RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie Statement on CBS

RNC ^ | 9/20/2004 | Christine Iverson

[rwilliam]

Washington, DC--Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie issued the following statement on CBS’s admission today that memos regarding the President’s National Guard service are not real.

“We accept CBS's apology for a breach of the journalistic standards that provide the American people confidence in news organizations, but some disturbing questions remain unanswered.

“CBS has now answered questions about the authenticity of the documents but questions remain surrounding who created the documents, who provided them to CBS and if Senator Kerry's supporters, Party committee, or campaign played any role.

“Did Bill Burkett, Democrat activist and Kerry campaign supporter, who passed information to the DNC, work with Kerry campaign surrogate Max Cleland? Did Bill Burkett's talks with ‘senior’ Kerry campaign officials include discussions of the now discredited documents? Was the launch of the Democrat National Committee's Operation Fortunate Son designed with knowledge of the faked forged memos? Terry McAuliffe said yesterday that no one at the DNC or Kerry campaign, ‘had anything to do with the preparations of the documents,’ but what about the distribution or dissemination?

“In an effort to regain the trust of the American people CBS should not only investigate the process that led to the use of these documents but they should identify immediately those engaged in possible criminal activity who attempted to use a news organization to affect the outcome of a Presidential election in its closing days.”

[Califelephant]

This whole mess is just a busted element of Fortunate Son, a campaign that has all the earmarks of a typical Rat Party smear "op":

1) Create a "storyline": In this case, "Bush got special treatment in the Texas ANG"

2) Find Rat operatives (i.e. Ben Barnes) who are willing to lie about key facts or make up anecdotes that support the storyline

3) Find (or, in this case, forge) documentation that supports the storyline

4) Recruit willing participants from the mainstream media (Rather) to push the storyline

5) Issue talking points to all Rat talking heads

[DoctorMichael]

Ding, ding, ding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[KantianBurke]

Sorry Ed but this conservative hasn't forgetten -

http://www.federalist.com/news/gillespie.asp

http://www.nationalreview.com/ponnuru/ponnuru090403.asp

[umgud]

I didn't hear an apology.

I didn't hear an admission that they are forged or fake. All I've heard is that they can't vouch for there authenticity, or they've lost confidence and many other weasel words.......

Somebody please show me where Dan has said they are fake or forged or not real.

[Mobties]

Apology? Maybe I read the statement too quickly but I don't recall reading that word.

I want a full Kerry-oki of the Brenda Lee hit!

[sweetiepiezer]

Is the fat lasy getting ready to sing?

[rwilliam]

"And hashing out this phase of the scandal should chew up yet another week of the campaign. Meanwhile, the latest Kerry spin is to call Iraq another Vietnam - so they STILL are hugging the 'Nam tarbaby harder and harder..."

What little time that is spent talking about Kerry will be framed by Bush's upcoming comments about how Kerry is playing up "defeat and retreat" in Iraq. No one wants to talk about the U.S. losing a war, but that's exactly what Kerry is doing. Amazing...

[sweetiepiezer]

I meant fat lady, sorry, my pajama top sleeves too long.

[trueamerica]

Terry McAuliffe said yesterday that no one at the DNC or Kerry campaign, 'had anything to do with the preparations of the documents,' but what about the distribution or dissemination?

Classic Clintonesque!

[mrobison]

As I said on another thread, the White House would only be pushing this if they already have the answers.

Put a fork in Kerry.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Hot dang, they are standing up for themselves.

As we say here in the Bible belt South, "Yes Lord, Thank You so much"!

[hawkaw]

As I said on another thread, the White House would only be pushing this if they already have the answers.

I sure hope so.

[TexasCajun]

Dan's apology!

"We made a mistake in judgment, and for that I am sorry"

Sounds more like he's sorry he got caught! ..not sorry to have slandered The President!

[Quilla]

...sorry, my pajama top sleeves too long.

Stop, you're killing me. FOFL!!!

[230FMJ]

"I want a full Kerry-oki of the Brenda Lee hit!" (I'M Sorry)

Ouch! Now my head hurts!

[Joe Boucher]

Just keep Kerry and the news cycles off kicking President Bush. Keep hammering kerry on his flip flops and at the same time have the swift boats beat up kerry. Keep the negative kerry truths coming and preoccupy the mainstream media and kerry will fail to unseat the president.Good deal.

[Lazamataz]

Nice. No personal stuff in that message, no pointing out the obvious DNC bias of C^BS. Just a nice set of hardhitting questions meant to keep this scandal alive.

[Martin Tell]

Excellent catch. Now the Pubbies can take the gloves off. The timing of all this is not suspicious, it's wonderful! W's statement yesterday was great, both in substance (his use of "questions" about the docs was a subtle riposte to Rather's insolent "Mr. President, answer the questions") and timing (forcing the CBS "apology" today, or maybe Rove was tipped off the "apology" was coming). Now, with CBS totally discredited, pivot the attack onto the sKerry campaign. I don't know if it's poker or chess, but the Pubbies are playing for keeps now!

Another benefit of all this is that it's becoming crystal clear sKerry can't even run a presidential campaign. Do Americans want to trust such an incompetent with the country, with our families' lives?

[EternalVigilance]

Way to parse it out, Ed!!

I'm thinkin' Ed just could be an experienced FReeper. ;-)

[lstanle]

"Dang, looks like the gop is about to play some hardball after rope-a-dope"

I would like to see these fake documents referred to as the CBS/DNC fake documents before this flap is over.