I'm watching Dan Rather right now on 60 Minutes II ---and it's hard to imagine a more irresponsible goddamned idiot. Instead of acknowledging the fact that these documents he's been pushing for the past week are forgeries, he continues to attack the President over a non-issue that everyone knows is a loser. Rather has had many public opportunities now to come off of this bullshit, but refuses to.
Even if Rather could concede the fact that these documents are forgeries, it would still be irrelevant because their substance, as he sees it, is accurate. (In fact, that is almost a verbatim summation in a headline in today's New York Times reporting the opinion of Jerry Killian's secretary. She thinks these documents are phoney, but are still, somehow, correct.) How does any of that make sense? How is that, in any sense, fair? It's like saying that the Shroud of Turin must be authentic because the Bible says Jesus of Nazareth was wrapped in a shroud. Never mind the fact that science has demonstrated repeatedly that it is impossible that that piece of cloth even could be genuine; all you need to know is that the Shroud represents an essential truth, which is to say it is literally an article of faith.
I have no idea what Rather is thinking right now. He seems willful and driven to be right in all of this when it is a fact that the documents upon which he has built his case are forgeries. He solicited the opinion of several people in authenticating these fakes whom he flatly ignored when they refused to do so. He is stonewalling. He is telling others to remain silent. He is defying the entire media world with his nonsense. What is he up to?
Is Rather drawing everyone into a trap? Does he have an ace up his sleeve? I don't know. But it's clear that he is becoming a far bigger story than this crap he is peddling about the President. That can't be what he intended, but it's certainly what has happened.
Stay tuned. With Chris Cox calling for a Congressional investigation and with most of the major media outlets passing judgement against him, Dan Rather is absolutely fucking up. And, in the bargain, he has inoculated the President against any further questions about his National Guard service. After all, once these idiots admit that they are liars about these forgeries, who will be obligated to believe them about anything?