Here is why the forgery COULD NOT have been a Republican dirty trick:
There is no way Rove could know that CBS or DNC would not hold on to the documents and release them just before the election, before they could be exposed as fraudulent.
Nightline is distorting VP Cheney's remarks. This is an absurdity. They have played the clip twice and both times have clipped the final clause where he makes his point.
Don't get too wrapped up in identifying the "retired military officer". That could just be the cover story that DNC/Kerry used to sell the (known) forged docs to CBS.
I wonder if there are any conclusions we might draw about how he would behave as president when he makes an impestuous, ill-advised attack based on circumspect intelligence.