter. If they're fake then it will matter because the folks at Moveon.org and Barnes' group in Texas will have this filth thrown back in their faces and splashed onto Kerry.


UPDATE: Powerline has more on this issue. It looks like a former Navy clerk has weighed in the issue of the fake memos, and provides some compelling, though anecdotal, reasons. Hopefully, this has legs.

UPDATE II: Rather than link to everything out there, here's a short list of the fallout:
Captain's Quarters
Powerline
QandO
QandO again

This is rather (pun intended) amusing.

Bush is a Moron, Ooops

The AP and the bloviating media is back on the Bush was AWOL story with this report. It's good to see they're getting deep into this one, just like they dug deep into the Kerry medals flap and his post-Vietnam antics. Nevertheless, the AP story did have an interesting tidbit that I'm sure many lefties will choose to overlook:

The records also show Bush made a grade of 88 on total airmanship and a perfect 100 for flying without navigational instruments, operating a T-38 System and studying applied aerodynamics. Other scores ranged from 89 in flight planning to 98 in aviation physiology.

I think it was at about this time that Al Gore was flunking out of both law school and divinity school and when John Kerry couldn't get into Harvard. By the way, George W. Bush did get into Harvard.

Update: Lies, Lies, Lies

Yesterday, I posted about the lies the Kerry Campaign pointed out from the RepubliCon, including John McCain's lies. Well, it's now disappeared at this link. Here's the new screenshot:

LA Times on the Payroll

The Kerry Campaign shakeup involved shaking the reporters at the liberal media to write more puff pieces like this one in the LA Times that touts Kerry's ability to come back in a campaign. Hey, he's done it twice in the past, unfortunately both times were in Massachusetts. Now, if he can only get every person from Cambridge to go out and breed with middle America and dilute the vote, then he might win. Good luck.

Lies, Lies, Lies

The Kerry for President website has a list of Four Days Filled With Lies from the Republican Convention in NYC. Interestingly, the Kerryites don't refute them and they step on the guy that they oh so covet, John McCain:

Bush Has Done A Good Job With Our Allies.

10. Senator John McCain: “My friends in the Democratic Party and I'm fortunate to call many of them my friends assure us they share the conviction that winning the war against terrorism is our government's most important obligation. I don't doubt their sincerity. They emphasize that military action alone won't protect us, that this war has many fronts: in courts, financial institutions, in the shadowy world of intelligence, and in diplomacy. They stress that America needs the help of her friends to combat an evil that threatens us all, that our alliances are as important to victory as are our armies. We agree. And, as we've been a good friend to other countries in moments of shared perils, so we have good reason to expect their solidarity with us in this struggle. That is what the President believes. And, thanks to his efforts we have received valuable assistance from many good friends around the globe, even if we have, at times, been disappointed with the reactions of some.”

11. Senator John McCain: “Our President will work with all nations willing to help us defeat this scourge that afflicts us all.”

Bush Did It Right Going to War Against Iraq.

12. Senator John McCain: “However just the cause, we should shed a tear for all that is lost when war claims its wages from us. But there is no avoiding this war. We tried that, and our reluctance cost us dearly. And while this war has many components, we can't make victory on the battlefield harder to achieve so that our diplomacy is easier to conduct.”

13. Senator John McCain: “After years of failed diplomacy and limited military pressure to restrain Saddam Hussein, President Bush made the difficult decision to liberate Iraq. Those who criticize that decision would have us believe that the choice was between a status quo that was well enough left alone and war. But there was no status quo to be left alone."

Not too smart, when you want to get independent voters on your side.

This Would Be Great

A report out there claims we're close to getting bin Laden. The Kerry campaign might as well just shut down if that happens.

Geez, Just Go Away

Even on his hospital bed, Bill Clinton help but stick his big, fat nose into the current election. Maybe that conspiracy that he's trying to sabotage Kerry for Hillary's 2008 run is true.

