It's just mind boggling and it gets better every day. Now Dan Rather admits that the memos are forgeries but still stands by the story with no evidence to support it. He said Wednesday night that “some questions have been raised with respect to one aspect of the story but we believe the thrust of the story to be genuine”. “One aspect of the story”??? It was the only evidence they had to support the story after five years of trying to find something negative on Bush. The story originally came from Bill Burkett in 1999, the same guy who produced the forged memos. Rather has had his staff investigating the story for five years and has found no evidence to support it in all that time yet he insists it’s true. Even the man Burkett claims to have witnessed the “cleansing” of the Bush files, George Khan, denies it. Rather considers a disgruntled, retired National Guard officer with two nervous breakdowns, a proven liar with an axe to grind, more creditable than the President of the United States and those closest to Col. Killian. There is absolutely no evidence to support Rather‘s story, there is no story other than the one Dan Rather has been trying to create from his own desires to smear Bush, it’s as simple as that. Now CBS News and Dan Rather have become the real story, an even bigger story than the one they tried to create.

Dan Rather has become a babbling clown this week and I think CBS will have no other choice but to fire him. CBS News ratings were already the lowest but now Rather has brought their ratings even lower than they were at before, and those ratings determine what the network can charge for their commercial advertising. Rather has to go if CBS is ever to regain any credibility and attract advertisers. This is destined for the "Scandal Hall of Fame" right under Watergate, or maybe even above it.

It could turn out to be even bigger than Watergate since the forging of federal documents was involved, which is a federal felony offense. CBS could be named as conspirators if they continue to try to cover this up and fail to name the source of the documents. I can't believe Rather has chosen to go down this road that he is taking now. I can't believe that he didn't know the memos were forged either, it only took bloggers 10 hours to prove it, Rather and his staff are supposed to be professionals, it shouldn't have taken them more than 3. They just rejected anything that didn't fit their agenda and if the memos were fake, they didn't want to know about it. They just had to know, their own experts told them as much. Rather must have decided to take a chance on a last desperate attempt to save the Kerry campaign before retiring or he's just gone plain senile. He's not making any sense now and saying that if they find any evidence that disproves his story, they will report it. He said that if the memos are proven to be forgeries, he wants to be the one to “break the story“! Does Rather still have his head in the sand or has he just lost his mind? He's demanding that President Bush answer the charges made in the phony memos even though the charges are false and proven lies. He has brought out the eighty six year old secretary of Col. Killian’s group commander who says she didn’t type the memos. After coaching her before the interview, then asking leading questions of her, Rather tries to present her as someone who can verify the information in the fraudulent memos. She was not Killian’s private secretary as Rather tries to present her as, and somehow, she is supposed to know what Killian was thinking thirty two years ago and remember it accurately? I think old Dan has gone off his rocker this time and let his partisan hate for President Bush and the Republicans distort his judgment.

Now we’re finding out that the false memos were sent to Kerry campaign operative and former Democrat Senator Max Cleland who then shared them with the Kerry for President campaign. Then someone in the Kerry Campaign gave the memos to CBS News and Dan Rather hoping to get them on the air and Rather went for it. I can understand that the Kerry campaign would not check the documents for authenticity but it makes no sense that CBS News would run to the airwaves with the story after two out of three of their experts warned them about the forgeries.

For days now, news commentators everywhere have been defending Rather saying that he was duped by someone who gave him the documents. This makes no sense to me. With all the warnings Rather was given about the memos, and with all the resources of a professional news organization like CBS News, how could he possibly not have known they were forgeries when it took internet bloggers only a few hours to prove it? Other newsmen are making all kinds of excuses in defense of Rather trying to explain how he could be innocent of this fraud. Is there some code of honor among news reporters that says they will defend each other no matter what? Either Dan Rather was in on this fraud, or he has to be the stupidest and most irresponsible newsman ever. Could he have achieved the position of Head of CBS News Dept. if he were that dumb? Did he put his reputation and career on the line to try to influence an election and just hope he wouldn’t be caught? Rather has been active in the Democrat Party all his life and has worked for the party as a fund raiser. Is he so loyal and convinced of his party’s lies and propaganda that he would sacrifice himself for the party? What were his motives in doing this? Even if true, where is the “news” in a 32 year old story? CBS News is no different than a Democrat 527 group in using their organization for the purpose of trying to smear our president and influence an election.  Rather has let his political bias influence his job and his credability. 

It’s important to remember that two federal crimes have been committed here. First was the forging of government documents (the memos pretending to be official Navy records from the personal files of Jerry Killian). Second was the presenting of forged documents to the public as genuine by a news organization in an attempt to influence a federal election. Both of these are felony offenses and need to be investigated and prosecuted. We should also remember that it was CBS News who aired stolen classified documents from a government investigation involving the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq which did tremendous damage to our country and our soldiers serving there, as well as give aid and comfort to the enemy for use in their propaganda war. Least we forget the theft of government documents by Sandy Berger which may have influenced the 911 investigation outcome which Berger has yet to be held accountable for. Considering the lack of prosecution in the Berger case, as well as CBS’s part in the Abu Ghraib scandal and Hillary Clinton’s part in the Rose Law Firm scandal, I have to wonder if this latest crime will be prosecuted at all, and if our federal laws apply only to Republicans.