Always in our hearts

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 9:26 AM -

 
Ra^thergate Update



The NY Post wins the headline competition with RATHER FORGES AHEAD for their report on Captain Dan's lame defense and Mark Steyn drops the Humor Bomb in CBS falls for Kerry campaign's fake memo:

A few weeks ago, Thomas Oliphant of the Boston Globe was on PBS' ''Newshour'' explaining why the hundreds of swift boat veterans' allegations against John Kerry's conduct in Vietnam was unworthy of his attention. "The standard of clear and convincing evidence," he said, talking to Swiftvet John O'Neill as if he were a backward fourth-grader, ''is what keeps this story in the tabloids -- because it does not meet basic standards.''

Last week, we got a good idea of what Thomas Oliphant's ''basic standards'' are. Dan Rather and the elderly gentlemen at ''60 Minutes'' were all atwitter because they'd come into possession of some hitherto undiscovered memos relating to whether George W. Bush failed to show up for his physical in the War of 1812. The media had been flogging this dead horse all spring, but these newly ''discovered'' memos had jump-started the old nag just enough to get him on his knees long enough for the media to flog him all over again.

Unfortunately for CBS, Dan Rather's hairdresser sucks up so much of the budget that there was nothing left for any fact-checking, so the ''60 Minutes'' crew rushed on air with a damning National Guard memo conveniently called ''CYA'' that Bush's commanding officer had written to himself 32 years ago. ''This was too hot not to push,'' one producer told the American Spectator. Hundreds of living Swiftvets who've signed affidavits and are prepared to testify on camera -- that's way too cold to push; we'd want to fact-check that one thoroughly, till, say, midway through John Kerry's second term. But a handful of memos by one dead guy slipped to us by a Kerry campaign operative -- that meets ''basic standards'' and we gotta get it out there right away.

As usual, the Instapundit has a valuable roundup of links, as the signatures and typography as well as the internal consistency of the forgeries continue to unravel.

But for humor potential, I mostly like the alternative defense: "Karl Rove and the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy tricked poor Captain Dan!" Terry McAuliffe is trying it out and Patterico has some fun debunking "conspiracy evidence" from ABC, NPR and George Soros' Flying Monkeys at Media Matters. As Mickey Kaus observes:

P.S.: Media Matters might want to decide if a) the documents are authentic, as argued at the top of their Web page or b) the documents are forgeries planted by Republicans, as argued at the bottom of their Web page. Lawyers are allowed to plead in the alternative, but a) and b) can't both be true, and the evidence for each of those propositions is also evidence against the other one.

Bwahaha! It requires terminal suspension of disbelief to figure that Karl Rove and the VRWC are so incredibly clever that they knew Kerry, Terry, and Captain Dan would make fools of themselves over obvious forgeries, but isn't that what leftism is all about?

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:20 AM -

 
He's back!



Instapundit:

EVEN WITHOUT THE DOCUMENT-FORGERY BUSINESS, what in the world were the Democrats thinking when they trotted out already-exposed fake Vietnam war hero Tom Harkin to attack Bush's National Guard service?

Munchausen syndrome or Terminal Cluelessness?

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 2:46 PM -

 
CBS document verifier FOUND!



(From an idea on FR)

UPDATE: And check out the head honcho!

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 12:59 PM -

 
More fun with Clippie!

Wizbang's Clippie is more nuanced than mine.

Update: A yet further improved Clippie.

Update: More

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 12:12 PM -

 
Surprise, surprise, surprise

So where did Captain Dan get the forged documents? The Prowler reports it was the Kerry campaign in Anatomy of a Forgery (connection is slow after Drudge linked them):

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."

OK, so headquarters send the stuff to their branch office at CBS. And what did the branch office do?

"The problem was we had one set of documents from Bush's file that had Killian calling Bush 'an exceptionally fine young officer and pilot.' And someone who Killian said 'performed in an outstanding manner.' Then you have these new documents and the tone and content are so different."

The CBS producer said that some alarms bells went off last week when the signatures and initials of Killian on the documents in hand did not match up with other documents available on the public record, but producers chose to move ahead with the story. "This was too hot not to push. If there were doubts, those people didn't show it," says the producer, who works on a rival CBS News program.

Translation: the clue phone was ringing but everyone was too busy with their circle jerk to pick it up.

