I read that CBS plans an announcement about the 60 minutes Bush national guard memos today around 5 PM EDT, rescheduled from an earlier noon time. Now what could those boys over at CBS have to say about this, more of the good ol' stonewalling? I don't think so.
Let's review where this story is. There is almost no one CBS has consulted with on this story who now stands by them. A general who they consulted has bugged out. Several document verification experts they consulted have bugged out. I'm not sure anyone is supporting them. On the other hand, other news organizations have now turned their 10,000 watt spotlights on the CBS 60 minutes memo fiasco and are not buying the CBS line. The Washington Post, no friend to conservatives, yesterday published a pretty detailed accounting of the several difficulties associated with the memos ((1) typographic features used in the memos not available at the time the memos were supposed to have been generated, (2) malformed military titles and abbreviations, and military personnel typically take these matters seriously and conform to accepted practice, (3) faulty time line for some of contents of memos, and more). I think a recent article in the New York Times weighed in contra-CBS, maybe William Saffire today -- I'm not sure. A California Republican representative is asking for a congressional investigation into the apparent use and continuing use of fraudulent memos by CBS to damage the president's election prospects and specifically calls for unearthing where the memos came from in the first place.
Since CBS has already presented the stiff upper lip and said, in essence, "that's our story, and we're stickin' to it!!!" I somehow don't think we are going to hear more of the same. I smell the exhilirating odor of surrender in the air, the smell of Dan Rather grovelling and asking for forgiveness. If they had an ace in the hole, would they have waited until now to present it? I doubt it. Maybe they have Elvis recently returned from his alien abduction to testify to the wholesomeness of these memos, but I'm not betting my money that way. Could Dan Rather's head be offered up? Who knows.
But is it possible this may not suffice, to simply apologize, retract the story, and return to business as usual. The Republicans may smell bigger game in the forest -- a Kerry campaign initiative -- and switch from squirrel hunting to Moose hunting, Kerry being the Moose. Some have said that if this can be proven to be fraudulent memos and the fraud tied to the Kerry campaign, that is the end of Kerry's campaign. After all, isn't this what forced Richard Nixon out of office? Do we really care that his lackeys conducted a sloppy burglery? I think not. What we care about is that Nixon commissioned underhanded efforts to bias and distort our election processes.
Wed CBS announcement?
