QandO: Kerry campaign involved in "Rathergate"?

September 10, 2004

Kerry campaign involved in "Rathergate"?
Posted by McQ

So says the American Spectator (via the Daily Recycler - due to heavy traffic, American Spectators site is down):

"More than a couple people heard about the papers," says the DNC staffer. "I've heard that they ended up with the Kerry campaign, for them to decide to how to proceed, and presumably they were handed over to 60 Minutes, which used them the other night. But I know this much. When there was discussion here, there were doubts raised about their authenticity."

If true, it redefines "smear campaign". As to the charge that Bush didn't release all his records:

The documents that CBS News used were not documents from any of Bush's personnel files from his time in the National Guard. Rather, CBS News stated that they were documents uncovered in the personnel files of Killian. That would explain why the White House or the Pentagon had never before released or even seen them.

Meanwhile, back at Kerry Campaign headquarters:

According to a Kerry campaign source, there was little gossip about the supposedly hot documents inside the office of the campaign on McPherson Square. "Those documents were not something anyone was talking about or trying to generate buzz on," says the staffer. "It wasn't like there were small groups of people talking about this as a bombshell. I think people here weren't sure what to make of it, because provenance of these documents was uncertain."

But did that stop them from offering them to news organizations? Apparently not. And despite "alarm bells", CBS News went with them:

A CBS producer, who initially tipped off The Prowler about the 60 Minutes story, says that despite seeking professional assurances that the documents were legitimate, there was uncertainty even among the group of producers and researchers working on the story.
"The problem was we had one set of documents from Bush's file that had Killian calling Bush 'an exceptionally fine young officer and pilot.' And someone who Killian said 'performed in an outstanding manner.' Then you have these new documents and the tone and content are so different."

Not to mention their style. But apparently that slipped past the CBS "experts".
It speaks to the desire of CBS to present a negative story about Bush even with all these alarm bells going on, they continued with the project.

Now, the producer says, there is growing concern inside the building on 57th Street that they may have been suckered by the Kerry campaign. "There is a school of thought here that the Kerry people dumped this in our laps, figuring we'd do the heavy lifting on the story. That maybe they had doubts about these documents but hoped we'd get more information," says the producer. "If that's the case, then we're bigger fools than we already appear to be judging by all the chatter about how these documents could be forgeries."

Where was the concern before they ran the story? While it may be true that the documents were forged and it may be true that in the end they were suckered by the Kerry people, it doesn't remove the responsibility for vetting the memos from CBS.

ABC apparently met to talk about the difficulties rival CBS faces and discuss the impact if it is true. The ABC meeting also discussed theories concerning the memos:

ABC News' political unit held a conference call at 7:00 p.m. Thursday evening to discuss the memo and its potential ramifications should the documents turn out to be a forgery. That meeting took place around the time that the deceased Killian's son made public statements questioning the documents' authenticity.
According to one ABC News employee, some reporters believe that the Kerry campaign as well as the DNC were parties in duping CBS, but a smaller segment believe that both the DNC and the Kerry campaign were duped by Karl Rove, who would have engineered the flap to embarrass the opposition.

*Sigh*

You knew Karl Rove would somehow end up as the evil genius behind all of this, didn't you?

(Hat tip to Looker for the link)

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Comments

If Kerrys campaign is involved in this, it's all over for him.

And CBS

And I STILL want serious jail time for someone...

Posted by: shark at September 10, 2004 09:11 AM

Shark - you always want serious jail time for someone (grin).

I just want to see Terry Mac-Olive spin his way around this if it turns out to be true.
And so far from what I read CBS refuses to discuss their sources for the memos, which gives me the gut feeling that they are trying very hard NOT to have to implicate the Kerry org for the obvious reason that doing so would kill two birds with one set of fraud memos.
I'm sure they'd 'rather' have egg on their faces for being duped by forgeries than appearing to be (that which they are) an arm of the Democratic party in the election.

And the Karl Rove - "Soup-er Gee-nee-us" story really assumes a lot. That the Kerry campaign wouldn't dissect the crap out of the memo's themselves and that CBS wouldn't then do the same.

I suppose it could be a lure and if they bit, so much the better. But I would think they'd have done a better job at forgery to make sure the documents could pass at least a basic examination.
To assume they were done this sloppily by Rove implies he thinks (and this may well be) that the Kerry campaign is staffed by idiots.

Posted by: looker at September 10, 2004 09:25 AM

Looker, to take your point a step further. If there were any credible evidence pointing to the Bush campaign as the source of these docs, I think both CBS and would be perfectly willing to admit that they got the memos from the kerry campaign, so Kerry's folks could decry the evil GOP smear machine. Kerry's staff may look stupid, Bush's staff would look criminal.