Now, the producer says, there is growing concern inside the building on 57th Street that they may have been suckered by the Kerry campaign. "There is a school of thought here that the Kerry people dumped this in our laps, figuring we'd do the heavy lifting on the story. That maybe they had doubts about these documents but hoped we'd get more information," says the producer. "If that's the case, then we're bigger fools than we already appear to be judging by all the chatter about how these documents could be forgeries."

Hey, heavy lifting is what journalists do. We're talking CBS and Dan Rather here. The Kerry campaign conned them real slick.

But not to worry, Lurch fans! There's an alternative explanation:

According to one ABC News employee, some reporters believe that the Kerry campaign as well as the DNC were parties in duping CBS, but a smaller segment believe that both the DNC and the Kerry campaign were duped by Karl Rove, who would have engineered the flap to embarrass the opposition.

Yeah, and the dog ate my homework.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:56 AM -

 
Don't tell Lurch about this!

Minister says beer should be on the NHS:

Germany's Economics minister says beer is so healthy it should be available on the country's health service.

Minister Wolfgang Clement, 64, who can reportedly down a beer in 1.5 seconds, claims he can't get enough of the brew.

"People should be able to get prescriptions for beer through the national health system," he said.

Yum! Now there's a crowd pleaser.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 10:35 PM -

 
Ain't we got fun!



You keep your nose to the grindstone and they start a party without you! Drudge links Powerline (try the Command Post due to overload), Charles is firing up MS Word, and INDC is consulting document experts. Ryne McLaren has a roundup of the bloggers and Cybercast News Service has a roundup of the story, which is that it looks like somone ginned up the documents for Dan Rather's "big scoop" on Microsoft Word. Naughty Captain Dan! Or as a FR poster puts it - "What's the font spacing, Kenneth?"

UPDATE: Ace has a recap with this gem:

In his legendary book on the 1972 presidential campaign The Boys on the Bus, author Timothy Crouse relayed how many of Rather's rivals on the White House beat resented him for his gung-ho approach to the facts.

"Rather often adhered to the 'informed sources' or 'the White House announced today' formulas, but he was famous in the trade for the times when he bypassed these formulas and 'winged it' on a story. Rather would go with an item even if he didn't have it completely nailed down with verifiable facts. If a rumor sounded solid to him, if he believed it in his gut or had gotten it from a man who struck him as honest, he would let it rip."

How's the gut, Captain Dan?

UPDATE: Allah observes they didn't do too good a job on the signatures either. A FR poster provides a comparison:



UPDATE: John Hawkins finds another memo that CBS missed and ScrappleFace finds an email!

UPDATE: The Commissar discovers a new memo proving Kerry was in Cambodia!

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 6:22 PM -

 
The Empress is thinking of us!



Heinz Kerry: Opponents of health care plan are 'idiots':

Teresa Heinz Kerry said Wednesday that "only an idiot" would fail to support her husband's health care plan.

"Of course, there are idiots," Heinz Kerry, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, told the (Lancaster) Intelligencer Journal for Thursday's editions.
...
"I don't have to sell it - the people want it," Heinz Kerry said of the health plan. "The common man doesn't look at me as some rich witch. I talk about what I see. It has always been so. You judge people not by their pocketbook but by their actions."

Yup. And I marvel yet again at her deep concern for the peasants! She just knows that we worship her. "It has always been so."

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:58 AM -

 
Rah! Rah! Zis Boom Bah!



It sure is great that perky Katie and the Today Show gang couldn't find time to cover the personal testimony of over 250 decorated veterans who served with John Kerry, but they can devote three days to skanky Kitty Kelley's secondhand trashtalking about the Bush family. I've always admired Kitty's vivid imagination:

Mr. Gillespie said the description of Mr. Bush's using drugs at Camp David was "as credible as her story that then-Governor and Nancy Reagan smoked marijuana with Jack Benny and George and Gracie Burns."

"Good sh*t, eh, Gracie!"

But it's good to know that Katie isn't a "Bush toady":

Scandal impresario Kitty Kelley is suggesting that CNN's Larry King won't let her on his show to promote her upcoming book, "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty," because he's a toady of the Bush family.

I'm just glad Kitty's got a gig that matches her talents. And I'm sure it pays better than an act with a donkey in Tijuana.

