CBS COORDINATED BUSH BASH WITH KERRY CAMPAIGN; Aide Talked to Retired Guard Officer...

[Evilmav2]

Key Kerry Aide Talked to Retired Guard Officer

Yahoo News, 2 hours, 55 minutes ago

NEW YORK - At the behest of CBS, an adviser to John Kerry (news - web sites) said he talked to a central figure in the controversy over President Bush (news - web sites)'s National Guard service shortly before disputed documents were released.

Joe Lockhart denied any connection between the presidential campaign and the papers. Lockhart, the second Kerry ally to confirm contact with retired Texas National Guard officer Bill Burkett, said he made the call at the suggestion of CBS producer Mary Mapes.

"He had some advice on how to deal with the Vietnam issue and the Swift boat" allegations, Lockhart said Monday, referring to GOP-fueled accusations that Kerry exaggerated his Vietnam War record. "He said these guys play tough and we have to put the Vietnam experience into context and have Kerry talk about it more."

Lockhart said he thanked Burkett for his advice after a three to four minute call.

Lockhart said he does not recall talking to Burkett about Bush's Guard records. "It's baseless to say the Kerry campaign had anything to do with this," he said.

CBS News apologized Monday for a "mistake in judgment" in its story questioning Bush's Guard service, claiming it was misled by the source of documents that several experts have dismissed as fakes.

Burkett admitted this weekend to CBS that he lied about obtaining the documents from another former National Guard member, the network said. CBS hasn't been able to conclusively tell how he got them, or even whether they're fakes or not.

Kerry ally Max Cleland, a former Georgia senator, also said he had a brief conversation last month with Burkett, who told him he had information about Bush to counter charges against Kerry's Vietnam War service. Cleland said he gave Burkett's name and phone number to the campaign's research department.

Kerry spokesman David Ginsberg said nobody in the campaign's research department followed up on Burkett's offer of information.

Lockhart said Mapes asked him the weekend before the story broke to call Burkett. "She basically said there's a guy who is being helpful on the story who wants to talk to you," Lockhart said, adding that it was common knowledge that CBS was working on a story raising questions about Bush's Guard service. Mapes told him there were some records "that might move the story forward. She didn't tell me what they said."

Kerry Aide Coordinates with Burkett

[dude1394]

And here is something really strange or IS it? It seems that the CBS forged document smear on bush occurred on Sept 8. Lo and behold the DNC had an ad out on Sept 9!!!!! Operation "Fortunate Son" was launced on Sept 9!!!!... Coincidence. NO FREAKIN' WAY...

kerryspot

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 Col. Jerry B. Killian, squadron commander for Bush in Texas.

The CBS story based on the memos the evening of Sept. 8. 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 Sept. 9?

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?

And would this explain why Terry McAuliffe said yesterday that no one at the DNC or Kerry campaign, 'had anything to do with the preparations of the documents,' but said nothing about the distribution or dissemination of the memo?

Oh — and did no one at the DNC look at these documents and say, "Gee, these look like they were written with Microsoft Word"?

[dude1394]

More on the CBS-Kerry connection forthcoming.

polipundit

More on the Connection

I’m watching Scarborough Country on MSNBC. Joe Scarborough just said that USA Today will report tomorrow that:

1. CBS is investigating links between Mary Mapes and the Kerry campaign.
2. Bill Burkett told Mapes that he would hand over the memos only if Mapes would arrange for him to talk to Kerry campaign about them first.

This just gets more and more shocking.

UPDATE: Here’s the link to the USA Today story.

[Evilmav2]

Well, I guess we are seeing why CBS stonewalled for so long...

The burning and collapsing house of cards that is "Operation Fortunate Son", threatens to not only destroy or maim Mapes, Rather, and CBS (although CBS can still save itself by actively helping to uncover the rotting fraud that it's news organization tried to foist on the American public), but also the Kerry campaign/DNC schemers who increasingly look responsible for starting this whole boondoggle. It certainly doesn't look like Burkett, Cleland, and Lockhart covered their tracks very well, and that may ultimately facilitate the utter collapse and rout of this dirty, treacherously duplicitous Kerry candidacy...

[LRB]

It really shouldn't shock anyone to think that the DNC and the Kerry campaign would actively participate in an attempt to defraud the American public. Remember the Kerry campaign has brought us such whoppers as Christmas in Cambodia and Michael "Maggot" Moore was a keynote speaker at the DNC this summer.

[mavsman55]

Originally posted by: LRB
It really shouldn't shock anyone to think that the DNC and the Kerry campaign would actively participate in an attempt to defraud the American public. Remember the Kerry campaign has brought us such whoppers as Christmas in Cambodia and Michael "Maggot" Moore was a keynote speaker at the DNC this summer.

It's no surprise to me. Lying is all part of the game when it comes to liberals.

[knowitall]

So all of us are liars, and one republican. I say fire everyone who lies in the course of their position. Clean it out and rebuild. What's good for the goose...............

[Drbio]

Originally posted by: knowitall
So all of us are liars, and one republican. I say fire everyone who lies in the course of their position. Clean it out and rebuild. What's good for the goose...............

Ms. Howard Dean offers up nothing again. Troll.

[dude1394]

No all of the liberals aren't liars, just those that work for nytimes, latimes and now cbs.