Rathergate closes in on Kerry campaign
RNC Communications Director Jim Dyke made the following statement today:
"Bill Burkett, Democrat activist and Kerry campaign supporter, passes information to the DNC; Kerry campaign surrogate Max Cleland discusses 'valuable' information with Bill Burkett; Bill Burkett talks to 'senior' Kerry campaign officials; an apparently [my emphasis] unsuspecting news organization uses faked forged memos and an interview with Ben Barnes at the same time the Democratic National Committee launched Operation Fortunate Son; and Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill was among the first to call Ben Barnes and congratulate him after his interview.
"The trail of connections is becoming increasingly clear."
And what was the response of the Kerryites via spokesman David Wade?
"Jim Dyke inhabits the fantasy world of spin where George Bush pretends we haven't lost millions of jobs and everything in Iraq is coming up roses. He'd be better served getting answers from the President, not hurling baseless attacks."
Hmmm; Dyke simply "connects the dots," and the best comeback Wade can muster is baldly dishonest denial, a personal attack, and irrelevant (and dishonest) campaign bromides?
Seems like it's Senator Kerry who needs to answer some questions. The list of same also seems to be growing. And he hasn't faced a serious media interviewer in nearly two months.
Perchance that's why Mr. Wade is so touchy.
And this certainly won't help:
"CBS arranged for a confidential source to talk with Joe Lockhart, a top aide to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, after the source provided the network with the now-disputed documents about President Bush's service in the Texas National Guard.
"Lockhart, the former press secretary to President Clinton, said a female producer talked to him about the 60 Minutes program a few days before it aired on September 8th. She gave Lockhart a telephone number and asked him to call Bill Burkett, a former Texas National Guard officer who gave CBS the documents. Lockhart couldn't recall the producer's name. But CBS said Monday night that it would examine the role of producer Mary Mapes in passing the name to Lockhart.
"Burkett told USA TODAY that he had agreed to turn over the documents to CBS if the network would help arrange a conversation with the Kerry campaign.
"'At Burkett's request, we gave his (telephone) number to the campaign,' said Betsy West, senior CBS News vice president.
"CBS would not discuss the propriety of the network serving as a conduit between its partisan source, Burkett, and the Kerry campaign. 'It was not part of any deal' with Burkett to obtain the documents, West said, declining to elaborate.
"But Burkett said Monday that his contact with Lockhart was indeed part of an 'understanding' with CBS. Burkett said his interest in contacting the campaign was to offer advice in responding to Republican criticisms about Kerry's Vietnam service. It had nothing to do with the documents, he said.
"Lockhart said he phoned Burkett at the number provided by CBS. Lockhart also said that subject of the documents never came up in his conversation with Burkett. Lockhart said the conversation lasted just a few minutes. 'It's possible that the producer said they had documents,' before his conversation with Burkett, he said.
"At the end of the conversation, Lockhart said he thanked Burkett for his interest and there was no further contact with him. Asked why he called Burkett, Lockhart said he talks to 'a lot of people.'
"The White House said CBS' contact with Lockhart was inappropriate. 'The fact that CBS News would coordinate with the most senior levels of Sen. Kerry's campaign to attack the President is a stunning and deeply troubling revelation,' said Dan Bartlett, White House communications director."
Over at the KerrySpot, which tends toward caution that would make a baby's first steps look and sound like Paul Bunyon slam-dancing in a forest of old-growth timber, Jim Geraghty has also been connecting the dots:
"Let's look on Nexis for the first reference to 'Operation Fortunate Son.' We find an AP story from September 9, 2004:
Seizing on 30-year-old memos and memories, Sen. John Kerry's operatives are painting an unflattering portrait of President Bush as the "fortunate son" who used family connections to dodge the Vietnam War and then lied about it...
"Two things: One, he didn't tell the truth and that's not going to go away," said Howard Wolfson, a strategist dispatched to the DNC by Kerry's campaign to go negative on Bush. "Second, it begins to paint a picture of a very fortunate son who uses connections and pulls strings for special favors. That is a theme running through the man's life."
The DNC has nicknamed its effort "Operation Fortunate Son" after a Creedence Clearwater Revival anti-war anthem from the 1960s. The song speaks of the privileged few, "born silver spoon in hand," who send others to war.
Bush is not the "senator's son" written about in the song, but he's the son of a former president who served in the House during the Vietnam War.
Former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes, a Kerry supporter, says he helped Bush and the sons of other wealthy families get into the Texas National Guard to avoid serving in Vietnam.
As a young lieutenant, Bush was "talking to someone upstairs" and trying to "get out of coming to drill," according to newly unearthed memos by the late Colonel Jerry B. Killian, squadron commander for Bush in Texas.
"The CBS story based on the memos the evening of September 8th. Are we to believe that the Democratic National Committee put together 'Operation Fortunate Son,' in which these memos are front and center, entirely in the hours after the CBS report, and yet had their campaign ready so that these memos are referred to in the first words of the AP story September 9th?
"Are we to believe that the DNC didn't know ahead of time what was in those memos, and how they could be used to attack the president?
"Ladies and gentlemen, I am not a lawyer. Would this qualify as circumstantial evidence that CBS and the DNC were collaborating on using the memos before the story ran?"
The best thing John Kerry could do to help himself at this point would be to call a press conference, announce the dismissals of any and all in his campaign who had any involvement in Rathergate, as well as his signature of form 180 releasing all his military records, and call for a moratorium on any and all discussion of Vietnam for the remainder of the campaign.
But given that Rathergate was an outgrowth of the damage inflicted on Kerry by the Swiftboat Vets, well...one might just as well ask why Nixon didn't burn the tapes.
