Posted on 09/12/2004 12:26:09 AM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
Mystery solved.
I would tend to agree...except for one teeny, weeny, little thing.
Say you are Dan Rather, or the CBS producer, Mary Mapes. Are you buying what Burkett's selling? Given your ragin biases, you'd want to, sure. But would you trust Burkett enough to grant him "umimpeachable source" status? Indeed, enough to stake your professional reputation on his crapped-out credibility?
The left is desperate, be be sure. But are they that desperate?
Even if Burkett is the "source" of these memos, somebody else would be vouching for him. Somebody hefty enough that Rather can trust enough to go out on a limb for him...
If Burkett plays a part in these memos, then the key to his reasoning is crucial to understand how and why he obtained these phoney documents.
Bill Burkett in his own words.
Which is now!
*****************************************
Sounds suspiciously like Bill Burkett...
Is the Open Society institute that organization of Karl Popper's disciples who have little if anythingin common with Mr. Popper himself?
First I've heard of his name
You think that whoever at CBS decided to take the flyer, maybe saw Burkett as a fusible link, a sacrificial source if it went south?
No .. I think he is involved .. I just think some higher ups at CBS are going to pass the buck and make sure someone else gets blamed for this
I think we ought to take it out on Les Moonves, and then on his way out the door he can tell us where he thinks we might profitably make some changes down the wiring diagram.
Newsweek's article -- I presume it was Isikoff's, who is a good journalist as his performance in Monicagate shows -- made the point that Burkett is a classic Dudley Do-Right, whistleblower type. If he got a burr under his saddle at Governor Bush and his political types (Joe Allbaugh is a certified Bush Kool-Aid drinker deluxe), then yes, he'd be like a dog with a bone, and it wouldn't mean he's nuts. Let's be fair. He isn't impartial, and he may even be biased, but careful about saying he's "delusional", if he says he was in the room when the political people started talking about scrubbing Bush's service file.
Because, let's face it, there was something to scrub -- that order to report to the Denver ARF office, which I looked at, nobody is contesting as a genuine document, and likewise his separation paper from the Texas ANG. Bush either booted or gundecked his last year of obligation to the ANG, in order to help someone out in an Alabama campaign, and then to enroll in Harvard. The degree to which Bush took his ANG obligation seriously is fairly open to question on the extant documentation, and so it isn't outside the realm of possibility that Burkett attended a meeting of the character that he claims took place. Bush admits he took his life less seriously than he should have when he was younger, and it's understandable that Bush's political people would have their hair on fire if they found out that a fat file was still extant that had uncomplimentary fitness reports, administrative thundergrams, and various other signs of official displeasure in it.
If Bush and his political aides decided not to go the full-hangout route about his drinking and goofing off, that was their decision. I think it was a mistake, given Bush's reconstruction of his life later on, but people will differ. But the point is, none of this (yet) warrants taking it out on Burkett, if he bristled and decided to be a pain in the ass over issues he had with Bush's performance.
Now, if Burkett is finally the source of the forged memos (but see Dallas Mike's post above), then all bets are off -- hang him high. But not yet.
Much appreciated.
Bev Harris and Talion return to see if Freepers have pockets as deep as those at DU :
http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/3487281/posts?page=35
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