This CBS thing has gotten ugly. ABC news just ran a report where a couple of people who checked the documents for CBS expressed concerns. Another report also said that a former secretary of Killian said that she believed the documents to be fake, but that they also reflected the thinking that Killian expressed at the time about Bush (ie. that he did not meet the requirments).

Which brings into play the next scenario, which I had already mentioned when I was citing the “debunking” of the forgery accuser’s case: that the source of fake documents wouold most likely be from another Rove plot (who is widely believed to have bugged his own office in 1976 to give the appearance of corruption on the part of a political opponent). Republican pundits would likey howl hilariously at the suggestion, but it seems more like Rove than anybody else I know of. And who better to fake the sense of “inside sources” than from somebody who is indeed on the inside? I’ll never be convinced that the Kerry campaign had anytihg to do with it. To produce such dubious documents would be suicide. All the more readon to rationally suspect a dirty trick.

It’s all rather deflating, especially realizing that even given this whole scenario is just as I described, that still seems likely to cast a big blow, unless this keeps going , perhaps somebody who knows the underlying story behind the documents to be true wil come forward, or maybe I’m just being sucked in by a fake forgery hoax. I jsut want the truth about Bush to get told — but often I doubt if even that will work. The spin doctors will go to work on whatever evidence turns up.

In summary, I’m a bit deflated about all of this. I hold Dan Rather in high esteem, and I feel real bad for even the appearence that he jumped the gun, even though I ‘m not sure he did. He did, as he said, rely not just on the documetns , but on corroborating stories from people (like the other man who worked with Killian who also said that the documents reflectted accurately what he knew to be Killian’s position. Doesn’t this count for anything?

I am not conceding that the documents are fake. There remain conflicting opinions , including the exitence of other earlier documents from the White House files that do indeed have the raised th. So it’s all a jumble.

Let’s keep after it , out there. Bush is , as we know, NOT CLEAN. And he and his crew are constantly covering and stonewalling, and failing to govern in the process (this assumes they would know how).