Writes John Fund in the email Political Diary:

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CBS isn't saying whether the Kerry campaign or prominent Democrats
were the origin of the highly suspicious documents the network used to
challenge George W. Bush's Vietnam-era Air National Guard record.
Asked about a Kerry campaign link to the challenged memos, a senior
CBS official told the New York Post: "I can't answer the question."

The American Spectator quoted CBS sources as saying the memos
originated with an opposition research staffer with the Democratic
National Committee. A CBS producer told the Spectator: "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."

If Democrats did indeed provide the documents, they have much to worry
about. Pat Caddell, a Democratic strategist who served as President
Carter's pollster, told Fox News on Friday "the race is over" if the
documents are proven to be forgeries. "[Democratic officials] have
gotten themselves so involved in this issue [in] the last 24 hours
that somebody's going to, if they're not authentic, they're going to
be blamed for it. It's incredible to me that they've gotten in this."

He said that losing the presidential race would be the least of his
party's problems if Democrats are tied to any forgery scandal: "The
race is over -- and we've got bigger problems than that then."

CBS already has "bigger problems." My sources inside CBS say that Dan
Rather, who reported the "60 Minutes" story based on the memos, looked
"quiet and scared" most of last Friday as the storm over their
authenticity built. He complained that CBS News president Andrew
Heyward couldn't be reached and wasn't being supportive enough of the
story. Meanwhile, callers complaining to CBS were told by
receptionists "we are getting just as many calls of support as those
opposed," which is completely untrue. Almost no supportive calls have
come in. The focus at CBS is on defending the story at all costs, not
on evaluating its merits.

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(And yes, this is on topic for r.a.m. Recall that it is Bush's Air
National Guard service that is being slimed by these forgeries. For
more, see my daily updates at www.vivabush.org )

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

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