(Hat tip for the Katie snap: The Essential Katie Couric Photo Gallery)

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:18 AM -

 
C'mon Lurch, don't be shy!



John Kerry Friend Tries to Shut-Down Website Offering Free Access to "The New Soldier"

Mr. Davis' first website at http://freekerrybook.com was temporarily shut-down by Yahoo following a complaint filed by an attorney representing George Butler. Mr. Butler is a co-editor of the book and has been a close personal friend of John Kerry since 1964. Mr. Davis has filed a sworn counter-notification with Yahoo, demanding that the website be reactivated. George Butler is directing a film titled 'Going Up River' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407263/) purported to be a documentary about John Kerry's Vietnam service and his anti-war activities.

Mr. Davis stated, "I would hope that George Butler and John Kerry don't want the text and photos in 'The New Soldier' to be made available
because they are ashamed of what they did. But I suspect the motivation is embarrassment to John Kerry's campaign instead."

The best part about the film is that the writing credit listed is "Douglas Brinkley (novel)". That's what we all thought.

Anyhow, as of this writing, http://freekerrybook.com/ is shut down, but the new http://freekerrybook.org/ is ready and waiting. (Also see http://johnkerrythenewsoldier.blogspot.com/.)

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:02 AM -

 
Today's Hoot!

Casual Staffers Told To Spruce Up. My favorite part:

The staff at G.S. Schwartz & Co., a New York investor and public relations firm, also received a recent e-mail memo asking them to bump up their apparel choices "at least one more notch."

"For example," the memo read, "we would prefer that properly fitting sweaters be worn with a collared shirt underneath. Certainly, khakis should be neat and clean ..."

"Shaving regularly also is a good idea," the memo suggested, "for either sex."

Indeed.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 6:57 PM -

 
Good news for Bubba!

CLINTONCARE VS. CLINTON'S CARE:

The speed with which President Clinton received quadruple bypass surgery provides an important lesson in health-care reform that voters should keep in mind this election season.
...
According to Nadeem Esmail and Michael Walker of Canada's Fraser Institute, the median wait for an appointment with a cardiologist in Canada's single-payer health-care system was 3.4 weeks in 2003. The wait for urgent bypass surgery was another 2.1 weeks on top of that, while the wait for elective bypass surgery was a further 10.7 weeks. Great Britain and New Zealand have even longer waiting times for bypass surgery.

Esmail and Walker cite studies confirming that longer waits for heart surgery bring higher risks of heart attack and death. In fact, they report that U.S. hospitals act as a "safety valve" for Canadian patients who face life-threatening shortages: "The government of British Columbia contracted Washington state hospitals to perform some 200 operations in 1989 following public dismay over the 6-month waiting list for cardiac bypass surgery in the province . . . A California heart-surgery center has even advertised its services in a Vancouver newspaper."

Had America had followed his lead 10 years ago, President Clinton might not have been able to get his diagnosis and surgery appointment so quickly. Instead of waiting overnight for an appointment with a cardiologist, he might have had to wait the 3.4 weeks Canadians do. Instead of waiting three days for quadruple bypass surgery, he might have had to wait more than two weeks.

Instead of receiving care from what Sen. Clinton called "one of the great hospitals in the world," President Clinton might be looking for a safety valve.

Not to worry though, that waiting stuff is just for the little people.

Truth be told, presidents and senators will never have a hard time getting medical treatment. Esmail and Walker report "a profusion of recent research reveals that cardiovascular surgery queues are routinely jumped by the famous and politically-connected." It's the rest who have to wait.

That makes me feel so much better.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 6:48 PM -

 
How about some humor?

An interview with Lurch should do the trick - Kerry's Confusing MTV Interview:

Kerry hasn't taken any questions from the press for about a month now. So when we came across this interview last night on MTV we were somewhat excited to hear Kerry speak outside his increasingly boring stump format.

(W is for wrong?? Was Sue Grafton hired by the Kerry campaign when we weren't looking?)

The video clip from MTV's Choose or Lose series runs a minute long, and appears to have been filmed in mid-August:

(video player - hit the link to watch the befuddled one)

Ok, let's try to make some sense of this:

* Kerry will convince traditional allies (read: France and Germany) to send troops into Iraq, thereby allowing us to exit, by signing the Kyoto treaty.