Posted by: Curt Mitchell at September 10, 2004 09:31 AM

Honestly, how shameful is it that Karl Rove's name gets mentioned by reporters who have just shown their ass? I can't think of anything more disgraceful than that. It's one thing to throw it around in the "all in good fun" atmosphere of a comments section on a blog, but having an ABC employee go on record...shameful.

Posted by: Brett at September 10, 2004 09:41 AM

I seem to recall somebody saying something about fear being better than respect. It is fairly clear that the media is scared of Rove.

Posted by: Curt Mitchell at September 10, 2004 09:55 AM

LOL, I always want serious jail time for someone, it's funny because it's true.

I seem to recall somebody saying something about fear being better than respect. It is fairly clear that the media is scared of Rove

Rove really is a one trick pony, but it's a GREAT trick. His tact is to stay quiet and let his enemies screw themselves over. And over. And over.

Basically, his trick is knowing his opposition is stupider than him.

Posted by: shark at September 10, 2004 10:25 AM

Re ABC coming to the rescue with a new conspiracy theory.

That's good actually, theorizing on Boogey-Roves under the bed can only further enhance their credibility with regard to objective, non biased, reporting.

Another one bites the dust.

Posted by: looker at September 10, 2004 10:33 AM

Terry MacAwful just on an ABC Newsbreak saying the forgeries were a Republican setup.

Game, set, match. Bush

Posted by: shark at September 10, 2004 11:02 AM

I don't suppose we require any EVIDENCE that the forgeries were created by the Republicans (sorry, I got confused there for a second....)

Okay, let's run with this for a moment and examine the logical ramifications of the Republicans being able to pass these documents off through two large organizations that would have every reason to authenticate them.

That says they are incapable, with their money and expertise, of detecting forged documents that the web universe detected and destroyed in under 24 hours.

Having said they are incapable of detecting such a very very simple fraud, do you REALLY want THESE people and the people they are trying to get elected defending you against other people who want to blow you up? Other people who are probably a lot more clever than the forgers of these stupid documents?

Is THAT what Terry wants us to understand? That his party can be EASILY DUPED?

GOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDDDD run with that!

Posted by: looker at September 10, 2004 11:52 AM

This is getting priceless - MacAwful is busy blaming Rove for forged documents that Rather claims are genuine (so there, take that, Dan says so, end of story, stop questioning...).

Can this get any more funny? And now that the spectre of forgery and fakery has been unleashed, just WHAT do you think the swing voters are going to conclude about them?

Posted by: looker at September 10, 2004 12:20 PM

Also, I know this is expecting a bit much, but so far they've had LeHane and McAuliffe on news shows to comment; what about equal time?

I hope that this is because the Republicans have the good sense to not touch this tar baby. Still, I think it's total crap that they get to trot out baseless allegations against Rove without asking for a response from the Bush campaign. Ah well, this just proves Napolean's (sp?) Maxim to me: "Never attribute to duplicity what can be explained by stupidity."

Posted by: Brett at September 10, 2004 12:24 PM

i would like for kerry himself to answer this question and respond to comments. (if he is man enough) 1.) you honestly think you should have right to lead military after your comments re: nam? yes, long time ago, but never forgotten. 2.) Your wife is going to be your biggest downfall, she should know difference between indepen. strong female, and down right rude, disrespectful towards anyone that annoys her. by the way, where is most of her late husbands busin. done? u.s. or abroad? 3.) last night you had no right calling out v.p's daughter, that showed your true colors. you know, i am from midwest, bible belt, and you are not trusted due to your lack of backbone re: simple moral issues. 4.) loss of jobs: you know as well as anyone, 911 is major cause of job loss, be man enough to at give credit towards that. 5.) you're catholic? really? then obviously you only used your faith for pol. reasons due to stance on abortion. i don't know you personally, but polit. no respect here. 6.) a few months ago, a man asked a ques. during "town hall mtg.", just because you felt threatened, your disrespect for him, and the way you dismissed him, showed that you have no tolerance for diff. of opinion. i really don't think kerry himself will reply, i don't think he's man enough, obviously a little worker will probably respond. don't expect anything different. it will be a sad day if you're elected, and if so, may God be with us all, we'll need it. you will allow terr. to attack anytime. i'm sure they're hoping for you due to your lack of spine. you only want to be pres. due to a notch in your belt. by the way, where's your wife from? it's so obvious as to why you married her. you love to brag re: money, done it several times on t.v. bush/cheney all the way!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: angi k. at October 14, 2004 12:01 PM