Rather: The Story Was True

Rathergate gave birth to this blog (here was my first post from September 15th) and hundreds more, and the story isn't dead yet. Dan Rather appeared on the Larry King show, and Hugh Hewitt comments on Rather's vain attempt to portray the National Guard story as accurate:

But Larry had the bad taste to ask him about the Texas Air National Guard forgeries, and Rather's filibuster of many minutes was nothing short of remarkable. The key excerpt regarding the Rathergate forgeries:

"KING: Are you saying the story might be correct?

RATHER: Well, I'm saying a prudent person might take that view.

KING: Do you have that view?

RATHER: Well, I'm saying a prudent person might take that view.

Number two, it's important, the panel said that this story was not -- the story was not born of any personal or political bias. Now, that's not all they said. They were very critical of CBS News, of "60 Minutes Weekday," and of myself, very critical of us for all kinds of things that they believe we should have done that we didn't do. And with some of those things, I do agree.

But I do hope people will keep in mind that two of their findings were what I just described to you. Wasn't born of political or personal bias, and they could not determine whether the documents were fraudulent or not."

It is hard to be angry or even exercised over the sad spectacle of an old man trying so hard not to admit that he'd been played for a fool, but when Rather asserted, twice, that a "prudent person" might judge the absurd forgeries as real, the damage done by the Thornburg whitewash became undeniable. Rather, and who knows how many others, have convinced themselves that there's a chance the forgeries weren't forgeries, and have also seized on "the panel's" conclusion that no political bias was at work.

Like a grandpa indulged his peculiar memories, Rather's not the problem. He was with Teddy, don't you see, charging up the Hill, or with Patton's Third Army, just like it was in the movies.

Let's face it, Gunga Dan will never admit that some dirty operatives of the Democrats created those documents out of whole cloth and CBS fell for it. Everytime he tries to deny the obvious, he adds a little more tarnish to his image and the image of CBS News.