September 21, 2004
CBS and The DNC
Last week, I tried to make some sense of CBS's stonewalling inthe faceof obvious forgeries, and I noted:
I think we are now to the point where CBS is frantically trying to minimize the damage, and this statement, while it says nothing, really, is rather inciteful. It seems pretty clear to me that they understand how damaging this memogate bit has been to their reputation and their credibility. However, they have determined that revealing their sources and methodology in a forthright, open statement would be more damaging still.
I think we are going to learn, in the not so distant future, about a serious incestuous relationship between CBS News and some person, persons, or group. I also bet we will see a bit of the sausage making- and these facts terrify CBS. The only reasoning I can come up for this continued self-inflicted wound is the fear that the truth is much more damaging than the current stonewalling. Right now, they merely appear incompetent, and they have determined incompetence is better than complicit.
Enter Joe Lockhart:
CBS arranged for a confidential source to talk with Joe Lockhart, a top aide to John Kerry, after the source provided the network with the now-disputed do ents about President Bush's service in the Texas National Guard.
Lockhart, the former press secretary to President Clinton, said a producer talked to him about the 60 Minutes program a few days before it aired on Sept. 8. She gave Lockhart a telephone number and asked him to call Bill Burkett, a former Texas National Guard officer who gave CBS the do ents. Lockhart couldn't recall the producer's name. But CBS said Monday night that it would examine the role of producer Mary Mapes in passing the name to Lockhart.
Burkett told USA TODAY that he had agreed to turn over the do ents to CBS if the network would arrange a conversation with the Kerry campaign.
Where does lead us? I think we can put to rest CBS's latest remarks that this was simply a mistake, an error in judgement. It now appears that in order for the piece to be aired, the following had to happen:
- Ben Barnes refused to go on 60 Minutes unless he was assured that he would not be the only person making the charges. Barnes had made the charges CBS intended to use numerous times, and was well aware that he had credibility issues. So, in order for Barnes to speak, there had to be another angle to the story.
- Because they had no story without Barnes, CBS defied reality and trusted Bill Burkett. Not only did they trust Burkett, which is by itself insane, but they marketed him as an unimpeachable source, despite the fact that he never proved to them where the do ents came from. This follow-up interview shows that he just threw a name out, and that was good enough for them.
- Once they received the do ents, they ignored all of their experts, ignored the wife of Lt. Col. Killian, ignored Killian's son, and only superficially interviewed Hodges. Why? Why would they be so willing to go forward with these obviously fraudulent do ents? The answer, again, is because they had to, otherwise Ben Barnes would not come forward again.
- In order to get the do ents, they had to play go-between for Bill Burkett and the Kerry campaign. Why?
In short- Dan Rather and Mary Mapes were writing a hit piece- they 'knew' the real story, they just needed anything they could find to back it up. Listen to the company line today- the memos were 'fake but accurate.' They still believe they have proven their point, despite the fact that they have done nothing of the sort. They had to have Ben Barnes speak- his testimony was, for the uninitiated, damning. But in order to have Ben Barnes, they had to have something else- and that is where the whacko Burkett comes into the story. Each part of the story was built on the other, and all of it was based on nonsense.
Which begs the question- where did the forgeries come from, and is it unrealistic to envision DNC involvement. We already know that Joe Lockhart was involved, and his simple denial does not cut it. Ben Barnes, Bill Burkett, and Dan Rather's daughter are all Kerry and DNC fund raisers. Why is Bill Burkett claiming he handed do ents to Max Cleland? What of the mysterious Kerry opposition researcher who received similar do ents?
And before you totally deny any collusion between the DNC and the 60 minutes crew and the Burkett/Barnes interlopers, let's examine what happened around the time of the CBS airing:
September 8th- the CBS 60 Minutes hit piece airs
Also on Septmeber 8th, Texans for Truth, a virtual arm for the Kerry/Edwards campaign and the DNC, launch their attack ads.
September 9th- DNC launches 'Fortunate Son' campaign:
Seizing on 30-year-old memos and memories, Sen. John Kerry's operatives are painting an unflattering portrait of President Bush as the "fortunate son" who used family connections to dodge the Vietnam War and then lied about it...
The DNC has nicknamed its effort "Operation Fortunate Son" after a Creedence Clearwater Revival anti-war anthem from the 1960s. The song speaks of the privileged few, "born silver spoon in hand," who send others to war.
Bush is not the "senator's son" written about in the song, but he's the son of a former president who served in the House during the Vietnam War.
Former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes, a Kerry supporter, says he helped Bush and the sons of other wealthy families get into the Texas National Guard to avoid serving in Vietnam.
As a young lieutenant, Bush was "talking to someone upstairs" and trying to "get out of coming to drill," according to newly unearthed memos by the late Col. Jerry B. Killian, squadron commander for Bush in Texas.
September 9th- Tom Harkin, 'war hero,' attacks:
Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin had a strong reaction to newly released records about President George W. Bush's service in the Texas National Guard.
On Wednesday, CBS' "60 Minutes" reported that records kept by Bush's former commanding officer show Col. Jerry Killian was pressured to give Bush positive evaluations.
Bush told reporters that he received no special treatment.
Harkin said these records show that the president hasn't been honest.
"The do entation shows that the president was not being truthful," Harkin said. "The president lied to the American people in the Oval Office when he spoke with Tim Russert. That's why this is news. It goes to the character of George W. Bush."
September 10th- Terry McAulliffe states:
Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe said more than a dozen times Friday that President Bush had lied to the American public. "It has become crystal clear that the president has lied to the American public about his military service," McAuliffe said.
September 10th- The coordinated DNC attack is vetted by the Boston Globe:
The Kerry campaign and leading Democrats yesterday launched a new line of attack aimed at President Bush's character, using military veterans and political allies to accuse him of skirting his National Guard service requirements during the Vietnam War and charge that such behavior foreshadowed Bush's "dishonesty" in justifying the invasion of Iraq. Advisers to Democratic nominee John F. Kerry said they helped craft the battle plan with the Democratic National Committee but were leaving it to the DNC to execute to keep Kerry publicly above the fray and focused on criticizing the in bent's leadership -- as he did in a speech in New Orleans yesterday where he compared Bush's policies to racist "Jim Crow" laws...
The White House yesterday accused the Kerry camp of directly coordinating attacks on Bush's record to try to shake up the race given recent national polls showing Bush had pulled ahead of Kerry 54 days before the election.
"It's not surprising that you see a coordinated effort by Democrats to attack the president when Senator Kerry is falling behind in the polls," Scott McClellan, a White House spokesman, told reporters on Air Force One. "These are the same old recycled attacks that we see every time the president is up for election."
Really though- this is all just a coincidence. Joe Lockhart meeting with Bill Burkett via 60 Minutes several days before the 60 Minutes piece aired had nothing to do with the timing and shape of the attacks from the Democrats. Just a big, fuzzy, uncoordinated occurrence. Don't read anything into it at all.
*** Update ***
Just goes to show you that you should read all the blogs in your blogroll before you write big posts. The Baseball Crank and Tom Maguire also explore this timing. I wasn't the only one to put two and two together.
Other's discussing this timeline are AllahPundit and Jeff Goldstein.
An enterprising member of the Pajamahadeen might take all the dates and links provided by me, Jeff, Crank, Tom, and Allah, and make one big whopper of a timeline.
*** Update #2 ***
The folks at the Political Brief have this little web of connections. It is a start.
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Funny how the "fortunate son" campaign was just a total coincidence.