* The president hasn't done enough to stop the increasing clash between Islamic moderates and Islamic extremists.

H is for "Huh?"

Apparently this is what Kerry means when he says he would have taken us to war in a different way. First comes the ultimatum, then the inspectors, then the Kyoto treaty, then the tanks (presumably solar-powered) start rolling.

More plus the video by following the link. Maybe the Lurchster is so incredibly nuanced he can't find his butt with a roadmap or maybe the drinking stories are true.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 12:51 PM -

 
Eyewitness report from Bizarro World!

The New Yorker provides THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN: Al Gore lives on a street in Nashville - you have to read the whole thing to get the full flavor but here are some snippets:

And yet the Bush ideology is tinged with religious belief, I said. Not everything comes with a price tag attached.

Gore’s mouth tightened. A Southern Baptist, he, too, had declared himself born again, but he clearly had disdain for Bush’s public kind of faith. “It’s a particular kind of religiosity,” he said. “It’s the American version of the same fundamentalist impulse that we see in Saudi Arabia, in Kashmir, in religions around the world: Hindu, Jewish, Christian, Muslim.

Hmmm, no Southern Baptists have ever dropped an airplane on me or mine. Haven't even threatened to.

Recently, Tipper had bought three designer flyswatters and wanted to show them off.

“Flyswatters?”

“You can catch them with your hand, Al, but check these out.”

Tipper produced three extraordinarily artful flyswatters and laid them out on the dining-room table.

“Hey, Christine,” Gore said, “how do I call up Bob’s paintings on the Internet? I want to show . . .”

Christine, a woman far less theatrical than her husband, told him.

Gore typed in the correct URL and the right thing happened. He had not looked so delighted all day.

Some things you just can't make up and the thought of pudgy Al sitting around the mansion catching flies with his hand instead of using Tipper's designer flyswatters has to be one of them. But I'm glad to see he is delighted with his invention.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 12:00 PM -

 
More Rootin' Tootin' Shootin' Fun!

Concerning Lurch and his assault weapon, Drudge jumped on it around noon, but muddied the waters a little when he included photos from earlier Lurch photo-ops. He's right on now, however, and also links the press release from the trade association of firearms manufacturers, The National Shooting Sports Foundation:

At a Labor Day campaign rally yesterday, Sen. John Kerry accepted an ironic gift from a labor union representative. The gift, a Remington model 11-87 shotgun commonly used in hunting and recreational shooting enjoyed by millions of Americans, would be banned as an "assault weapon" under a bill that Kerry is co-sponsoring.

"The semi-automatic shotgun that Kerry accepted is one that he'd like to ban under his bill known as 'The Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2003 (S. 1431).' Kerry tells union workers that he's a hunter, but the truth is he would ban their shotguns," said Lawrence G. Keane, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF).

Keane said several sportsmen's groups have pointed out that Kerry's effort to cast himself as an avid hunter do not square with his anti-gun votes as a U.S. senator.
...
Kerry was given the shotgun by Cecil Roberts of the United Mine Workers of America. The union represents workers at a Remington factory in Ilion, New York. Last year the union urged Kerry to support a bill to end frivolous lawsuits against firearms makers (S. 659). The suits threaten manufacturing jobs. However, Kerry voted against the bill.

Drudge also links a response from "John Kerry West Virginia Communications Director" Amy Goodwin:

Let's do some straight shooting on the gun issue. John Kerry's opponents are worried because he's the first Democratic candidate to support Second Amendment gun rights and to be an avid hunter.

Lots of Kool-Aid over at Amy's place! Here on planet Earth:

His voting record makes John F. Kerry the most anti-gun Presidential nominee in United States history.
...
Kerry has a much more anti-gun record than 2000 Democrat Presidential candidate, Al Gore, Jr., who cast votes on 12 key issues before becoming part of the most anti-gun administration in history. Gore voted to protect Second Amendment rights five times on votes related to passage of the Firearms Owners` Protection Act and once to stop a semi-auto ban. Kerry opposed gun owners in each instance.

I can't believe I'm saying something nice about Al!

As for the avid hunter part, aside from Lurch's story about crawling on his belly with his trusty shotgun (non-semi-automatic presumably) hunting deer, we only have a photo-op of him bagging a ... er, I'll let a commenter at Sine Qua Non tell it:

"I say, Jeeves, what a lively one that last peasant was! Have you ever seen the like of his scampering?"