Man the Lifeboats

Time Magazine is reporting doom for Kerry:

For the first time since the Presidential race became a two person contest last spring, there is a clear leader, the latest TIME poll shows. If the 2004 election for President were held today, 52% of likely voters surveyed would vote for President George W. Bush, 41% would vote for Democratic nominee John Kerry, and 3% would vote for Ralph Nader, according to a new TIME poll conducted from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2. Poll results are available on TIME.com and will appear in the upcoming issue of TIME magazine, on newsstands Monday, Sept. 6.

Kerry's campaign must be going nuts. Haha.

For or Against Bush

Time Magazine has competing commentary from liberal Michael Kinsley against Bush and conservative Charles Krauthammer for Bush. Both are a good read, except in Kinsley's case, he seems unable to make out a case for Kerry. It's the same old anybody but Bush argument. Terry McAuliffe's strategy didn't work in Florida in 2002 and won't work in 2004. Won't they ever learn?

Lawyer Sharing Update

The New York Times weighed in today on Ginsburg's role as a lawyer for both President Bush and the Swift Boat Vets. I guess they didn't see this nugget either:

The campaign of Senator John Kerry shares a lawyer, Robert Bauer, with America Coming Together, a liberal group that is organizing a huge multimillion-dollar get-out-the-vote drive that is far more ambitious than the Swift boat group's activities.

Based on the filings with OpenSecrets.org, the Swift Boat Vets have raised only $158,750, while the anti-Bush group, America Coming Together, has raised $26,905,450. Those evil Swift Boat Vets. This is clearly hurting Kerry.

Slant Left

The AP is reporting that a lawyer for the Bush campaign has also given legal advice (unpaid) to the Swift Boat Veterans. Buried (2nd to last sentence) within the story is this:

Joe Sandler, a lawyer for the DNC and a group running anti-Bush ads, MoveOn.org, said there is nothing wrong with serving in both roles at once.

Hmmm, the headline goes after Bush but leaves aside the dems? How interesting.

Kerry Calls Swifties

According to Drudge John Kerry called out to his new enemy, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Apparently, this is what happened:

KERRY: "Why are all these swift boat guys opposed to me?"

BRANT: "You should know what you said when you came back, the impact it had on the young sailors and how it was disrespectful of our guys that were killed over there."

[Brant had two men killed in battle.]

KERRY: "When we dedicated swift boat one in '92, I said to all the swift guys that I wasn't talking about the swifties, I was talking about all the rest of the veterans."

Kerry then asked if he could meet Brant ["You were one of the best"] -- man to man -- face to face.

Brant declined the invite, explaining that Kerry was obviously not prepared to correct the record on exactly what happened during Vietnam and what happened when Kerry came back.

Doesn't this violate Campaign Finance Reform? If Bush called the Swifties and asked them to stop, it would be a 5 inch headline above the fold in the New York Times.

Attack! Attack!

The Kerry campaign, err, The New York Times gets mad and goes after the Swifties today. Just like 30 years agao, John Kerry and liberal bastions like the New York Times are again smearing Vietnam veterans. Hey, at least they're consistent.

Ooops, It Wasn't the Bushies that Leaked

The New York Times revealed that Pakistani sources gave them the name of the al-Qaeda computer geek, and not the Bush Administration. It's near the bottom of the article, so you might miss it:

The release of Mr. Khan's name - it was made public in The New York Times on Aug. 2, citing Pakistani intelligence sources - drew criticism by some politicians, like Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, who charged that this leak might have compromised the search in Britain and Pakistan for Mr. Khan's Qaeda partners.

The strange part is that the August 2nd didn't mention Pakistani sources, but rather a "senior United States official." In addition, Schumer was whining about the Bush administration rather than making remarks just critical of the compromising the investigation.

The Dam Breaks?

Well a little dribble maybe. The Boston Globe is finally reporting on the Kerry in Cambodia story. It's pretty lame and doesn't really get in to deep. What should I expect, when the writer, Michael Kranish, is the same person writing the forward to a glowing book about Kerry. Hopefully, someone other than Kerry's inside guy at the Globe will get on this soon.

Iraq Update

You won't read about the good news from Iraq in any of the mainstream press like the Washington Post or the New York Times or see it on CBSNBCABCPBSCNN.