Who is Lucy Ramirez?

USAToday reports:

In interviews in recent days with USA TODAY, both in person and on the phone, Burkett said he had merely been a conduit for the records purported to be from the private files of Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, one of Bush's former Guard commanders, who died in 1984. Burkett admitted lying to USA TODAY about the source of the documents but said he did not fabricate the papers.

In earlier conversations with USA TODAY, Burkett had identified the source of the documents as George Conn, a former Texas National Guard colleague who works for the U.S. Army in Europe. Burkett now says he made up the story about Conn's involvement to divert attention from himself and the woman he now says provided him with the documents. He told USA TODAY that he also lied to CBS.

Burkett now maintains that the source of the papers was Lucy Ramirez, who he says phoned him from Houston in March to offer the documents. USA TODAY has been unable to locate Ramirez.

When Burkett gave copies of the documents to USA TODAY, it was on the understanding that his identity would not be disclosed. USA TODAY honored that agreement until Burkett waived his confidentiality Monday.

Let's note straight off the bat that Burkett's word is worth about as much as CBS stock options. Whether or not "Lucy Ramirez" even exists, or, if she does exist, whether she had anything to do with these documents is not confirmed-- only Burkett's saying so.

Update-- What Is "Lucy Ramirez"?: RD Brewer thinks it's not so much a person as an anagram-- for "crazy rum lie."

Edited: I originally did a yahoo search and found someone in Texas with some Democratic connection called "Lucy Ramirez." I stated specifically that I had no idea if this was the Lucy Ramirez, and further noted that there are actually a lot of Lucy Ramierezes around.

However, as it seems more and more likely that "Lucy Ramirez" is just a crazy rum lie after all, there seems to me no point in even mentiong this Lucy Ramirez or that one. So I've deleted the reference to the Lucy Ramirez I stumbled across.

I shouldn't have even mentioned it at all, and I apologize for doing so.

posted by Ace at 12:34 PM

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