At least Mr. French's "exile" will be considerably more comfortable.
"Bill Burkett, Democrat activist and Kerry campaign supporter, passes information to the DNC; Kerry campaign surrogate Max Cleland discusses 'valuable' information with Bill Burkett; Bill Burkett talks to 'senior' Kerry campaign officials; an apparently [my emphasis] unsuspecting news organization uses faked forged memos and an interview with Ben Barnes at the same time the Democratic National Committee launched Operation Fortunate Son; and Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill was among the first to call Ben Barnes and congratulate him after his interview.
"The trail of connections is becoming increasingly clear."
And what was the response of the Kerryites via spokesman David Wade?
"Jim Dyke inhabits the fantasy world of spin where George Bush pretends we haven't lost millions of jobs and everything in Iraq is coming up roses. He'd be better served getting answers from the President, not hurling baseless attacks."
Hmmm; Dyke simply "connects the dots," and the best comeback Wade can muster is baldly dishonest denial, a personal attack, and irrelevant (and dishonest) campaign bromides?
Seems like it's Senator Kerry who needs to answer some questions. The list of same also seems to be growing. And he hasn't faced a serious media interviewer in nearly two months.
Perchance that's why Mr. Wade is so touchy.
And this certainly won't help:
"CBS arranged for a confidential source to talk with Joe Lockhart, a top aide to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, after the source provided the network with the now-disputed documents about President Bush's service in the Texas National Guard.
"Lockhart, the former press secretary to President Clinton, said a female producer talked to him about the 60 Minutes program a few days before it aired on September 8th. She gave Lockhart a telephone number and asked him to call Bill Burkett, a former Texas National Guard officer who gave CBS the documents. Lockhart couldn't recall the producer's name. But CBS said Monday night that it would examine the role of producer Mary Mapes in passing the name to Lockhart.
"Burkett told USA TODAY that he had agreed to turn over the documents to CBS if the network would help arrange a conversation with the Kerry campaign.
"'At Burkett's request, we gave his (telephone) number to the campaign,' said Betsy West, senior CBS News vice president.
"CBS would not discuss the propriety of the network serving as a conduit between its partisan source, Burkett, and the Kerry campaign. 'It was not part of any deal' with Burkett to obtain the documents, West said, declining to elaborate.
"But Burkett said Monday that his contact with Lockhart was indeed part of an 'understanding' with CBS. Burkett said his interest in contacting the campaign was to offer advice in responding to Republican criticisms about Kerry's Vietnam service. It had nothing to do with the documents, he said.
"Lockhart said he phoned Burkett at the number provided by CBS. Lockhart also said that subject of the documents never came up in his conversation with Burkett. Lockhart said the conversation lasted just a few minutes. 'It's possible that the producer said they had documents,' before his conversation with Burkett, he said.
"At the end of the conversation, Lockhart said he thanked Burkett for his interest and there was no further contact with him. Asked why he called Burkett, Lockhart said he talks to 'a lot of people.'
"The White House said CBS' contact with Lockhart was inappropriate. 'The fact that CBS News would coordinate with the most senior levels of Sen. Kerry's campaign to attack the President is a stunning and deeply troubling revelation,' said Dan Bartlett, White House communications director."
Over at the KerrySpot, which tends toward caution that would make a baby's first steps look and sound like Paul Bunyon slam-dancing in a forest of old-growth timber, Jim Geraghty has also been connecting the dots:
"Let's look on Nexis for the first reference to 'Operation Fortunate Son.' We find an AP story from September 9, 2004:
Seizing on 30-year-old memos and memories, Sen. John Kerry's operatives are painting an unflattering portrait of President Bush as the "fortunate son" who used family connections to dodge the Vietnam War and then lied about it...
"Two things: One, he didn't tell the truth and that's not going to go away," said Howard Wolfson, a strategist dispatched to the DNC by Kerry's campaign to go negative on Bush. "Second, it begins to paint a picture of a very fortunate son who uses connections and pulls strings for special favors. That is a theme running through the man's life."
The DNC has nicknamed its effort "Operation Fortunate Son" after a Creedence Clearwater Revival anti-war anthem from the 1960s. The song speaks of the privileged few, "born silver spoon in hand," who send others to war.
Bush is not the "senator's son" written about in the song, but he's the son of a former president who served in the House during the Vietnam War.
Former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes, a Kerry supporter, says he helped Bush and the sons of other wealthy families get into the Texas National Guard to avoid serving in Vietnam.
As a young lieutenant, Bush was "talking to someone upstairs" and trying to "get out of coming to drill," according to newly unearthed memos by the late Colonel Jerry B. Killian, squadron commander for Bush in Texas.
"The CBS story based on the memos the evening of September 8th. Are we to believe that the Democratic National Committee put together 'Operation Fortunate Son,' in which these memos are front and center, entirely in the hours after the CBS report, and yet had their campaign ready so that these memos are referred to in the first words of the AP story September 9th?
"Are we to believe that the DNC didn't know ahead of time what was in those memos, and how they could be used to attack the president?
"Ladies and gentlemen, I am not a lawyer. Would this qualify as circumstantial evidence that CBS and the DNC were collaborating on using the memos before the story ran?"
The best thing John Kerry could do to help himself at this point would be to call a press conference, announce the dismissals of any and all in his campaign who had any involvement in Rathergate, as well as his signature of form 180 releasing all his military records, and call for a moratorium on any and all discussion of Vietnam for the remainder of the campaign.
But given that Rathergate was an outgrowth of the damage inflicted on Kerry by the Swiftboat Vets, well...one might just as well ask why Nixon didn't burn the tapes.
At least Mr. French's "exile" will be considerably more comfortable.
posted by JASmius at 7:47 PM
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