That's assuming Burkett is telling the truth about his warnings to CBS. Which I kind of doubt, considering the credibility he (Burkett) has shown thus far. Which is about as much as Dan Rather has shown, come to think of it.

Burkett's starting to remind me of Gary Busey's shellshocked-vet character in Black Sheep (Is that the one? With Chris Farley? They're all the same, I get them mixed up).

ratherbiased has the transcript:

RATHER: Burkett still insists the documents are real, but now says he was in no position to verify them.

BURKETT: I also insisted when I sat down with your staff in the first face-to-face session, before I gave up any documents, I wanted to know what you were going to do with them, and I insisted that they be authenticated.

RATHER: The failure of CBS News to do just that, to properly, fully, scrutinize the documents and their source, led to our airing the documents when we should not have done so. It was a mistake. CBS News deeply regrets it. Also I want to say personally and directly, I'm sorry

OK, I'm going to go into paranoid mode here, so forgive me.

I think Dan Rather and Burkett had a long talk off camera before the interview... with extensive consultation with their lawyers beforehand (david von OS + CBS lawyers). The interview is simply an exercise in legal ass covering. Hey let's make a deal. You say you didn't know the docs were faked, but they you asked us to verify them. We admit we didn't do a good job verifying them, but do not ever confess they are forgeries. We are both covered! DEAL.

I just can't get the words "unimpeachable source" out of my head whenever I think about this whole rathergate thing.

Does everyone realize the depths that CBS has gone to and the damage it has done to itself over this amazingly trivial story?

George Bush didn't take his last physical. And? So what? Why would he? He had no planes to fly; the plane he was using was a death trap and the military was phasing it out; and he was going to Harvard, so why would he re-certify for a plane he could no longer fly when he was getting out of the military anyway? I surely would have skipped the physical.

It would be tantamount to a heavy equipment operator certified on the Komatsu PC-400LC-7 and the next model will be so revolutionary that all his certification would be no good. Why would he then re-certify himself on an obsolete piece of machinery? He wouldn't. He would let that certification lapse and get certification for the new machine when it was available. Only a fool would waste his time in such a way.

And this is what the Democrat Party is reduced to using as an attack on the President of the United States. "You didn't take your last physical." Well, no sh*t, good you finally caught up to 1994.

But--but--that is the Democrat Party for you. They have a candidate who is so poor, so unlikeable, so without accomplishment, that the only way to compete with Bush is to tear down Bush, not boost Kerry by his own merit, as he has none. And where is John Edwards? He shows up every two weeks to whine like a slapped child and immediately retreats to some unknown location.

The media is doing everything it can to hide Kerry's flaws and it already looks like a Dukakis-style electoral router come November. Some day they'll feel like the fools they are.

Two of life's simple rules:

If someone asks you if you're a god, you say yes.

If you wish to create a fake typewritten document, the critical first step is to use an actual typewriter.

I've heard that Col. Staudt made the comment that, not only was there no pressure applied to get W into the TANG, but that they were "advertising" to fill the pilot billets at the time. If this is true, would such advertisements (print, newspaper, etc.) be archived somewhere? Would this not be strong evidence that such "pressure" would have been pointless?

Addison, I disagree about the physical. Maybe it's different in the Guard, it seems to be, but in the regular Air Force you went to physicals (or any other appointment for that matter) just because you were told to. There were no mitigating circumstances, it was a required function - you went. Trust me, I showed up the wrong day for an appointment once, still got it done, but also collected a Letter of Reprimand for "Failure to Repair".

Back to Tony Coehlo saying it was the Gore campaign that had the docs. That may be correct but...

The American Spectator address the DNC having the Docs.

Anatomy of a Forgery
By The Prowler
Published 9/10/2004 12:09:06 AM

More than six weeks ago, an opposition research staffer for the Democratic National Committee received documents purportedly written by President George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard squadron commander, the late Col. Jerry Killian.

The oppo researcher claimed the source was a retired military officer. According to a DNC staffer, the documents were seen by both senior staff members at the DNC, as well as the Kerry campaign.

More than a couple people heard about the papers, says the DNC staffer. I've heard that they ended up with the Kerry campaign, for them to decide to how to proceed, and presumably they were handed over to 60 Minutes, which used them the other night. But I know this much. When there was discussion here, there were doubts raised about their authenticity.

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=7096

Who is the DNC insideer quoted in this article? The author of the article needs to get back in touch!

So now we have to track down Lucy Ramirez.

Daily Kos has already leaped to the conclusion that this must be a Rove trick, because Lucy is asociated with a Republican Congressman.

Two problems with this theory:
1. There's no proof that this is the same Lucy Ramirez.
2. Texas Congressman Ruben Hinojosa is a Democrat.

Listen Allah has a post which quotes Burkett as having traveled back to Abilene ( or the dusty place outside it) from Houston by way of Waco. Get a road atlas out and look and see if you would choose to go to Abilene by way of Waco. Not very likely in my opinion. I think you would go I 45 to I 20 taking you well east and North of Waco. Not a big point but it may be an indication that this whole story is a lie.

Someone should check the congressman on his connections to Ben Barnes. If they are good buddies it might start to take on another hue.

The story that just keeps giving...from Newsmax:

Lawyer: Burkett to Sue CBS

The former Texas National Guard commander who supplied CBS with forged records on President Bush's National Guard service now plans to sue the network, his former lawyer said Tuesday.

Burkett's one-time attorney, David Van Os, told the New York Sun that his former client had "several meetings with lawyers to determine the best course of action." He said the planned lawsuit would center on what he termed "defamation of character and libel."

My next prediction:

In order to deflect accusations that he made up the forgeries himself out of the whole cloth, Burkett will claim either:

* he was given them by an unidentifiable person of the DNC, or
* they are "paraphrases/recreations" of memo's that he saw in the part of Bush's file that was "scrubbed" to avoid just this kind of future embarrassment for the President.

Gary:

Someone else answered over at INDC about this. 290 to Highway 6 will get you from Houston to Waco and you can go on to Abilene. Otherwise you have to drive through DFW, which is something no one does willingly! That I35-I45 interchange sucked for so long, I wouldn't drive it unless I had to.

Sorry for the OT, Ace, but you might want to see this.

Ted -

There are different types of physicals in the military. Submarine-cert, astronaut-cert, flight-cert, Diving-cert - and the ordinary physicals given for most ordinary soldiers. Also different ways of getting physicals for ordinary soldiers if they are active, active reserve, or inactive. The upper level physical to cert soldiers for flight, diving - are far tougher.

If you are suddenly confronted with a surplus of active duty pilots returning to Reserve or Guard status - more pilots than planes, and most vying for those planes have more seniority and also want to make the military a career - you give way. You fly trainers instead of fighters to get your hours in, and in Bush's case, rather than extend his 6 years obligation to 8, (with another 6 months of full active duty) say, in order to be allowed to retrain on a new model fighter since the F-102 is going away in 2 years - you look at doing something new.

So Bush applied to go away from flying to just serving his remaining Guard obligation out in other duties. If pilots were precious and scarce, there is no way his command approves transfer....but they did...since they had a glut of career-minded pilots going into the Guard and off active AF duty as Vietnam wound down.

It would be worth somebody looking at how many pilots in the Guard were involuntarily transferred to desk jobs, lost flight status on mutual agreement with command, or got early outs as Vietnam wound down. I know a slew of Huey LDO's did. I suspect Bush was in no way unique.

As for how many of the 3600 men served in Swift Boats used the 3 Purple Heart rule to abandon the Battlefield, we know the answer. Just one. John Kerry.