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Cleland speaks on war at School of Law By BRIAN McDEARMON Published , April 13, 2005, 06:00:01 AM EDT Former U.S. Senator Max Cleland spoke Tuesday afternoon against what he said was a concerted effort by Washington conservatives to subvert the country's judiciary system. The former senator spoke at the School of Law on the invitation of the University's chapter of the American Constitution Society. Confined to a wheelchair by a Vietnam War grenade attack that tore off his legs and right arm, the former Democratic senator entrusted the independence of America's courts to the 50 or so members in...

Dear XXX, Please join us in welcoming Sen. Max Cleland to Orlando on Friday, September 24. Mr. Cleland, a decorated Vietnam veteran and co-chair of the Kerry-Edwards campaign, will host a town hall meeting with veterans and other Floridians to discuss our national security and the Kerry-Edwards vision for a stronger America. Don't come alone -- forward this e-mail to your friends and family, and bring them along! Please RSVP by clicking here. WHEN: Friday, September 24 Doors open at 6:00 p.m. WHERE: University of Central Florida Student Union Hall, 3rd floor Cape Florida Ballroom Orlando, FL 32816 DETAILS: Please...

Now that a connection has been established between Bill Burkett, the CBS source in the forged documents story, and Kerry advisors Joe Lockhart and Max Cleland, the Democrat National Committee has gone into a furious, and some would say desperate, "spin" mode.DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe has even issued a statement all but accusing the Republicans of forging the anti-Bush memos themselves:“In today’s New York Post, Roger Stone, who became associated with political ‘dirty tricks’ while working for Nixon, refused to deny that he was the source the CBS documents. Will ...the White House admit today what they know about Mr....

It's fairly clear to me that the media is about ready to name former Army National Guard Lieutenant Colonel Bill Burkett as the source of the forged memos in the "Danron Affair" and hope that things end there. CBS is, I'm quite sure, ready to pounce upon this line. They probably won't fire Dan Rather. Instead, they'll fire producer Mary Mapes (the apparent driving force behind the story) and then plead they were duped by a man who, it just happens, has spent time in mental institutions and can therefore be depicted as a crazy fraudster.However, it is equally clear...

The name of Max Cleland, former senator and current Kerry partisan and surrogate, continues to surface in the ongoing CBS forgery scandel. He was consulted by the only identified (so far) source, Bill Burkett. Did Cleland contact CBS and encourage them to pay attention to Burkett's evidence and story? Is Cleland Rather's "unimpeachable source"? Is anyone beside Rush Limbaugh raising questions about Cleland's involvement? This could be a whole new area for blogger speculation and investigation. Does anybody out there have ideas for further pursuit?

Rather and 60 Minutes stay resolutely behind the curve. The significant part of the statement--"I no longer have...confidence in these documents"--could and should have been said on September 9. They still can't bring themselves to admit what everyone knows, that the documents are fakes. And Rather's statement studiously avoids the only question that remains open: where did CBS get the forged documents? Specifically, did they come from the Kerry campaign? As we've noted, an email from Bill Burkett indicates that he gave materials to Max Cleland for use in the campaign. Those materials are presumably the forged documents. So Rather...

WAS SAD MAX THE PART OF THE PHONY DOCUMENTS SCAM? How long has it been now? Two weeks? Two weeks ---- and Dan Rather is still stonewalling. Even though CBS seems to be ready to admit that it was duped, Rather is holding fast. He still has not admitted that those documents he so proudly flourished on 60 Minutes II the week before last were fakes. Forgeries. Phonies. This past weekend CBS came up with a rather unusual twist. It was yet another glorious explanation of just why Dan Rather used those documents ... and how he was so terribly,...

According to the Associated Press, Bill Burkett is a broken man, a loose cannon seeking to share "the truth" about President Bush's military record. State and National Democrats, including Max Cleland (whom Burkett claims to have contacted), seem to know little about Burkett. But according to Bill Howell, Dallas County Chair for the Texas Democratic Party 1999-2002, Bill Burkett is not only connected to the Texas Democratic Party - he is a major player in the Texas Democratic Party. As first reported last night,, Bill Burkett is certainly well known within the Texas Democratic Party. Tonight, new documents reveal that...

