Nadir
The chairman of the DNC, Terry McAuliffe, is one of a small number of Democratic operatives I most want to see humiliated come 2 November. There's something about him that pisses me off faster and more completely than almost any other Democrat. But can a bottomless contempt be shorted out a little with the touch of pathos? A fine question.

In response to false Republican accusations regarding the CBS documents, Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe issued this statement:

"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 Ed Gillespie or the White House admit today what they know about Mr. Stone's relationship with these forged documents? Will they unequivocally rule out Mr. Stone's involvement? Or for that matter, others with a known history of dirty tricks, such as Karl Rove or Ralph Reed?"

But the answer is no.

As evidenced by the statement above, they don't come any stupider than McAuliffe. What is the purpose of this desperate shaft? Is McAuliffe putting himself in the position of defending the Rather-Mapes Hoax? Is there something to be gained from suggesting that some ancient dirty trickster from the Nixon era has something to do with CBS News' utter disregard for journalistic ethics or with Bill Burkett's very obvious struggle against the demons of his own mind? Everyone knows why hacks like McAuliffe wonder aloud about when so-and-so stopped beating his wife: it's all about the chickenshit. A misdirection play that is going to wind up in a loss of yardage.

I feel pretty sure that, in the next week or so, things will really fall apart ---not only for Dan Rather, but for the Kerry campaign and the DNC in general. They were all working in collusion to roll out this "Operation Fortunate Son" bullshit and hammer on the President some more. But the whole thing has backfired miserably.

And who told the Kerrion to knock off with the Viet Nam-era stuff? None other than Bill Clinton. But they didn't want to listen. And, now, they're stuck with an enormous Big Media scandal on their hands of which they are a part. Asking whether the Godlike Karl Rove had something to do with the Killian Forgeries is just incredibly stupid. It won't keep people from asking why Joe Lockhart and Max Cleland were in communication with a mentally ill hoaxster at the behest of a producer for CBS News. Nor will it give the so-called swing voter any more of a reason to vote for Kerry.

Albatross! Albatross!