Styling!
Get a load (and I do mean load) of Captain Dan, bloated with self-importance, pontifiicating to the New York Observer. He's really puzzled that anyone could get upset about a few forgeries when he has decreed that bigger questions are involved.
But there's comedy too. According to Dan, "powerful and extremely well-financed forces are concentrating on questions about the documents." Sheesh, I hope my check is in the mail.
UPDATE: QandO has a nice take on it:
Now maybe its just me, but does it strike anyone else that what Rather is asking us to do is akin to finding an entry in the "Hitler Diaries" saying Dan's Mom had an ongoing relationship with Adolph and requiring poor Dan to forget the diaries are forgeries and answer the questions about the relationship?There's also a great suggestion for 60 Minutes (Sunday) to investigate 60 Minutes (Wednesday). What a ratings blockbuster it would be to have Mike Wallace jamming the microphone in Dan's face and asking him where he got the forgeries!
UPDATE: Jonah Goldberg offers another analogy:
Dan Rather says of the memos: "The longer we go without a denial of such things—this story is true."I think Dan is more likely a gerbil kind of guy.
Well then: I hereby announce that Dan Rather walks around with an elaborate system of studded leather bindings and pulleys under his pants which cause trapped miniature ferrets to bite and claw him in sublimely agonizing ways. In fact, Rather's odd pronouncements are usually the result of a particularly exquisite sado-masochistic pain he's administered to himself just beneathe the news desk. The famous "courage" sign-off was actually a note to himself to endure an especially vicious critter in his trousers trying to eat its way out.
The longer Dan Rather goes without denying this the more likely it is the allegation is true.
