Friday, September 10, 2004
OUCH! The story that was going to stop George Bush's momentum apparently is blowing up in the face of the DNC and John Kerry, not to mention Dan Rather, CBS News and 60 Minutes. On 60 Minutes yesterday, Rather reported that former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes helped Bush into the National Guard as a favor to the older George Bush, who was a Congressman at the time. They also released some memos from Texas Air National Guard Lt. Col. Jerry Killian that claimed Bush fell well short of standards, never showed for duty, never took a physical, etc.
Well, it turns out those memos are fake. CBS is still investigating it, but Powerline blog has excellent coverage. I reproduced one of the memos exactly on Microsoft Word myself. It took all of 2 minutes. This Sun-Times story is a nice round-up.
Who's behind this? Possibly the DNC, because Terry McAulliffe isn't shy about basking in this crap. I know this is a little far-fetched, but CBS was obviously reckless, and Dan Rather has spoken out about his dislike of Bush, so he probably has malicious intent. These forgeries are not even written in military style, and simple research can confirm this. Bush is a public official, but he's being smeared by people with 1) reckless disregard for the truth; and 2) malicious intent. Could Bush file a libel suit against 60 Minutes and Danny Boy? Certainly would be entertaining, right?