I guess we know what ole Cecil Roberts meant when he told the crowd "he’s not going to take your guns ’cause he loves to hunt!” As suggested at Stop the Bleating!:

John Kerry, I dare you to produce a hunting license with your name on it, dated 2003 or earlier, from any state. I'll even settle for a photo of you standing over a deer carcass with a gun in your hand, smiling. But forgive me if I don't hold my breath.

He probably keeps 'em in his briefcase with his magic hat! But I'd rather have the photo, because we all know how handy Lurch is with his typewriter at applying for stuff.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:47 PM -

 
And speaking of weird stuff

(Via Polipundit) The Ryugyong Hotel:

The Ryugyong Hotel is, in my opinion, the single most unsettling structure ever erected by the hand of man. It's 1,082 feet tall, has 105 floors, and encloses 3.9 million square meters of floor space.

And it is completely empty. It doesn't even have windows.
...
The Ryugyong Hotel looms over Pyongyang like some kind of slumbering bat. Something deep inside my brain tells me that the 75° angle of the hotel's outer walls is exactly the wrong angle; it says sinister, it says creepy, it says get away.
...
The same sense of pride that drove them to build the Ryugyong has driven the North Koreans to an almost pathological level of denial about the building. It's no longer on the city's maps. Guides claim not to know where it is. No one speaks of it. This state of affairs is made all the more surreal by the fact that the almost incomprehensibly massive Ryugyong is visible from every part of Pyongyang. It hangs over the horizon, never far out of sight. The ultimate expression of the idea of the elephant in the corner.

Much more by following the link including photos.

Hey, every Pharoah needs a pyramid! Too bad "Dear Leader" isn't using his.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 4:24 PM -

 
And beaming down from orbit...

From the Prowler:

When asked why Kerry kept insisting that Republicans had directly challenged his patriotism, when in fact they had not, the adviser said, "We don't see it that way. Republicans took nuanced votes by Senator Kerry and out and out lied about them. We don't play that game. No sensible person with a brain could have looked at that orgy of hate in New York and not heard Kerry's patriotism challenged."

They had an orgy and didn't invite me!

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 3:52 PM -

 
What's Labor Day Without a Labor Union?



So Lurch dutifully headed off to Racine, West Virginia for a soiree with the United Mine Workers and their president, Cecil Roberts. There wasn't much mainstream media coverage for whatever reason beyond a few photo-op snaps of Lurch accepting a gift firearm. AFP and AP labeled it a rifle which shows what planet they're from. Reuters (1, 2) correctly labeled it as a shotgun, but without much detail on the story.

Cut to the Charleston (WV) Gazette for some of the colorful details that you would miss otherwise:

Kerry told the Labor Day crowd that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney favored Western coal and Texas oil over Appalachian coal.

Who knew? Actually Kerry's position on whether the USA should burn coal at all is considerably "nuanced," but I digress. Let's get to the fun stuff:

Roberts also noted how Kerry is “a hunter, and he’s not going to take your guns ’cause he loves to hunt.” He then presented Kerry with a shotgun made by UMW members in New York. Kerry held the gun over his head to cheers from the crowd.

And from the photo caption on the next page:

Kerry holds a Remington shotgun given to him by United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts

Ah yes, it looks like a Remington semi-automatic shotgun in the 1100 or 11-87 series made in the Ilion, NY factory where the workers are "represented" by the UMW Local 717.



But here's a puzzler that seemingly escaped ole Cecil. Kerry is one of the most anti-gun candidates the Democrats have ever dredged up. In particular:

In addition, Kerry currently is a co-sponsor of S. 1431, which would ban all semi-automatic shotguns, all detachable-magazine semi-automatic rifles and many other guns, calling the whole lot "assault weapons."

So ole Cecil just handed him a gift that the Lurchster would like to make illegal along with a whole list of other stuff like centerfire rifle ammunition. I know being a big bucks union president means you have to have a gift for a certain amount of er, hyperbole, but Cecil, he wants to put your dues payers out of work! You know, the ones who "voluntarily" contribute for the John Kerry banner on your home page.

