SOME GOOD POINTS ABOUT "RATHERGATE"

From Democracy Now:

AMY GOODMAN: They didn't conclude they were -- that they could guarantee their -- that they were real. But everyone thinks that they -- it was proven that they were not authentic.

JOE HAGAN: That is one of the -- that's a huge issue. This report comes out, it’s supposed to be the most exhaustive report ever, and it doesn't actually conclude whether the documents are false or not, which -- I mean, that's -- if that question mark lies out there, then how can you draw any conclusions from any of this? I just find it really unbelievable and, you know, basically, there's just this huge assumption in the mainstream media, that it's like a left-wing partisan thing, which is kind of ridiculous when you consider that four or five years ago The Boston Globe actually already reported all of this information, just without the documents. I mean, about Bush's National Guard service. We already kind of know that there are gaps in his National Guard record, and that he didn't fulfill his duty. This is just already on the record and reported. So, here they just had a document that was supposed to be the smoking gun that, you know, finally makes it 100% provable, and -- you know -- it's just [trails off...]

AMY GOODMAN: So why hasn't the White House called for an investigation –

JOE HAGAN: That is a –

AMY GOODMAN: -- into the falsification of government documents?

JOE HAGAN: -- incredible question. And, if, you know, if you were to -- I have spoken with really highly respected, top TV industry people who spin very elaborate conspiracy theories to me about what they think is going on here: If CBS doesn't want to know, the Thornburgh report doesn't want to know, and the White House doesn't want to know, well, what's going on here? Is it just one crazy guy who typed this up in his place? But I don't know about that.

Click here to read a transcript of, listen to, or watch the interview.

Just to make sure that these couple of points are understood, I'll repeat them simply.

First, the memo about Bush's National Guard service that's caused CBS a buttload of problems, has not been proven to be a forgery!!!! What we know is that it has not been proven to be authentic, either. CBS should certainly be faulted for going to press with unverified information, but that is quite different from going on the air with a forged document. Bottom line: the facts of the CBS story, that Bush was AWOL from Guard duty, are not in dispute, and this smoking gun memo which may or may not be authentic really has no bearing on that. It's simply a diversionary sideshow to make the public forget about the fact that our President is a deserter. Yes, that's right, a deserter.

Second, it is wildly bizarre that the White House seems to have no interest in finding out who tried to stick it to the President by forging a government memo, which is a felony. This only fuels speculation, for which there is no evidence, that the documents came from the White House to begin with. It seems reasonable that a Democrat might want to embarrass Bush by faking these papers, but seeing as how there was already a great deal of evidence out there of Bush's desertion, that makes little sense. On the other hand, only the White House has seen any benefit from the existence of this memo, and it was a big benefit--the "Rathergate" story succeeded in drowing out the AWOL story altogether.

This whole thing is fishy, if you ask me.

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