RatherBiased.com has obtained every message typed by former National Guardsman Bill Burkett in the past year before Memogate on the the Yahoo Texas Democratic message groups. One of the lists is comprised of 62 messages and 43 Word pages. Fortunately, here they are easily searchable on the same HTML page and numbered. They are contained here and here. We provide some of the highlights from the TexasDemocrat2 group, but there are many, many more notable "red flags" that can be searched out. Rather's Memogate broke on Sep. 8. Message # 1 (Sep 4): I believe that Bush knows that there...

Ex-guardsman gave Bush records to Cleland AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A retired Texas National Guard officer mentioned as a source of disputed documents on President Bush's service in the Guard said he passed along information to a former senator working with Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry's campaign. In an Aug. 21 e-mail to a list of Texas Democrats, Bill Burkett said after getting through "seven layers of bureaucratic kids" in the Kerry campaign, he talked with former Sen. Max Cleland, Georgia Democrat, about information that would counter criticism of Mr. Kerry's Vietnam War service.

[graphic similar to what NYT tried to do with Bush/Swift Boat connections]

AUSTIN, Texas - A retired Texas National Guard official mentioned as a possible source for disputed documents about President Bush (news - web sites)'s service in the Guard said he passed along information to a former senator working with John Kerry (news - web sites)'s campaign Also, a White House official said Saturday that Bush has reviewed disputed documents that purport to show he refused orders to take a physical examination in 1972 and did not recall having seen them previously. The long-running story on Bush's Texas Air National Guard service took an unusual twist when CBS broadcast a report...

AUSTIN, Texas - A retired Texas National Guard official mentioned as a possible source for disputed documents about President Bush (news - web sites)'s service in the Guard said he passed along information to a former senator working with John Kerry (news - web sites)'s campaign. Also Saturday, a White House official said Bush has reviewed disputed documents that purport to show he refused orders to take a physical examination in 1972 and did not recall having seen them previously. The long-running story on Bush's Texas Air National Guard service took an unusual twist when CBS broadcast a report on...

Cleland confirmed that he had a two- or three-minute conversation by cell phone with a Texan named Burkett in mid-August while he was on a car ride. He remembers Burkett saying that he had "valuable" information about Bush, and asking what he should with it. "I told him to contact the [Kerry] campaign," Cleland said. "You get this information tens of times a day, and you don't know if it is legit or not."

Sorry for all of the sirens, but I think they're all pretty much deserved. Mark tips me to a not-so-shadowy link: In an Aug. 21 posting, Burkett referred to a conversation with former senator Max Cleland (D-Ga.) about the need to counteract Republican tactics: "I asked if they wanted to counterattack or ride this to ground and outlast it, not spending any money. He said counterattack. So I gave them the information to do it with. But none of them have called me back." Cleland confirmed that he had a two- or three-minute conversation by cellphone with a Texan named...

Elect George Bush, some Kerry surrogates said last week, and you or your children will be drafted to fight in Iraq. Inspiring fear in voters seems to be in political vogue this fall. (Cheney has since amended his comments to say he meant to argue that Bush has a more serious approach to deterring terrorists than does Kerry.)

Last week John Kerry sent former Georgia Senator Max Cleland to Texas to deliver a letter to President Bush. And so once again Kerry has proven to me that he has not changed much over the years. In fact I believe that he is still the same reprehensible, self-serving, politically motivated, anti-war, anti-U.S. troop, exploitive opportunist that he was back in 1971. In a recent column for Newsmax.com (Kerry's Flashback) I pointed to Kerry's testimony to the Senate back in April of that year, where he called our soldiers war criminals of the worst kind. I then fast forwarded 33...

Instead it has raised questions about his character. One veteran quoted in "Unfit for Command" puts the matter pungently: "In 1971-72, for almost 18 months, he stood before the television audiences and claimed that the 500,000 men and women in Vietnam, and in combat, were all villains--there were no heroes. In 2004, one hero from the Vietnam War has appeared, running for president of the United States and commander in chief. It just galls one to think about it."

With all the swagger of a triple amputee, former Senator Max Cleland rolled to President Bush’s Texas ranch to hand deliver a personal letter. The letter, signed by nine Senate Democrats, demanded that Bush condemn the vicious attacks on John Kerry by the Swift Boat Vets for Truth. On an August 13th taping of Larry King Live, President Bush said that "Senator Kerry is justifiably proud of his record in Vietnam and he should be,” and called Kerry’s service “noble.” In the same interview he denounced all 527’s against both him and Kerry and stated all of the ads should...