And it's not as though Cecil is ignorant of the problem - he was one of the business and union leaders who wrote to Congress asking them to pass the Lawful Commerce in Arms Act to prevent junk lawsuits against the firearms industry. It finally got killed after opposition Senators tacked a bunch of anti-gun amendments on it. Where was Lurch on that one?

In 2004 Kerry returned from the campaign trail for the first time that year to cast votes against gun owners and to argue against the passage of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.

So c'mon, Cecil. We know what Lurch is, but what about you?

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:05 AM -

 
Just an oversight, I'm sure



NY Times - Kerry Enlisting Clinton Aides in Effort to Refocus Campaign. It's the usual blather about the usual suspects saddling up to save Lurch from himself.

Among the better-known former Clinton aides who are expected to play an increasingly prominent role are James Carville, Paul Begala and Stanley Greenberg, campaign aides said.
...
Mr. Begala, who said he would remain a CNN commentator, said he was delighted with the changes.
...
Mr. Greenberg, who was Mr. Clinton's pollster in 1992, resigned Tuesday as the pollster for independent Democratic groups that have been running advertisements attacking Mr. Bush so that he would be permitted, under the law, to play a more prominent role in advising Mr. Kerry's campaign.

The Times doesn't tell us about Ole Snakehead's current gig, but Howard Kurtz did last week:

As the cohost of CNN's "Crossfire," Carville is no longer a party hack.

No humor intended apparently.

Anyhow, I'm sure that the Times is going to rush right out with an editorial saying that Carville and Begala should resign their CNN gigs now that they are actively advising a presidential candidate. Surely some Olympian tut-tuts are also in order for Mr. Greenberg violating the spirit, if not the law, of "noncoordination" with 527's. C'mon, Emperor Bill, surprise us!

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 9:29 AM -

 
And why's that?

Mark Steyn - No other word for it but slaughter:

When your asymmetrical warfare strategy depends on gunning down schoolchildren, you're getting way more asymmetrical than you need to be. The reality is that the IRA and ETA and the ANC and any number of secessionist and nationalist movements all the way back to the American revolutionaries could have seized schoolhouses and shot all the children.

But they didn't. Because, if they had, there would have been widespread revulsion within the perpetrators' own communities. To put it at its most tactful, that doesn't seem to be an issue here.

You already know the answer.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 1:17 PM -

 
Pond scum on the port bow!

Aw heck, I'm mixing metaphors. Anyhow, more volunteers for Susan Estrich's Jihad are reporting for duty.

First, there's the New York Times' inimitable Frank Rich in today's "Arts" section. Take it away, Bill Quick:

This is hilarious.

For some reason the NYT unearthed former lefty op-ed hero Frank Rich from whatever crypt he'd been buried in to write this public nervous breakdown. The libs have gone into full, unrestrained panic mode, with everybody from Estrich to Rich running wild in the streets, their aprons over their heads, shrieking in terror and despair.

And tonight, who else but Captain Dan the Newsman to provide One Last Smear:

It's not October, but the Kerry campaign is playing perhaps its final card for a surprise with the help of Dan Rather and "60 Minutes." On Wednesday, stories began breaking that Ben Barnes, the former speaker of the Texas House of Representatives and former lieutenant governor, was breaking his off and on silence and telling how he pulled strings to get a then-young George W. Bush into the Texas National Guard.
...
The CBS news source says that this Bush project is one that Dan Rather has been pushing for months. Former "60 Minutes" executive producer Don Hewitt had thought little of the project, claiming it was old news. Hewitt is now retired.

Unfortunately for Dan, ole wheeling and dealing "lobbyist" Ben Barnes is rather used goods. He's been trying out this story for years when he hasn't been involved in various Texas scandals (including the one that ended his political career) and not even the mainstream media would take more than a bite. But he has been John Kerry's 3rd largest contributor over the years and has been doing all right this year too:

CBS News reported on June 18th that Ben Barnes is one of eight "bundlers" who have raised more than $500,000 for John Kerry's campaign. He is also listed as a Vice Chair of the Kerry campaign on the John Kerry campaign website. According to the Dallas Ft. Worth Star Telegram, Barnes is one of the "gatekeepers and endorsers for Texas appointees and job-seekers" in a potential Kerry administration.

Woohoo! Think about how much clout this will give him! And Dan Rather too!

Much more at QandO and The Blogspirator from which some of the above links were taken.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:49 AM -